FILM STUDIES

FILM LANGUAGE ANALYSIS

A report on the analysis of the different facets of the language of the film

AMELIE

aka Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain or The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain

Kiruthika Mani

0908112

III B. Sc Visual Communication

INTRODUCTION – THE LANGUAGE OF FILM

A film, to a commoner, is a form of entertainment. A means to escape the world

around him. It is his transcendence from the present reality into the world of the

film, into the reality of the film. But this reality is not very easily achieved. The

reality of a film is the result of a lot of visualization, preparation and execution from

the film’s crew – the director, the art director, the cinematographer, the

scriptwriter, the music composer, the cast, etc. What they work towards is

communication of a particular message through the film.

A film, like any other medium, is a form of communication. It is capable of

communicating a particular message to the audience. And like any other form of

communication, film too has a language. This language of film facilitates the

communication of the desired message to the audience. Like any other language, film

language is also governed by certain principles, common codes of meaning, guidelines

and norms. Film is a very flexible medium as it characterized by vast perimeters. It is

an audio-visual medium, it is extremely popular with a wide reach and it is one of the

most revolutionary tools in both the conception and transfer of new ideas. Therefore,

it is understandable that this entity called film is held together by a powerful

language which is an avenue of study in itself.

The study of the language of a film requires an examination of the various facets of

film language – the mise-en-scene, the cinematography, the editing and the sound in

the film. An understanding of all these factors and how they are related to each other

results in a deeper, clearer comprehension of what the film is trying to say and how

the film’s creators went about saying it.

The first aspect of film language is the mise-en-scene. It is a theatrical phrase which

means putting on the stage. In a film mise-en-scene refers to placing within a shot.

Because a film is predominantly a visual medium, what is present in every shot is

crucial to what is being communicated. The different elements incorporated in the

mise-en-scene concept are (1) The Setting (2) Props (3) Costume (4) Performance (5)

Composition (6) Lighting and (7) Color. Together they determine the visual content of

the film and therefore play an important role in the perception of the film by the

audience.

The second aspect of the film is the cinematography. While mise-en-scene refers to

what is put within a shot, the cinematography deals with how this shot is represented.

Concepts like framing, shot size, length of take, camera movement, camera angle and

depth of field are included in cinematography.

Now that the content and its representation are dealt with, the third aspect of film

language enters the scene – editing. Editing in short is the process of compiling. It is

the process of selecting and putting together different shots from the film. It is in

fact editing that makes a film move. There are two major kinds of editing – continuity

and discontinuity editing, each with its own characteristics.

The last aspect of mise-en-scene is the sound. It includes all the aural content in the

film from dialogues and voiceovers to ambient sound, sound effects and the

background score. It again consists of two major categories – Diegetic and non-

diegetic sound and is of two kinds – parallel and contrapuntal.

This report is an analysis of the language of the film Amelie. It examines the four

facets mentioned above with respect to the entire film and also provides specific

illustrations in some cases with pictorial support.

AMELIE – THE FILM

Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, popularly called Amelie is a 2001 romantic

comedy French film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. It tells the story of Amelie

Poulain, a shy waitress who deals with her loneliness by finding joy in making others

happy. The film is set in the French coastal town of Montmartre and it represents a

very idyllic, rosy, dreamy and whimsical version of contemporary Parisian life. The

story unfolds through the words of a detached narrator (Andre Dussollier) who has

nothing to do with the characters themselves. The narrator begins the story with

Amelie’s birth and goes on to describe her lonely, love starved childhood and how she

seeks refuge in her imagination.

The film follows Amelie into adulthood as she works as a waitress in a Montmartre

café called The Two Windmills. It establishes the routine of her life and the lives of

those around her. Events start happening when Amelie discovers the childhood

memorabilia of the previous occupant of her apartment. That night, she experiences

an epiphany of sorts and decides to become a do-gooder from then on. The film now

follows Amelie through all her matchmaking and guardian angel activities, her

growing friendship with her old neighbor Raymond Dufayel and her fascination with

fellow dreamer Nino Quincampoix, whom she identifies with as a kindred spirit.

The film stars Audrey Tatou as Amelie Poulain, Mathieu Kassovitz as Nino Quincampoix

and Serge Merlin as Raymond Dufayel in the leading roles. The main crew includes

Jean-Marc Deschamps; the producer, Jean-Pierre Jeunet; the director, Bruno

Delbonnel; the cinematographer, Herve Schneid; the editor, Aline Bonetto; the

production designer, Volker Schafer; the art director, Madeline Fontaine and Emma

Lebail, the costume designers and Yann Tierson; the music composer. The movie is 1

hour and 56 minutes long.

