Amelie

The light and the dark in Paris

 The light

‘I think it’s been such a big

success because it makes
you happy. It’s positive. It
makes you dream – and
we need that.’

Jean- Pierre Jeunet expressly

renounced the global. He
made a pact with himself to
contribute to the national
heritage…returning with
affection to the local, to "the
Paris of my youth, a fairy-tale
Paris."'
 The light
It is hard to argue that this film isn’t an
expression of all that can bring joy to our worlds.
Jeunet is luxurious in the details he provides for
his audience, reminding them of the wonderful
little things that we might, perhaps, have
forgotton.

What I mean by this is…

The sensations
A sack of grain
It’s crème brûlée
It’s pretty waterfalls and skimming stone
 The detail
Notice the mild obsession with the close up. You could call it
a motif of Jeunet’s in this film. He’s definitely not afraid to
get in close and show us the luxurious detail of the little
things.
The close up is all about intimacy and Jeunet is giving us a
great sense of the intimate relationship Amelie (and other
characters) have with these little things.
And the close up gives us the chance to get the feel for these
objects, to focus on their sensory qualities rather than
concerning ourselves with their context, the social
circumstances, or how other people react of judge.
 It’s an escape from this…

Not so much social awkwardness, but social expectation, and social disappointment
 An absolute celebration of the local

That is perhaps where a lot of the quirk in the

film comes from. The fact that Jeunet is willing to
dwell, to patiently explore the unusual and
unexpected details that are so often passed over
in a film.
That’s why not a heck of a lot happens in this
film, often Jeunet is too busy helping us see the
world in a new way to get weighed down by
minor things like story.
 And Jeunet is good at this
He is very, very good at creating a world for his audience to
revel in. He is a fairy-tale creator…remember? His Paris is his
Paris, not The Paris. It is a sepia washed, colour controlled,
pristine city of magic and romance – certainly a lie…

Who’s been to Paris? Does Jeunet’s Paris in any way match

up to the reality of the city?

But in his defence, he does a damn job of creating mood,

atmosphere, sensation – again, it’s all in the detail…
It’s sepia
It’s magic rain
It’s magic…and sepia
It’s pristine mise-en-scene…and more sepia
It’s a radiance
It is, of course, a lie
 But we’re not interested in the truth

And this is perhaps Jeunet’s master stroke. He

has created a world that is definitely a fantasy –
it is definitely a fairy tale world. And as a
consequence he’s not bound by the rules and
expectations of regular reality. This means that
his blatant romanticising doesn’t come across as
overly sentimental, false or flaky. It’s sweet, it’s
joyful, it’s uplifting instead.
And it is our world
Subways, cafes, streets, panoramas
Which is I think what is so clever about Jeunet’s design for this film. It
is of our world. It is recognisable. It is not so far away from the world
we live in that we consider it as pure fantasy. It does a fantastic job of
living in that marginal space between fiction and reality. And so that
means we feel okay about relating what we see Amelie doing to our
own world, without feeling silly or overly optimistic.

Jeunet’s success is that he shows us a way of seeing our world in a

new way. He teaches us how to make our world a space of fairy-tale
wonder. And it is all in the detail – it is a philosophy of the close-up.
Of joy without context, of utter aesthetic pleasure in your own
private world.
 Remember this dude?
The Jetztzeit – A Philosophy to live by?
Walter Benjamin
(German philosopher and
extremely important figure in the
history of Western thought) used the term
jetztzeit ('now-time') when referring to a moment
without history, a moment outside of time, an
everlasting now. The reason this kind of thinking is
so valuable is because it makes for something akin
to traditional religious transcendence. Instead of
having to establish overall meaning in existence,
one can live moment to moment, seeking out and revelling in
these moments ‘outside of time’, of absolute personal indulgence that
establish for the individual a momentary freedom from the world.
And I what I think he means is this…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmPOYON1C5o
 Is this enough?
Possibly. It is by all means fine to see Amelie as an investigation and
expression of the solutions to the crisis of meaning found in the
modern world. Meaning need not be over-arching, over-bearing or
even grand – meaning can be found in the miniscule, the individual and
the local.

But there is more to the film than this. And this is an important side
note. Texts cannot be restricted in their meanings, they will ALWAYS
have multiple meaning. They are not maths equations, there is no
secret to unlock, no x. The joy of a film such as this is that it is open to
interpretation and is rich in the interpretations one might give it. I’m
just trying to guide you through a couple – but there are more, no
doubt.
 The dark
Amelie is a fairy tale. That is definite joy and happiness in
the film and this can be read in the techniques Jeunet
includes.

But there is more to is than this. There is ALWAYS more

than one reading to a text. Meaning is fluid and so there
will always be more. This is how texts work, they are rich
and open to interpretation.

And so we must remember that…

Amelie is lonely
Amelie is isolated
Amelie is an outsider
Amelie is an insider
 Jeunet tells us so
His use of colour and composition is so clear that we
it is difficult to deny that Amelie suffers, that she is
unhappy, that she doesn’t fit in.
She stands out amongst the greens of the world.
She blends in to the reds of her home. This is where
she fits, this is where she feels comfortable.
But this is also deeply problematic for Amelie and
the happiness she might be meant to represent…
 The problem
How can Amelie be happy and find joy in the little
things when she is so deeply isolated from the
world and introverted?
Does this mean that her retreats into the little
things are in fact escapes from a world she doesn’t
belong to and that she doesn’t feel connected to?
Does this mean that film is about our desperate
attempts to escape from the world rather than a
celebration of finding meaning in the little things?
 And so we seek control
Controlling how we see
Controlling how we are seen
 And this is relevant
This desire and obsession with controlling how we are
seen in the world is not very far away from the reality
of the modern situation.
Image is perhaps the biggest defining factor for an
individual in the modern world – we are obsessed with
image. We all work to shape and develop a persona
that we want the world to see. This is hardly different
from what Amelie is doing – the only thing is, is that
she takes her manipulation of her image to an extreme
through costume.
 Just to make a space for ourselves
This makes sense. In a world that is increasingly
overwhelming, complex and fragmented, it is
not surprising that we would want to have some
control over the world we live in.
Amelie wants to feel less insignificant and so by
devising stratagems to affect the way people act
and behave, she can remind herself that she
does indeed have some control over the world.
 But again, problematic
In the face of such dislocation and uncertainty about one’s
place in the world, it is all too easy to draw further and
further back into oneself. This is certainly what Amelie
does. And it’s fair, she can locate meaning in things that
are personal to her and she can ignore the world at large.
But what happens when you want to re-engage with the
world. Well, according to Jeunet, this is the way the world
is going and we need objects to help us.

Remember…
Joseph, Georgette and the scratch card
Amelie and Dufayel
 Barriers, object, mediation
Jeunet has done a fairly impressive job of developing motifs
throughout the film. He has managed to find physical
expression for the barriers that we put up in our lives to
avoid direct contact and interaction with the world. His
barriers are pumped full of meaning to become symbols for
the inability for particular characters to get beyond their
own isolation and introversion.
And he crowds his film with objects. Things that characters
use to help them engage with the world around them. While
Jeunet’s film is fairly low tech, we’re not particularly far
away from our world of text, facebook chat and email.
And so we come to a question or three

What do you think Jeunet is emphasising here?

What does that fact that he has a happy ending

mean?

Does the fact that the film is a fairy tale suggest

that any hope for joy in the immediate and the
local is simply that; a fairy tale, a fantasy?