Young people are queuing outside the photo booth at 53 Rue des Trois Frères in Paris’ Montmartre district. Seconds later, they emerge holding narrow black-and-white strips – small images that feel like fragments of film history.
To this day, the photo strips remain closely associated with the film “Amélie,” which turned Montmartre into the backdrop of a cult piece of cinema 25 years ago. But what exactly did the film create – and what remains of it today?
What is Amélie’s world about?
The film by French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Audrey Tautou in a role that propelled her to international fame, is about the shy waitress Amélie Poulain, who sets out to quietly improve the lives of people around her.
She comforts a widowed caretaker with forged letters, nudges a lonely, hypochondriac cigarette seller towards love and sends her father’s garden gnome on a journey around the world.
In doing so, her view of the world changes: she discovers the extraordinary in the small things – in a crème brûlée or a photo from a photo booth.
The film is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime Video and Rakuten TV for a fee.
How much of Amélie remains in Montmartre today?
Montmartre has changed surprisingly little. The white Sacré-Coeur Basilica continues to tower majestically over the neighbourhood.
The steep steps remain unchanged, as do the narrow streets and many façades still retain a distinct cinematic charm.
At 56 Rue des Trois Frères, the grocery shop Au Marché de la Butte – known in the film as Épicerie Collignon – looks much as it did on screen. The film poster still hangs at the market. The shop window looks unchanged.
This is where Amélie did her shopping and took her own playful revenge on a cruel greengrocer by swapping toothpaste for foot cream and adding salt to his schnapps until he questions his sanity.
Which places still evoke the film?
A few streets further on, the Café des 2 Moulins has disappeared behind construction work. This is where Amélie worked as a waitress, observing her guests and finding her own world in the little routines of everyday life.
The windows still bear a sign for the “Lunch d’Amélie Poulain,” as if the film were still part of the daily business.
Crème brûlée remains on the menu, a nod to the scene during which Amélie cracks the caramelized surface with the tip of a spoon.
Nearby, Studio 28 – one of Paris’ earliest avant-garde cinemas – continues to embody the spirit of arthouse film.
In the film, Amélie watches the audience rather than the screen, a moment that captures her curiosity about people and the unnoticed details of life.
Why do the photo strips endure?
And finally, the photo booth at 53 Rue des Trois Frères. Thanks to Jeunet’s film, it has become a symbol. In one scene, Amélie has her photo taken in disguise to leave a message on a torn photograph.
Today, people queue up there – for precisely those black-and-white strips that have long since become part of a collective memory.
The few remaining analogue photo booths are now regarded as vintage objects, whose distinctive look is doing the rounds on Instagram and TikTok.
What has become of Amélie’s world?
The postcards she once sent to her father now feel almost like relics. What was once written and mailed from the road has given way to fleeting digital messages – WhatsApp texts and Instagram posts that appear instantly and disappear just as quickly.
Photo booths stand as quiet retro fixtures in stations and side streets, while garden gnomes feel like poetic echoes of a more playful time.
Even the act of strolling has changed: where Amélie once observed, lingered and stumbled upon chance discoveries, people now navigate with smartphones, Google Maps and social media.
Why was this particular world so successful?
Even then, Amélie’s world felt a bit like an alternative reality. By 2001, life was already becoming faster, more digital and more driven by efficiency.
Amélie offered a counterpoint: a celebration of slowness, attentiveness and the idea that small things matter – like a tin box filled with childhood memories, a hidden letter, a chance discovery in a photo booth that changes a life.
Anyone visiting the film’s locations today may be searching for more than a movie set; they may be drawn to a different vision of the city – a sense of community over anonymity and a sense of magic in everyday life rather than pure efficiency.
A poster for the film “Amélie” is displayed in the window of the grocery shop known as “Épicerie Collignon” in the movie, but is actually called “Au Marché de la Butte.” Sabine Glaubitz/dpa
Tourists gather in Rue des Trois-Frères in Montmartre in front of a vintage photo booth to take souvenir photos. Sabine Glaubitz/dpa
Filming locations from “Amélie” around Sacré-Coeur Basilica. Many scenes were shot in the streets near the basilica, capturing the idyllic, almost village-like atmosphere of the Montmartre district in Paris. Sabine Glaubitz/dpa