Nicole Dimas

3/8/19
Period 8
Amélie

In the movie Amélie by director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the main

character Amélie is raised by her father, she lost her mother at
a young age. She grows up to be a kind hearted selfless young
woman. Amélie isn’t really close to her father but she becomes
close to Raymond Dufayel, a wise painter. She works at a cafe
and goes about her daily life. One day she notices a guy named
Nino Quincampoix and this is where their romance begins. There
are many great scenes that Jean-Pierre Jeunet creates to capture
the funny romance between Amélie and Nino. I chose the section
where Amélie is faced with, Nino Quincampoix, at the cafe where
she works. Hervé Schneid, the editor of the movie, made it
possible for Amélie to actually melt in regret of not telling
Nino it was her who left the mysterious notes for him. Schneid
adds special effects specifically to Amélie and he does it quite
often throughout the film to exaggerate the feelings of Amélie.
A montage is also in the section I chose, Nino is late and
Amélie starts assuming why he is late so she imagines a bunch of
crazy scenarios that could have caused him to be late. When Nino
walks out of the cafe, the camera instantly cuts to Amélie’s
reaction and where she melts which is a symbol of regret. When
Nino sits down, Amélie walks to the back of him and watches him,
the editor making cuts to show both perspectives of Nino and
Amélie when they first speak to each other.
The director and cinematographer created a certain style of
lighting in Amelie. It stays the same throughout the whole
movie. The lighting in Amélie is bright even when she hits a
bump in the road or if the scene is sad, the lighting is always
bright. It is also similar to other works of Jean-Pierre Jeunet
such as, A Very Long Engagement. In the scene when Amélie melts,
high-key lighting is used. The scene is exceptionally bright,
almost a dull yellow, brown tone, to make the scene not appear
dark because of her regret and sadness. Although she melts,
which makes the scene very relatable to the audience, the
lighting is bright. So since the scene is quite sad the lighting
lifts the mood.
 Jean-Pierre Jeunet had an emotional connection to Amélie. He
wanted the audience to feel something when watching the movie,
which we all did. He wanted us to connect to the story and the
cute funny romance in Amélie. Jean-Pierre Jeunet also loved
Paris and wanted the story of Amélie to be mostly set in Paris,
France. He claimed that audiences needed more positive stories
in Paris after all the negative events that had been tied to
Paris previously. Amélie is a naive sweet character who brings
nothing but positivity to not only her life, but others as well.
Amélie does selfless acts for other people just because it warms
her heart to see others happy which is what positivity is all
about. Amélie, was a big hit. It had 5 academy award
nominations. Jean-Pierre Jeunet had the goal of making the
audience connect to Amélie and that is exactly what happened.
The people loved it, they connected to it in many ways and it is
still relatable and popular to this day.
A theme that is constantly shown throughout Amélie is, the
struggle to find inner peace. Amélie often ignores her desires
and what she wants, but helps brings others happiness and peace
with themselves instead of helping herself. She stays silent
when it comes to herself and this is shown when Amélie lies,
saying it’s not her who Nino is looking for. In the film, Amélie
is extremely caring towards others and is not selfish. But this
becomes a problem because she wants to be with Nino but is too
afraid to face him. As soon as Nino walks into the cafe, Amélie
becomes tense and over the edge. She constantly looks at the
clock waiting for Nino to walk in. But when he does arrive, she
lets her feelings of what could go wrong get in the way of what
could go right, with Nino, thus she is struggling to find peace
within herself.
A motif shown throughout Amélie is the painting that Raymond
Dufayel paints throughout the movie. This can be a motif because
one of the girls in the painting, Raymond Dufayel has a
difficult time trying to comprehend what she is feeling,
represents Amélie. Amélie references her own experiences and
what is going on in her life, such as having a crush on Nino but
being too afraid to talk to him,connecting that to the painting
everytime she goes over to Dufayel’s house. When she references
herself to the girl in the painting, Dufayel starts to notice
that she is talking about herself so Dufayel starts to
intervene. He gives her hints on what to do to fix her dilemma.
At first she doesn’t pay attention to them, because she denies
that it’s her in the picture when Nino asks, but she finally
listens and gains the confidence in the end.
Amélie is definitely a romance and comedy. The funny yet
romantic relationship that develops between Amélie and Nino,how