Amélie won Best Film at the European Film Awards; it won four César

Awards (including Best Film and Best Director), two BAFTA Awards (including Best

Original Screenplay) and was nominated for five Academy Awards (Art Direction,

Cinematography, Foreign Language Film, Original Screenplay and Sound)

MISE-EN-SCENE

Amelie is very popular for its visual content. The visuals strive to reinforce the image

of a very romantic, idealistic way of life in a French small town. The reality of life in

the film is far removed from actual reality but it provides the perfect backdrop for

Amelie’s affectionate, charming and wistful nature. All her romantic notions and

clever little ‘strategems’ make sense when they are viewed through the quixotic

social values set by the film’s mise-en-scene.

SETTING

The film takes place mostly in and around the café that Amelie works in, The Two

Windmills in Montmartre. This further increases the impression of a small town; that

of unusual lives lead quietly, detached from the rush of city and all that is normal and

conventional. The early part of the film takes place in Amelie’s childhood home.

Although its location is not specified, the cottage like appearance of the house and

garden imply a suburban, shabby-genteel lifestyle.

PROPS

The props in this film are a major part of its aesthetic quotient. They show a great

attention to detail. The props inside the café especially serve to increase its

authenticity. In some cases, certain props have been selected to convey certain

impressions. For instance, the bedraggled teddy bear that Amelie possesses in her

childhood is a symbol of Amelie herself as a child – lonely, neglected, and adorably

Figure 1 Amelie's home as a child Figure 2 The Two Windmills Cafe where Amelie works.

pitiable. The box full of childhood memorabilia that Amelie discovers is very

important in the movie because it spurs Amelie on in her new effort to become a do-

gooder. Each item in the box has been selected with care, as later, an explanation is

provided for the presence of every item in the box. Nino’s album plays a pivotal part

in the film as it sparks Amelie’s interest in Nino. Throughout the movie the album has

a merry ride as Amelie leads Nino through a cat and mouse game in the streets of

Montmartre using the album as leverage because she is too shy to meet him.

Figure 6 The teddy bear lies forgotten. Amelie waits to

be old enough to leave home.

Figure 7 Amelie looks at Nino's album.

Figure 5 Amelie plays with her teddy bear after her mother's death.

Figure 3 Amelie discovering the box of memorabilia. Figure 4 The properties inside the box.

Figure 8 Amelie shows NIno's album to Dufayel.

COSTUME

The costumes in this film again reflect a working class way of life. All the characters

in the film wear sturdy, durable clothes, Amelie is shown to wear usable, working

class boots throughout the film. The apron Amelie wears and the tray she carries

become part of her costume and define her role as a waitress. There are few

interesting variations in the costumes used in a few scenes. When Amelie carries out

her ‘stratagem’ to meet Nino in secret, her active imagination compels her to assume

a role akin to a spy/secret agent. When she executes her stratagem she takes to

wearing shades and masks to hide her identity. Silly, useless and whimsical as it may

seem in reality, these costumes completely suit Amelie’s childish endeavors and her

thirst for adventure.

PERFORMANCE

Despite the film being character-centric with the Amelie receiving the most focus, the

director has made a great effort in the development of his other characters also. This

can be seen through the innovative introduction that each character receives. The

likes and dislikes of each character, however silly it may be, are explained and this is

perhaps to help the audience relate to the characters in the film. Amelie herself is

the most complex character in the film and the director has put in a lot of work in

making sure that we are with her throughout the film. The film takes the time to

illustrate her small fancies and eccentricities. There are instances in the movie where

Figure 4 Amelie shows the album to Dufayel.

Figure 9 Amelie surreptitiously watching Nino's progress through her shades.

Figure 10 Amelie wearing a Zorro mask and costume to set up a meeting with Nino.

Amelie directly talks to the audience, usually to confess or reveal a secret and this

act makes the audience involve themselves in Amelie’s life. The non-verbal cues that

Amelie provides are more indicative of her character than anything else and helps the

audience place themselves into Amelie’s own private little world. For instance, when

Amelie is introduced the narrator explains that she enjoys small pleasures like dipping

her fingers into sacks of grain and skimming stones at St. Martin’s canal. Throughout

the film, at odd instances, Amelie picks up little pebbles and puts them in her pocket

and it is recognizable later that she is collecting stones to skim. This consistency of

characteristic is innovative and endears Amelie more to the audience.

