While it is difficult to tell whether Amelie’s behavior comes simply from the French culture, or more so from her unorthodox upbringing, it is obvious at the beginning of the movie that she is not fond of ambiguous situations. This makes perfect sense as the French are typically known for having high uncertainty avoidance in there everyday lives. In fact, they are ranked 10th highest in level of avoidance according to Hofstede’s Dimensions of Culture.
Amelie seems to live in her own comfortable world, typically drifting towards solitude and regularity. However, things soon begin to change when she finds a small toy box hidden long ago by a young boy. Amelie’s mission to find this boy is a step outside of her comfort zone. She has cast herself into an uncertain situation that once the outcome is realized, will totally shift the way Amelie lives her life. Amelie does find the man who hid the box and feels that she has done something worthwhile, causing her to become a “do-gooder”. Though she makes this decision to try and help people in their daily lives, Amelie takes many actions to avoid ambiguous situations. To start, when Amelie finally does track down the man she avoids actually confronting or conversing with him. Instead, she attracts his attention by calling a phone booth as he walks by. When the man answers the phone she quickly hangs up, but she has left the box in the phone booth for the man to find.
Another occurrence of avoiding a situation actually comes during the search for the boy who hid the box. During her search to knocks on the door of a neighbor who has long lived in the building. She quietly asks if the lady knows the boy that lived in the apartment long ago. The lady quickly invites Amelie into her home for a drink. This obviously unnerves Amelie and she is very hesitant to enter the woman’s home. Once she learns what she believes is the