The mise-en-scene of Amelie

Amelie is a fun, quirky, and a original romantic comedy. Unlike most romantic comedies, this film takes on a whole new style. With bright vibrant colors and quirky situations throughout the film, gives a very unique twist on this story.Throughout this blog, I will discuss the mise-en-scene  elements that make up the bulk in the film.

Upon first encountering the film, I thought the projector might have been malfunctioning. I started messing with the color settings, thinking the film was being over saturated. After some time messing with the settings, I finally realized that the film was suppose to look as if the colors were overly vibrant. According to Kyle Sofianek , another blogger on mise-en-scene of Amelie, he happened to notice that whether it was doors, like Amelie's own which is red on one side or green on the other, clothing, or lighting, red and green dominate the setting. In one particular scene, we see Amelie walking through a subway station and all the lights appear to have somewhat of a green tint. As a result, this causes her environment to appear green. this create almost a imaginary type look for the audience; to me, this resembles Alice in Wonderland, where things don't have to make sense. With this reference, it brings the idea that we are seeing the world in this film through Amelie's eyes ans mind.

To refer to back Kyle Sofianek’s blog on mise-en-scene of Amelie; Kyle states that throughout the movie, the feeling of stepping into Amelie's mind continues as news reports about Amelie herself are featured on the TV she was currently watching. At first, we believe they are just real news reports about Princess Di's death establishing the time period of the story. But, as we continue to watch the tv, it begins to refer to Amelie and Princess D.  We then see Amelie on the TV which is narrating for the audience what Amelie is envisioning. These images or visions depict Amelie idolized in a way for her selfless giving to others but unfortunately it appears that she dies at a young age from working so hard at helping others. As the film progresses, we see another vision on the TV that shows the death of Amelie’s father and how she would suffer knowing she did nothing to help him move on with his life. I believe this gives better evidence of the imaginary world in which we are watching Ameilie’s world through her mind and eyes. 

To quote Kyle Sofianek, he states that “The film as a whole relies on expressionistic elements of mise-en-scene to communicate Amelie's unique love experience.” What he is referring to are mainly the scenes in which we are given a x-ray vison on particular items emphasis on something important. Two such scenes are the moments when we see Amelie sliping a key in her pocket but we are able to see it. The other is when we see the love interest of Amelie and we can see her heart beating and glowing hot red. It is as if they did this to covey a particular plot point in the film or to over exaggerate the importance of the action or object.  Everything from x-ray vision, vibrant colors, and visions shown through a TV, we as the audience get the chance to follow Amelie down the Rabbit whole and experience her world.

In conclusion, never assume that the projector or the TV is messing up the color of the film. Additionally, Amelie is probably one of the most unique romantic comedy films I have ever seen. The film is truly a testament of all the different ways to tell a story through visuals.

http://i-found-it-at-the-movies.blogspot.com/2011/09/greens-and-reds-of-mise-en-scene.html