Audrey Tatou, a promising young actress when this film was produced, immortalizes

Amelie as one of the greatest heroines in film history. Her performance epitomizes

Amelie as a figure of compassion, quirkiness, eccentricity, sweetness and generosity.

Tatou’s role as the innocent young Marie in her previous film Venus Beauty Institute

has also helped in reinforcing the innocence in Amelie’s nature as the audience are

more inclined to perceive Tatou and hence Amelie that way.

LIGHTING

For the most part, the film retains its image as an airy romantic comedy by

illuminating its frames with a mellow, diffused light. There are scenes in the film

where extremely bright natural light or low key, mysterious light has been used to

indicate the character’s emotions or state of mind. For instance, when Amelie

successfully accomplishes her first good deed, she feels confident and happy and as

the narrator describes it, Amelie suddenly had a strange feeling of absolute harmony,

Figure 11 Amelie dipping her fingers into a sack of grain. Figure 12 Amelie skimming stones at the St. Martin's Canal

in that instance the frame is lit by extremely bright sunlight as Amelie makes her way

along the road. In another scene, where Amelie plans to break into the grocer

Collignon’s apartment to punish his unjust treatment of his assistant Lucien, her

emotions are anger, mischief and a sense of purpose. These shots are illuminated by a

key light with only Amelie clearly visible.

COLOR

Color is the most element in the mise-en-scene of this film. The film is dominated by

the use of reds and greens in almost every frame. These two colors can be seen in the

background, the props, the actors’ costumes, etc. The tone of the film is also green

throughout. Amelie herself appears mostly in red. As red represents love, warmth,

comfort, excitement and intensity, the use of red to represent Amelie is completely

understandable. The use of green throughout the film to set the tone helps in bringing

out a feeling of tranquility and timelessness which only serves to increase the

romantic feel of the film.

Figure 14 Low key lighting as Amelie makes her way through Collignon's apartment

Figure 13 Bright, diffused light as Amelie walks, feeling perfectly in peace with the world.

Figure 15 The diffused green tone used throughout the film.

Figure 1 The diffused green light used throughout the film.

The reds and greens are punctuated in certain instances by blues and oranges. Orange

is mostly used in Amelie’s childhood, prominently seen in her costume and her pet

fish. Blue is used as an accent color to brighten up certain frames that are too

diffused by red and green.

COMPOSITION

The shots are mostly composed with asymmetrical balance irrespective of whether

they are filled with content or relatively empty. The director has stuck to the

guidelines regarding compositions leading to classic, clean frames that do not confuse

or mislead. The character or object of focus is mostly in the center or located a little

to the left or right (following the rule of thirds). These simple compositions serve to

increase the classic feel of the movie making it a pleasant watch.

Figure 2 Use of reds in the props and setting Figure 18 Use of reds in Amelie's costume

Figure 19 Use of orange in young Amelie's costume. Figure 3 Use of blue in property.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

The cinematography in this movie is characterized by close frames, long, smooth and

slow camera movements punctuated by sudden fast zoom-ins that create anticipation

among the audience. The cinematography can be explained through an examination of

the following four factors.

FRAMING

The framing of shots in Amelie is very definitive. The visual content in most shots is

abundant with a lot of properties, a lot of bright colors and a lot of action among the

characters. If the film where to have contained a lot of long or mid shots with much

of this visual content included in every frame, the audience would have had a hard

time following the story as they would be busy observing and keeping track of all the

visual detail in the frames. However, the director has vetoed a lot of long shots (they

Figure 21 Assymmetrically balanced compostion with less visual content.

Figure 4 Assymmetrically balanced compositon with abundant visual content.

Figure 523 An interesting frame where Amelie's face is partially hidden and the hand that hovers over her face

is also only partially revealed.

Figure 6 An interesting frame where Amelie's gaze is not given enough lead room. This is used to convey her

anxiety.

are used only during the establishment of a scene or setting) and has made sure the

audience stay with the story by using close shots of the characters most of the time

with the background blurred.

SHOT SIZES

As already observed in framing, most of the shots in the film are extreme close ups

that focus on the character’s emotions and reactions, especially Amelie’s. Since this

is a character centric film whose storyline depends on the actions and reactions of the

characters, the use of such intense close ups is justified as that is the only way in

which the audience would understand and get involved with the story. Most scenes

begin with an establishment shot or a mid long shot and whatever follows would

generally be close and mid two shots or extreme close ups.

