Director shocks audience with revelation that Amélie Poulain worked as a KGB spy

The film highlights the dreamy young woman Amélie, played by Audrey Tautou, who one day decides that she wants to make other people happy with small gestures. The romanticized depiction of fairytale life in Montmartre, Paris, was awarded four Césars and five Oscar nominations.

After more than 20 years, director Jeunet returns with a short film of barely six minutes in which he reveals the true story of Amélie. The film, ‘La véritable histoire d’Amélie Poulain’ (‘The real story of Amélie Poulain’), opens with a playful message from Jeunet insisting that it is finally time to share the truth. Jeunet then recasts the story of his iconic film to reveal that “young Amélie was approached as a child by members of the French Communist Party, the puppets of KGB agents. They traded toffee and chewing gum for classified documents stolen from her father.” Before she was allowed to start her espionage, she was trained to become the perfect spy.

In the short, Jeunet uses clips such as Amélie photographing clouds, now suggesting that the authorities gave her the “sophisticated” camera to capture images of secret documents. Then the film details how all kinds of events were part of her espionage methods and secret missions.

With the playful short film, uploaded to YouTube, Jeunet mainly shows how editing is such an intrinsic part of filmmaking and that images can easily be twisted to create a whole new story.