Mise-en-scene: Amélie (2001)

Introduction

Amélie is a French film produced in 2001. It was directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and was written by Jeunet with Cuillaume Laurant. The genre of this film includes romance and comedy. In this blog, we will be studying about mise-en-scene based on the film, Amélie (2001).

Synopsis

Amélie Paulein is a shy waitress who works in a cafe. Due to her lonely childhood, she tends to  be imaginative and mischievous. One day, Amélie found an old metal box of childhood memorabilia hidden in a wall of her apartment's washroom. After she returned the box to the owner and brought him happiness, she continues to bring happiness to other people around her while struggling with her own loneliness. As she helped a quirky young man named Nino Quincampoix to retrieve his photo album of discarded photographs of strangers collected from a passport photo booth, she fell in love with him. However, Joseph misled Amélie to believe that Nino had fallen to Gina. Yet, she was motivated by her neighbor with brittle bone disease, Raymond Dufayel to pursue Nino. At the end, both of them start a relationship and Amélie had finally found herself happiness.

Description

In my opinion, this is actually a funny film with many ridiculous ideas. There are a lot of exaggerated scenes which had enhanced the comedic mood of the film. Besides, I also love how the filmmakers put the imaginations of the character into the scenes, such as the imaginary friend, clouds that shaped by imagination and also people talking in the photos. Moreover, I also love the fact that most of the characters in this film have a unique personality that could effectively shape their identity. Overall, I think that this is a really fun film to watch.

Analysis

The word “Mise-en-scene” originated from French, which is translated as the “placing on stage” (McGrai, n.d.). In another word, mise-en-scene refers to the staging of a scene. It can be anything that appears within a frame, including the settings, props, lighting and performance (Bordwell and Thompson, 2010).

First of all, the story is set in Montmartre and the setting of the film shows tells that this story happens in the 20th century. The film was shot in real-life places instead of being shot in the studio. The most interesting setting of this film is the scene where young Amélie watching the clouds in the sky in many different shapes according to her imagination. This shows that the filmmakers had also consider the imaginative world of the character in the setting and it is a good way to let the audience know the thoughts of the characters.

Furthermore, we can see a lot of props enhance the narrative of the film by motivating the main character to form the story. The examples of props in this film that provides an important narrative drive include the old metal box and also the photo album. These are the two items found by Amélie and had became the “key items” of the story which motivates Amélie. The old metal box is the props that motivated Amélie to do good deeds which had changed her life and the life of people around her. On the other hand, the photo album that Nino lost is also the key to begin the love story between Amélie and Nino.

The costume of the characters in the film can tells the audience about the personalities of the characters. Let’s look at the main character of this film, Amélie. Her costume is plain and simple, which tells the audience that Amélie could be a normal innocent lady. Her hairstyle with short bangs  had also shaped her naivety personality. Besides, her costume in the scene where she surreptitiously return the photo album to Nino at the park, which she wears a pair of sunglasses and had her hair covered can also tells the audience clearly that she wants to hide her identity from Nino. We can also see the costume of Raymond Dufayel with layers of clothes and a pair of gloves can effectively shows the audience that he is having a brittle bone disease.

In order to fulfill the comedy and romance genres of this film, soft lights were used most of the time. There is also an interesting example on lighting that can be found in this film. In the scene where Amélie is looking for Nino in the scary house of a carnival, we can see that soft light is also being used in this scene. When we all talk about scary house, we all will think that the mood should be horror and scary. However, the lighting of this scene does not bring out any horror mood because it was not meant to be scary. Instead, it’s actually a hilarious scene where Amélie enjoys the moan of the scary man.

It is fun to see that all of the characters in this film have their own unique personalities and the outstanding performance of the actors as well as actresses clearly tells the audience about their characters. For example, by seeing Amélie surreptitiously return the old metal box and the photo album to their respective owners, we can assume that she is a shy person. Moreover, we can also tell the mischievous personality of Amélie through the scene where the young Amélie disturbs her father watching the football match by messing with the antena and also the scene where she uses gaslighting tactics on Collignon to teach him a lesson.

Conclusion

I can say that the mise-en-scene of this film is pretty good. The settings does not just portray the environment of the scene but also the imaginative world of the characters. The props had also played an important role in the plot of the film. The costumes and makeup are appropriate and appealing. The lighting that had been used was fine and the performances of the actors as well as actresses had effectively portray their own unique personalities.

References

Bordwell, D & Thompson, K. (2010). Film Art: An Introduction. New York, America: McGraw-Hill.

McGrail, L. (n.d.). 5 Essential Elements of Successful Mise en Scène in Film. Retrieved from https://www.lightsfilmschool.com/blog/mise-en-scene-in-film-afk.