The 2001 French film Amelie, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, is a romantic comedy film about an introverted and isolated waitress set in Paris, France. The protagonist, Amelie, discovers a hidden box containing childhood memories in her apartment. After she eventually finds the man that this box belongs to, through several complications, this sets the course for the remainder of the film. She attempts to better the lives of others by covertly implementing schemes and make them appear as positive coincidences in everybody else’s eyes. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet imaginatively employs the usage of several traditional film characteristics, such as color implementation, special visual/sound effects, and character representation in order to portray …show more content…
Even by watching the film just once, it is evident that the most widely used colors in this film are green, red, and yellow. As the film progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that these three colors portray the positively changing Amelie throughout her journey.
The color of yellow especially stands out in this film, as it can be assumed that it is inserted in this film to portray the vigor and exhilaration that is beginning to unfold in the life of Amelie. It can even be noticed that yellow is used in places where white colors would traditionally be used, such as the fridge and bathroom, which is quite odd.
The color red is employed in its customary sense in this film, as it represents love and romantic passion. This can be noticed in Amelie’s apartment, where red takes over as the predominant color. Even though most of the film revolves around how and why Amelie has not been able to find love due to her closed off personality, it is still used extensively, especially in the place where she resides the most: her home. Red is used as a foreshadowing technique of sort, as it is later revealed through her extensive and complicated cat-and-mouse chase with Nino towards the ending of the film. It is also used to reflect her loving and passionate personality, both towards her father as well as with the other …show more content…
An example of this occurrence is when after Amelie aids a blind man in getting to his destination in the city while simultaneously vividly describing what is going on around them. After she does this, the entire man’s body glows in dramatic fashion, signifying that he has been rescued, as she has helped him to “see” again, in a sense. Another time that this transpires is when Amelie is misled to believe that her co-worker was trying to develop a romantic relationship with Nino, but in actuality, she was actually just checking to see if he was a good fit for her. When she believes that her co-worker was abandoning her by “stealing” Nino, she literally “melts” into a liquid form. This is a great example of how Jeunet decided to utilize a visually striking action rather than words to describe the betrayal that Amelie felt within herself. Lastly, when Amelie sabotages the grocery store workers’ apartment by stealing his keys, she is shown putting them in her sweater pocket, with the key glowing red in the process. This is Jeunet’s way of having the viewer pay special close attention to that very action committed by Amelie, as it is significant to her character progression and to the life of the grocery man’s clerk. Jeunet’s visual effects application in this film