Amélie is nervous to talk to Nino and the anticipation of if
Amélie will tell Nino she is the one who leaves the notes and
she is the one for him. Amélie has a naive sense of humor
because she herself is sweet and innocent but makes blatant
jokes as she looks at the camera, to the audience. She does
almost look at the camera towards the audience when she feels
regret, when she melts. Although there is much humor to Amélie,
there is just as much romance. Amélie and Nino acquire love at
first sight, then a little game begins between the two. The
secret notes, the photobooth pictures, the secret messages, and
both charming personalities.
Most of the movie is narrated by, André Dussollier but, in
this scene I chose, there is no narrating. The director did this
to show and not tell. Most of the dialogue is between Amélie and
Nino and although they did speak, their interaction in the cafe
showed more rather than told more. The body language of Amélie
shows how nervous she was when meeting Nino and how nervous and
shocked she was when he asked her if the woman in the photo was
her. So because most of the movie is narrated, André Dussollier
is telling the story and what is going on in the story rather
letting the shots show the story.
The film was made in 2001 and Arriflex 435 ES, Zeiss Ultra
Prime Lenses and Arriflex 535, Zeiss Ultra Prime Lenses was used
to shoot Amélie. The movie has a yellow and brown, but calm tone
to it when talking about the color scheme. The whole movie has
this color scheme. The technology used by Jean-Pierre Jeunet to
direct and shoot his films is extremely common in a lot of his
films such as A Very Long Engagement and Alien: Resurrection,
the lighting is similar in a few of his films as well. This ties
to the lighting aspect because the technology used can affect
lighting.
Throughout Amélie, the sound is quite amazing with narration
and music. Non diegetic sound is used to a great extent. The
narration by André Dussollier is non diegetic. André Dussollier
exaggerates the story and adds a dramatic effect while he tells
the story of Nino and Amélie almost like a telenovela. The music
that is played is also non diegetic, the music is beautiful and
matches the movie so well, it brings an uplifting happy mood to
the funny love story. When Nino is sitting at his table in the
cafe where Amélie works, he presses his finger on the table to
dip his finger in some sugar and when he does this it makes a
little crunch noise, which sounds like non diegetic as if it was
added in to add more crunch when picking up the sugar.
The cinematography is also just as amazing as everything
else in the film. Bruno Delbonnel was the cinematographer of
Amélie. He had a unique way of shooting shots for Amélie, which
is zooming in fast into the characters faces, medium shots and
close ups. Bruno Delbonnel zooms in on Amélie’s face,
dramatically, numerous times. The section I chose is a medium
shot showing Amélie, when Nino walks out of the cafe it quickly
zooms into her face, and shows her emotions and what she is
feeling at that exact moment. It adds a way more intense feeling
rather than just showing her reaction from a distance. In the
section where Amélie melts, Delbonnel uses a tilt shot. Overall,
Bruno Delbonnel uses zoom to intensify what the characters are
doing and to intensify the story as a whole.
Lastly, Mise-en-scene. The setting plays a big part in
Amélie. It adds to the story Jean-Pierre Jeunet is trying to
tell. The train station is where she met Nino for the first
time. The cafe is when they met again but actually talked,
before they hadn't talked at all. So setting does play an
important role. Audrey Tautou, who played Amélie, is also in
Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s other film, A Very Long Engagement. The two
have a good relationship with each other. He claimed he wrote
the role of Amélie for Emily Watson but she did not end up
playing the role of Amélie and that is when Audrey Tautou came
along to play Amélie and the two hit it off right away. Now,
Amélie does have certain behaviors in the film. She often looks
at the camera to talk directly to the audience. She is also a
shy young woman, so she brushes off things that involve her,and
when she does that she puts her head down, which connects back
to the constant theme in Amélie.
In conclusion, Jean-Pierre Jeunet is an amazing director. He
clearly has a unique way of portraying his ideas and
imagination. He was very successful when he wanted to connect
Amélie to the audience, to make them feel something, also with 5
academy award nominations. Amélie is an amazing movie with many
different aspects that contribute to make it such a great
romance-comedy. The lighting, the setting, the shots, all make
it brilliant. Amélie is indeed an absolutely amazing movie.

Word Count: 1,750

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