Figure 25, 26 Two similar close two shots

Figure 8 Close up Collignon's face as he finds something amiss with his door handle.

Figure 7 Close up Amelie's mother as she panics. The close up escalates the magnitude of the emotion.

CAMERA MOVEMENT

The most identifiable camera movement in the film is the zoom in which happens

with every shot. Whenever a character is the primary subject in the frame, the

camera begins with a mid or close shot and zooms in and stops at an extreme close

up. This zoom in can be gradual one where the character is in the middle of an action

and the audience is curious as to what is happening. The camera then slowly moves

forward and gives the audience the answer. For instance, a scene ends with Nino

discovering the torn pieces of a photograph and the next scene begins with a mid shot

of him busy with something in his desk. The audience wonders what he is doing and if

the torn photograph is in fact a message from Amelie. The shot zooms in slowly to

increase the audience’s anticipation and finally ends with a close shot of Nino

assembling a photograph of Amelie, thus giving the audience their answer.

While gradual zoom-ins are used to increase anticipation, abrupt, fast zoom-ins are

also used frequently to communicate the anticipation of the character itself. Quick

zoom-ins of Amelie with an accompanying swishing sound are used whenever she is

about to indulge in a new piece of adventure or when she waits impatiently for the

results of one of her strategems.

Figure 10 Close shot of Amelie's photograph being assembled by Nino.

Figure 9 Mid shot of Nino working on his desk.

Figure 31, 32 Quick zoom in of Amelie's face as she gleefully observes the results of her matchmaking.

The movie also has a lot of sweeping crane shots that make the maximum use of the

beauty of the setting with stylish, flowing camera movements. Most of the scenes

with begin at the train station begin with a sweeping establishment shot that begins

from the roof of the train station. There is also one very famous crane shot in the

movie which shows Amelie skimming stones in the St. Martin’s Canal.

CAMERA ANGLES

The camera angles in this film are also interesting. Apart from the normal straight

angles, a lot of tilted angles, low angles, upgrades and downgrades have also been

used. Downgrades can mostly be seen when Nino is introduced and when Amelie is

watching him. These downgrade angles represents Amelie’s point of view and increase

the impression that she is avidly observing him. Downgrades can also be seen in

Amelie’s childhood and communicate the message that she is small and also

effectively dominated by her parents. Low angles shots are sprinkled here and there

and are usually combined with long takes that serve to increase the drama as the

camera moves from a low angle shot to a high perpendicular shot in the same scene

giving a sense of speed to the film.

Figure 11 A 180 degree crane shot of Amelie skimming stones at the St. Martin's canal.

Figure 13 A tilted angle that represents Amelie's confusion as she ponders over a problem.

Figure 12 A tilted angle to represent speed and urgency as Amelie travels in a fast train.

DEPTH OF FIELD

The movie, because of its abundant close ups is characterized by a shallow depth of

field in most parts. It is obviously the intention of the director to make sure that the

audience concentrates only on a particular subject when they view a particular shot.

Shallow depth of field is also used in Amelie’s case for a few reasons. When she is in

the frame with somebody else and she is the only person in focus, the director is

trying to draw the audience’s attention to Amelie’s reaction (generally her reaction

to the other person in the frame). Through shallow depth of field shots, that is shots

in which Amelie is in focus and the background is blurred, the director is trying

visually symbolize the fact that Amelie lives in her own separate world, removed from

others by her imagination.

Figure 15 Low angle shots used in the movie.

Figure 14 Downgrade shots

Figure 41, 42 Shots with a shallow depth of field where Amelie is in prime focus.

EDITING

The editing in a movie determines its pace and Amelie is, in its essence, a slow

movie. It takes the audience through an almost day by day representation of events.

The director takes a lot of time in letting characters and events unfold, but these are

intermixed with sudden fast sequences that make sure that the audience is never

bored. The film majorly employs a continuity editing technique (where the shots in a

scene are related to each other and this is how they are linked together) with a few

instances of discontinuity also (where shots are not related to each other but gain

meaning through the way they are linked together). There are a few aspects of

continuity and discontinuity editing that are present in the film and can be analyzed

as follows.

