Homework:
11 Comments
Claire
3/17/2018 01:35:20 am
Amelie is a very sweet and light-hearted film while still being a stand out cinematic feature, and I really appreciated that. I noticed there were many beautiful panoramic shots that would change in height and depth while holding focus. I think the cinematography comes off as flashier and prettier than in Brazil, but I think that is mostly due to the subject matter. Brazil's world-building and sets are so strange that it is hard to focus on how the camera moves. One of the themes that I enjoyed in Amelie was the importance of small details, and the artificial inflation of those details to emphasize them. For example, two people having sex in a bathroom wouldn't actually be enough to shake a whole building and knock glasses off counters, but the moment is highlighted to emphasize Amelie's triumph and her sense of power in influencing people's lives. Making Nino's photo booth pictures speak was another way of informing the audience why something so mundane is important to him. The film does take a more serious turn at the end, when Amelie's games are over and she reveals how emotionally invested she actually is in Nino. However, rather than turning dark and affirming the randomness and cruelty of the universe, it reminds us that we can build ourselves our own happy ending if we try.
Reply
Elissa Shumate
3/19/2018 04:13:24 pm
Amelie is such a silly film. The mood was odd, but funny. If Audrey Hepburn and Anne Hathaway had a baby, the main character, Amelie, would be the outcome. Every time a new character was introduced, I really appreciated the description of what the character liked and didn't like. These were quick and funny flashback segments that were usually pretty random. They really just added to the overall quirkiness of the movie. The entire film is basically a mini scavenger hunt as Amelie adds little bits of happiness into the lives of others as she attempts to find love in her own. This film is not exactly my cup of tea, but it (surprisingly to me) managed to be really entertaining even though it was in French and I had to read subtitles the whole time. I think the storytelling in this film was done well and conveyed the message excellently despite the language barrier.
Reply
Sophia Moore
3/19/2018 10:23:48 pm
I looooove this movie. The first aspect that stands out to me in this movie is that the characters are all incredibly strange, including Amelie herself. I cannot totally tell if this is because honestly the movie is super french. That being said, they definitely make an effort to portray the character as very strange I think which is made to seem normal by the inclusion of the narrator who describes things just as they are in a way the audience is supposed to accept at face value. The narrative within the movie is so warm and I love that you get to know Amelie's character by seeing the way she helps and interacts with other people. Additionally, the color scheme of this movie alone adds to the weird but uplifting mood of it. Everything is pretty bright and opaque. The music adds to this as well with how upbeat and quick it is.
Reply
Maddie Matsumoto-Duyan
3/19/2018 11:56:06 pm
Amelie is a very strange but endearing film. The style is very fantastical and surreal, much like Amelie's imagination. The music is very upbeat and the colors are bright and warm. The side characters are very exaggerated and quirky and the film reflects this in the way they are introduced: by their likes and dislikes. As we get further into the story, the tone becomes a little more serious and realistic because Amelie must face the reality of her situation. At its core, this film is about love, happiness, and human connection. The cinematography varies widely depending on what the narrative calls for at different points in the story. For example, in the sequence where she walks the blind man to the metro station, the shots are very fast and the camera work is shaky, as if the audience is walking with them down the busy street. At the end of the sequence, the camera zooms in on the blind man, who looks up in elation as people move around him, from above. In Brazil, there seems to be a firm line between fantasy and reality up until the escape sequence at the end. In contrast, Amelie often blends her imagination with reality.
Reply
Andrew Sun
3/20/2018 12:09:32 am
Heartwarming and lovably strange, Amelie is another fantastic addition to Jeunet's filmography. While it has themes of love and human connection, in my opinion, some of the narrative choices go against the themes that Jeunet was trying to portray. Amelie is a charming protagonist, but some of the material is presented in a style that feels like multiple short films strung together, the only continuity which exists being the commonality of Amelie. With a narrative that sometimes lacks the continuity, it feels like the themes of human connection are belittled and can drag on a bit. However, Jeunet's trademark surrealism and Audrey Tautou's wonderful portrayal of the eponymous character make Amelie and heartfelt and charming film.
