Film openin

g presentation

Film contextThe film centres around the life of Amélie

Poulain, a girl who grows up isolated from other children. Amélie’s mother dies in a freak accident when she is young. This causes Amelie’s father to devote his life to building a shrine in the garden in her memory. Amélie develops an unusually active imagination and when she grows up, she becomes a waitress in a small café where she decides to spend her life helping others. After a series of adventures involving eccentric characters, Amélie is forced to examine her own life . Finally, she is able to overcome her shyness and begins a relationship with a young man called Nino.

The opening credits introduce the main actors/actresses and director. People may recognise these people thus encouraging them to watch the film.

The typeface is old fashioned looking which immediately sets the era the film was set

Yellow is the colour of ___ and is a reoccurring colour to the film

Soundtrack – accompanying music is old fashioned French music

The opening shot is a sentimental nostalgic view of a Paris street, almost like an old painting which sets the mood of the film

Bluebottle - irrelevant to the viewer but makes the audience question why the director has included this scene – there is always a purpose.

The mise en scene helps set the time and place e.g. old fashioned car and old buildings

Narrator suggests incidental things like the glasses on the table, the fly, - every day life – thing people wouldn’t necessarily notice but this is already suggesting something about the overall storyline of the film

Voice over suggests a narrative and an overall spoken storyline to the film, as if its going to tell a story of someone’s life

The voice over is talking about life and death and how it is cycle that happens at the same moment

Shows the fast pace moment of the birth of “Amelie” – see conception

Flicker is reminiscent of a super eight camera – old school movie camera – serves to emphasize the nostalgic retro feel

Telling story of girl’s childhood through quick pace clips of childish things.

Handheld camera – as if its an amateur film maker – family video clips

Red and Green are the significant colours used in the majority of the shots in the film. Green has connotations of :

- Envy- Wealth

- Jealousy- Nature

- Hope- Life

- Safety

Red has connotations of:-Love-Anger-Death-Warning-Blood-Danger-Passion

It is obvious that the director has purposely used these colours in order to convey a message or suggest a mood. He could be hinting at the storyline and how its key themes seem to focus on love, envy, life and safety. On the other hand he could just be using them as they are complementary colours and enhance the overall lighting and effects.

Long shot slowly zooms into a close up shot – introducing key characters – Amelie’s father.

Child-like labelling of the character- focus of minor detail like the beginning of the film – things that aren’t necessarily always noticed by everyday people are being pointed out

The narrator goes through each characters likes and dislikes – a unique method used by the director to prepare a representation of each character – will help the audience understand events happening later on in the film.

Although the use of ‘likes and dislikes’ is effective and helps to portray each character in their own way – the things that are said are unusual, not things people would often think of and adds to the sense that the family is quite unstable as they are all pleased or agitated over strange minute things.

Questions the audience could ask

•What is the significance of the girl?

•Why are the colours red and green used so often?

•Why is the opening based primarily around the childhood of the girl?

•Why has the director focused on minor irrelevent details throughout the film opening?