CONTINUITY EDITING

The film follows Amelie through the days of her life, as she goes from childhood to

adulthood, her increasing craving for love and affection and her quirky mannerisms

and behavior. Most scenes incorporate continuity as follows,

1 – Movement and speed

The movie is generally slow with events unraveling gradually, so the movement and

speed of the shots in one scene are easily consistent. The pace of these slow scenes is

balanced by a few unexpected, quicksilver ones which pull the audience out of a

feeling of impending monotony. For instance, after her first good deed, Amelie walks

in the bright sunshine and deliberate slow motion is used to help us understand that

she is savoring the moment. This is immediately followed by Amelie helping a blind

man across the road. This is one of the fastest and clutter filled scenes in the movie

as Amelie provides a graphic description of the street they are walking through. The

editor has made sure that the shots of the street are intermixed with shots of Amelie

and the blind man describing the scene before him. Given its speed it is one of the

most difficult shots to maintain speed and movement continuity in and the editor has

managed it with racy skill.

2 – Shot size

As mentioned before, this movie has a lot of close ups and zoom-ins. There are shots

however, where the scene is emotionally fraught, which veto the zoom-in in favor of

a transition of mid long shot to a close shot. This gives a feeling of abruptness,

confusion and urgency which is what the director wanted to communicate.

3 – Shot/Reverse shot

Since the movie focuses mostly on Amelie’s one-man army activities, the movie has

lesser dialogues than usual. However, an effective use of the shot/reverse shot

editing technique can be seen wherever dialogues are present. One particular

example is that of the conversations that occur in and around the grocer Collignon’s

store in the morning. A mid shot encompassing all the characters in the conversation

Figure 18 Transition from a mid long shot to a close shot when Amelie is screaming in panic at her dying pet fish.

Figure 17 Amelie describes the chickens roasting Figure 16 Amelie describing the surroundings to the blind man.

is shown followed by either an over the shoulder shot or a close shot of the

customers, the grocer Collignon and his assistant Lucien individually. This helps us in

understanding the perspective of each individual along with establishing the spatial

relationship between them as they converse across the vegetable trays.

4 – Eye-line match

The movie, as mentioned, has a lot of close ups. So most of the time, when a person’s

gaze is shown, the close up prevents the audience from knowing who they are looking

at. This is where the eye-line match technique of editing comes into play. There are

no mistakes in the eye-line match in this movie and this flawless execution

compensates for the abundant use of close ups that leave a lot of visual information

out.

Figure 19 Different perspective / shots and reverse shots shown in the same conversation.

Figure 49, 50 Eye line match as Amelie and Nino see each other for the first time.

5 – Cutaway shots

There is an interesting use of cutaway shots in this film. Whenever a character is

introduced by the narrator, he elaborates on the character’s likes and dislikes. At

times like those, the scene cuts away from the character to show a visual explanation

of what the character likes or dislikes. For instance, when the café owner Suzanne is

introduced, the narrator explains that Suzanne likes the sight of athletes crying with

disappointment and dislikes men being humiliated in front of their children. As the

narrator explains, the scene cuts away from a shot of Suzanne to show a shot of an

athlete crying and a shot of a man being humiliated in front of his son. These shots

are however still related to the main scene.

6 – Cross cutting

The slow pace of the film and its focus on one character decreases the probability of

several events happening at once and therefore decreases the opportunity for cross

cuts. There is however, one scene where cross cutting is very clearly used. After

successfully returning the album to Nino, Amelie works on her plan to set up a

meeting with him. Shots of her going into a costume store are intermixed with shots

of a man (only his bright red sneakers are shown) leaving his home and walking on the

road. As Amelie reaches the train station’s photo booth, the man parks his car outside

the same station. These two events collide at one point at the photo booth. As Amelie

finishes having her photos taken and steps out of the booth she almost bumps into the

man with the red sneakers who is about to step in. This shot holds significance in the

Figure 20 Shot of Suzanne followed by a cutaway shot of what she likes (in black and white)

movie as the man is revealed to be the mystery ghost that Amelie and Nino have been

searching for. His identity is now revealed to Amelie.

7 – Wipe

The movie also uses the wipe editing technique to show the passing of time. At one

point Amelie is shown to be a little girl waiting to be old enough to leave home. The

camera pans down from her face in the window to show her abandoned teddy bear

outside in the garden. The frame remains static as one shot overlaps into the other,

the teddy bear is shown in different seasons – spring, monsoon, winter and summer.

At the ends of the summer shot the camera tilts up and pans left to show an older

Figure 53, 54 A shot of Amelie outside a costume store followed by a shot of a man with red sneakers who leaves his home at the same time.