Reply
Ruta
3/20/2018 12:21:51 pm
This movie was beautiful and heartwarming and hopeful all in one. The cinematography makes use of lots of camera pans and fastmotion (especially when there are montages) to capture the entire scene as though from Amelie's perspective. The world is shown through a lens tinted with yellow like sunlight, to show the innocence and hope through which Amelie sees the occurrences around her. The narrator maintains a mood of lightheartedness surrounding even the tragedies in Amelie's life for most of the film, but the scenes become more serious toward the end, when she interacts with Nino. The film seeks to display the ways in which things work out for the better, and the ways in which humans bring about the good in the world. Amelie's choices and the ways in which she brings happiness to those around her lead to her own happiness in the end. This is definitely one of the best movies I have seen.
Reply
Timothy Etter
3/20/2018 03:00:06 pm
This film and Brazil couldn't be more different in terms of plot and subject matter. Where these films differ in cinematography really allows each film to shine in its own way. Brazil's cinematography, in terms of specifically the focus of the camera, is more straightforward and focuses on just what's onscreen in this dystopian hyper-bureaucracy. Amelie take more liberties with its cinematography and uses tons of creative editing like stop motion and tons of smash cuts to illustrate the passage of time, flashbacks, or other concepts. I feel like Amelie has more freedom to do this since it is in a familiar setting; if Brazil's editing was flashy and spontaneous, it would be so difficult to follow both the strange world and actual plot points. In other words, the cinematography of both films is vastly different, but it works to the benefit of each of them because they are trying to accomplish two different things.
Reply
Aaron Basharain
3/20/2018 05:31:27 pm
The overall mood is very lighthearted and happy. There are moments of love, sadness and weirdness. Compared to Brazil, the cinematography is extremely different. Which makes sense because the story and overall message is completely different. One thing that stood out to me significantly was the color grade for Amelie. They pretty much took out all the colors except green and yellow. This helps contribute to the happy lightheartedness of the film. I think the main theme is how love can be different for different people. The main contrast between the way Amelie goes about making the guy go on a wild goose chase to even meet her, versus the guy that stalks the girls in the cafe that Amelie works at.
Reply
Alina
3/20/2018 05:50:53 pm
Amelie is a quirky, creative film with a flair for dramatics- its a stereotypical French film. The introduction of the film felt very different from the majority of the film, perhaps because it focused on an explanation and various quick snaps of characters. At this part of the film, I dare say it appeared like a horror film with it's muted colors and strange designs. However, the rest of the film is doused with green or red colors, roughly indicating the world of Amelie's perspective. Green appears to indicate her inner thoughts and her negative moods and indecision. For example, the green TV plays and speaks to her inner thoughts, and the last outfit she is seen in is a lime green when everything (supposedly) goes wrong and she's baking to comfort herself. Red is the brightness and action of the world- her main dress colors are a bright red of passion and action, despite the fact she does it for other people rather than herself. It's her little joy in the world.
Reply
Emerson Lin
3/20/2018 05:59:33 pm
I very like the opening of the film. With the fast voiceover, a man describes the things happen in this city. After a few minutes, he starts to introduce the main character Amelie. At the begin, the director spends a lot of footages to reveal the childhood of Amelie. On the other hand, the audience also realized how’s Amelie’s parent. What’s more, there are actually some tragedies in Amelie’s childhood, such as her mother dead because of a accident. However, with the funny voiceover and the quick editing of those presentation, it all seems like a comedy to the audience. I also like how the director introduces all the character by telling audience what they like and what they don’t like. Those specific details easily tell the audience how’s the personality of the characters. Even at the end of the film, we still hear the voiceover, which remind me the another director Wes Anderson, who like to use voiceover and telling the whole story quickly and interestingly.
Reply
Soohyun Cho
3/30/2018 10:02:57 pm
The general mood of the film was very cozy, affectionate and zany, which was set primarily and most explicitly through the use of saturated warm colors. I think the movie really went above and beyond to enforce that tone through narrating and overt use of special effects. Although a narrator may or may not have been necessary, his voice and diction definitely has an effect of dramatizing each moment. Also, the extensive use of imagery (Amelie melting, Nino's discovery of the maintenance guy, etc.), added to the film's quirkiness and aesthetics. All the effects put together made it felt like I was reading a picture book with deliberately chosen scenes.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |