Jean-Pierre Jeunet's French Film Amélie

Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s French film Amélie revolves around the story of Amélie Poulain, a café waitress who undergoes a series of adventures to help others’ lives while simultaneously coping with loneliness and discovering her own identity in the world. As the result of a mildly traumatic childhood, grown-up Amélie immerses herself in a uniquely fantastical world, yet this world is visually portrayed in a comically surreal way in order to draw the viewer’s attention to the film’s message. Throughout Amélie, the filmmakers’ use of preternatural color schemes and digital special effects constantly calls attention to the detail and eccentricity of an idealized Parisian world; these elements of visual design thus convey the infectious wonder of daily

She does so in the living room of her own apartment, and the space is filled with different yellows and oranges and reds: the table, sofa, cushions, wallpaper, curtains, picture frames, dresser, etc. There is a singular exception in the vibrant blue lamp towards the right side of the frame, which just adds to the strange creativity of this deliberate color scheme. Quite plainly put, the color coordination employed here structures the image and creates setting. The fact that everything in the frame holds such rich coloration points to the sheer detail in the whole room, details that one might not normally notice in real, ordinary life. The warm and brilliant colors accentuate, say, the sharp textures on the sofa, or the bold patterns of the upholstery, or the elaborate design on the living room’s wallpaper. In addition, the film’s use of high-key, three-point lighting complements the coloration because more highlights and less shadows illuminate both the foreground and background in most all shots. The filmmakers’ choices with this type of lighting assists the color scheme in providing the audience with a carefree and whimsical mood the whole way