Figure 55, 56, 57, 58 The passing of time shown through wipe and the changing seasons.

Amelie walking out of the house with suitcases in her hand. Therefore, the changing

seasons have been shown through wipe to indicate that a lot of years have gone by.

DISCONTINUITY EDITING

The movie majorly moves through continuity editing. But there are three distinct

places where discontinuity editing in the form of montages has been used.

(1) In the beginning of the movie, the narrator describes abstract scenes and

happenings before going to the main scene. He describes a road in which a

bluebottle fly lands. He describes wine glasses dancing as the table cloth they

are placed on flutters in the breeze. He describes an old man who scratches

out his friends name from his phone book after going to his funeral. He then

comes to the main scene with the conception of Amelie. This is perhaps to give

the audience a feel of what the film will contain; the pace, the tone, etc.

Figure 21 A montage of unrelated shots (first three) followed by the main scene

(2) The titles have an interesting montage of shots. These shots are all close ups

of the young Amelie as she indulges in childish games. But her activities

curiously match the titles and the whole ensemble forms an interesting

montage.

(3) At the end of the movie, the narrator again deviates from the story to describe

events that are not related to the characters or the storyline before going back

to the main scene. He describes a marshmallow machine twisting marshmallow,

a man reading a park, nuns playing tennis before he comes to the final scene of

the movie, that is Nino and Amelie on Nino’s bike, in what is obviously the

beginnings of a relationship.

Figure 22 A few shots from the titles.

SOUND

The film has a healthy use of both diegetic (sounds originating from the world of the

film) and non-diegetic (sounds originating from outside the world of the movie)

sounds.

The dialogues in the movie, the sound effects and the ambient sound are all part of

diegetic sound. The dialogues in the movie are varied and they also help in reflecting

the nature of every character in the movie. Apart from the dialogues involved with

Amelie’s angelic activities, there are a lot of coffee table conversations and grocery

store conversations that add to the authenticity of the social values put forth by the

film and also help the audience in understanding that there is a kind of quirkiness to

almost every character in the film. The sound effects in the movie are very

noticeable, be it the falling of a bottle cap or the pressing of a doorbell, or even the

dropping of a pebble inside a pocket. The effects have been provided with great

attention to detail and work with the background score to increase the dramatic

quotient of the film. The ambient sound in the movie, to quote a few examples,

includes the sounds that one might usually hear in a café, like the clanging of tea

cups, scraping of chairs, etc, the sounds that one hears in a train stations, the train

horn, the sound of the wheels of the train on the rails, etc.

The background score and the voiceover in the film are part of the non-diegetic

sounds. The background score is delightful. It covers every facet of Amelie’s character

Figure 23 A montage of unrelated shots (the first three) before the last scene.

from her happiness, loneliness, despair and joy to her charm, jauntiness,

mischievousness and thoughtfulness. The voiceover is the most important aural

component in the film because it is the most necessary element that makes the

audience make sense of and understand the story of the film. The narrator, Andre

Dussollier, has no part to play in the film but it is his dryly humorous, insightful words

that bring the film to life for the audience more than any other element in the film.

The sound in the movie is parallel and not contrapuntal. But there is one instance in

the movie where parallel sound is used in the most literal sense and that makes it

seem almost contrapuntal. This instance is appears in the scene where Amelie tries to

cheer her innkeeper whose husband has left her. Amelie steals the letters that the

innkeeper’s husband had written to her when he was in an army camp. As Amelie

reads the letters, she understands that some letters have been written when he was

in camp, in the middle of a storm, in the rain, near a church, etc. She takes parts of

these letters and pieces them together to form a new letter in which he apologizes to

his wife for having run away from her. She makes sure this letter reaches the

innkeeper. As the innkeeper reads the letter, a moment which is very touching is

accompanied by different sounds. As she reads the letter that consists of different

parts of other letters, the sound of army trumpets, rain, storm, church bells all

combine into a medley in the background letting the audience know that this letter is

in fact a combination of all the previous letters. This gives a contrapuntal slant to the

sound.

CONCLUSION

Amelie Poulain is a balance of comedy, poignancy, tenderness and romance. Its

idealistic approach was not considered ‘serious enough’ and therefore it was not

nominated for the Cannes Film Festival. Despite that, the director and crew’s skill in

combining all these elements together harmoniously should be appreciated. Their

work is the creation of a visually appealing, emotionally touching, quaint film that

just begs for you to relate to it and lingers long with you after you have watched it.