Amelie

Amelie is an interesting movie that keeps the viewer interested through comedy, random facts thrown at you, and curiosity to the plot. Amelie is a French film that uses subtitles throughout the film. This factor is one that can be frustrating and make the viewer frustrated between trying to read the subscripts and watch what is happening at the same time. The script is short sentences and few words which make it easy to read and see what is going on. The scenes in the movie seem to be a bit cluttered, but this is to enhance the character and overall storyline of the movie. The movie likes to throw random facts out there, especially in the beginning when it gives you a sense of time by telling what all the characters are doing at that exact moment of time upon Amelie’s conception. It also gives a good sense of character by describing what each character specifically likes in life, like stating that Amelie loves to skip rocks. The narrator in the film often times describes what motions, feelings, or thoughts are going through the characters heads as well which puts a different dynamic on the film than most films.

Amelie is a girl that grew up somewhat socially challenged as she was isolated from others, for her parents feared too much interaction of others would cause her heart defect some serious damage. She is socially awkward around others and as she grows up she doesn’t really know how to express herself to others, and comes off a bit shy. This character is played well by the actress through her facial expressions and overall awkward clothing, and hairstyle. There is this unique trademark smile about the character throughout the film that occurs when she thinks of a great plan of some kind. Like when she decides to take her father’s gnome and send it across the world and have pictures taken so her father can “see the world” without the expense of traveling. When Amelie becomes an adult and gets put into in to a more social environment she decides that she wants to help others, for I feel that she doesn’t really know how to help herself. She decides to hook a couple up, show her father the world through his gnome, find the “ghost”, teach an angry man at the market his lesson, and help an old man with his paintings. All of Amelie’s decisions to help those around her symbolize her generosity and caring. It shows that she wants to be involved in others’ lives, to make them happy, because she wants her own happiness as well. Amelie throughout the movie is constantly picking up stones from the ground and putting them in her pocket. With these stones, she goes to the canal and skips them. This is one of her favorite things to do. It symbolizes the child that she is at heart for her isolated life as deprived her of fully growing up in social situations. It also symbolizes loneliness for this is a quiet time where she goes by herself, with no one else around.

The movie is mostly filmed at a objective point of view, as described by the book The Art of Film Watching as “the camera as the sideline view” (pg 127). This allows you to see what is going on in Ameles life, and follow her as she goes about her days. One point in the movie, when she is chasing the man from the underground metro station are to where he jumps on his bike, the film changes to a subjective point of view, as you become a part of the chase as well. The lighting of the movie would be considered a high-key lighting as described in the book as “lighted areas for less contrasts”. The film’s colors are often all bright and somewhat not normal, however they add to the oddity of the film in a general sense. This could be considered a color palette, as described in the book as “a limited number of specific colors used or emphasized throughout the film to subtly communicate various aspects of character and story to the viewer”. (pg. 92) The clutter in every scene adds to this odd sense of character as well, from the dinner where she works to the old man’s apartment, to the train station there are tons of things everywhere, however it is not distracting and does not take away from the plot. The setting and beginning of the story gives you lots of background information on the character and is very fast passed. Some filming tends to even be time-lapse photography, as described in the book as “the effect of greatly compressing time” (pg. 157). This is done when it’s showing her conception, and her days growing up from an infant to a girl.

I found the movie to be very comical, interesting and fun. The story line was interesting and unique, the character was very unique, and the plot and theme turned out to be useful and fitting. I would recommend this to anyone for a good change in pace to the normal screen viewing, and for a good laugh. It’s randomness and awkwardness holds you till the end as you become intrigued by the character and what will become of her as she finally decides to become aggressive and confront the love of her life.


Boggs, Joseph, & Petrie, Dennis. (2008). The Art of watching films. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill College.