Jean-Pierre Juenet’s Amelie is a beautiful film that uses color to dictate the story in a major way. Color in film can be used to tell information, to symbolize, and to express. Amelie uses all of these functions with mainly the primary colors red, green and blue. In this essay I will describe how the functions of color and its other facets are used to enhance Amelie’s world.
Color’s informational function sets the scene in Amelie from the start. The opening scenes of Amelie as a child highlight the red colors that are so prominent in the film. Red in the title sequence appears for example when she eats red raspberries off of her fingers or she displays red paper cut out dolls while the rest of the frame is flat and without color. This contrast …show more content…
Throughout the film the color is used in harmony with the level of energy intended for the audience. The director puts a warm tint throughout the majority of the film to establish a feeling of excitement in a fast paced Paris, France. This is supposed to translate to how the audience feels. Paris is also known as the city of love so the warm tint also complements this. Instances where the warm tint is absent (like Mr. Collignon’s apartment) give a feeling of less energy and comes off as desolate. The green train station emphasizes the lack of energy and the increased isolation of being in a large space where no one is around. The lack of saturation is another way to dampen the mood. Scenes of Dufayel’s apartment when Amelie isn’t there tend to have a desaturated look to it. The reds and greens don’t pop and this is probably because he lives his life through Amelie. He observes everything she does and his painting that he obsesses over is used in conversation with Amelie to give her advice. The only color that pops out when Amelie isn’t there is the blue tint to his television. Cool colors are rarely if ever used in this movie and that lack is making a statement on how the movie was intended to make people feel. However, the appearance of the saturated blues in contrast adds an energy to the scene as it is rarely used and the audience is conditioned to pay attention to …show more content…
The green tint symbolizes that mundane feeling of low energy. On the other hand, the bright saturated green is a symbol of hope. As Amelie is trying to set up Georgette and Joseph she is wearing green. In the scene when they finally get together Amelie is in her vibrant red. This may be a stretch but in this particular clip provided Amelie wears a dark red when she is fabricating Collignon’s insanity or the fake letter and she where’s bright red as she reads the reading the real letters. When Amelie wears red it appears to be in the presence of true love. Another explanation for the darker red could be her passion for improving people’s lives. This is assuming that you interpret the sabotage of Mr. Collignon’s apartment as a way of making Lucien’s life
Color’s informational function sets the scene in Amelie from the start. The opening scenes of Amelie as a child highlight the red colors that are so prominent in the film. Red in the title sequence appears for example when she eats red raspberries off of her fingers or she displays red paper cut out dolls while the rest of the frame is flat and without color. This contrast …show more content…
Throughout the film the color is used in harmony with the level of energy intended for the audience. The director puts a warm tint throughout the majority of the film to establish a feeling of excitement in a fast paced Paris, France. This is supposed to translate to how the audience feels. Paris is also known as the city of love so the warm tint also complements this. Instances where the warm tint is absent (like Mr. Collignon’s apartment) give a feeling of less energy and comes off as desolate. The green train station emphasizes the lack of energy and the increased isolation of being in a large space where no one is around. The lack of saturation is another way to dampen the mood. Scenes of Dufayel’s apartment when Amelie isn’t there tend to have a desaturated look to it. The reds and greens don’t pop and this is probably because he lives his life through Amelie. He observes everything she does and his painting that he obsesses over is used in conversation with Amelie to give her advice. The only color that pops out when Amelie isn’t there is the blue tint to his television. Cool colors are rarely if ever used in this movie and that lack is making a statement on how the movie was intended to make people feel. However, the appearance of the saturated blues in contrast adds an energy to the scene as it is rarely used and the audience is conditioned to pay attention to …show more content…
The green tint symbolizes that mundane feeling of low energy. On the other hand, the bright saturated green is a symbol of hope. As Amelie is trying to set up Georgette and Joseph she is wearing green. In the scene when they finally get together Amelie is in her vibrant red. This may be a stretch but in this particular clip provided Amelie wears a dark red when she is fabricating Collignon’s insanity or the fake letter and she where’s bright red as she reads the reading the real letters. When Amelie wears red it appears to be in the presence of true love. Another explanation for the darker red could be her passion for improving people’s lives. This is assuming that you interpret the sabotage of Mr. Collignon’s apartment as a way of making Lucien’s life