Amelie
Follow the Blue Arrows: Looking Closely atThe color blue is used symbolically in the visual design of Amelie to represent happiness. Watching Amelie to gather info on the visual design of the film lends itself to the realization that to write a paper on the overall visual design of the film would take dozens of viewings and a book worth of analysis. With that in mind, the focus of this analysis is on a repeated visual design theme: the timely, strategic, and meaningful placement of blue lighting and blue objects to augment and represent the themes of the story, specifically, the theme of happiness.The main set colors in Amelie are green red and yellow. Volumes could be written about the set design, color, and decoration, and how it illustrates each character's personality, but as stated earlier the focus is the importance of the use of the color blue in the set, the props, character's clothing, and lighting. Compared to the reds and greens blue is relatively rare, but very easily noticeable throughout the movie. While it is possible that blue objects coincidently appear at important times, and rarely anywhere else, knowing Jean-Pierre Jeunet's reputation as a highly visual (see The Ci
She walks out from directly behind where the childhood box waits. Right before Dominique Bretodeau - the man whom Amelie helps first - finds the box containing his childhood memories in a phone booth, an old woman with a blue overcoat walks out from behind the booth. After Bretodeau finds the box he tells Amelie of his "guardian angel" and of his decision to contact his daughter whom he has not seen in years, as he tells Amelie this, a bright blue object sits on the bar behind him. When Nico runs off to chase after his mystery man, Amelie runs after him and the audience sees that Nico is carrying a blue bag, giving the impression that Amelie is also chasing the blue bag. When Amelie sees Nico after spending the night in a photo booth and we see Amelie's feelings for Nico, there is a large blue backlit poster on the wall behind him. The connection between his thoughts and dreams and the color blue is easy to make as his head - where these dreams come from - is shown on the blue pillow. The best example of this is Joseph and Georgette the two that Amelie maneuvers together. When Nico arrives at the place where he is to find his album Amelie calls a nearby payphone (the handsets of Amelie's and Nico's payphones are both dark blue) and tells Nico to "Follow the blue arrows" sure enough, on the ground are many blue arrows leading him up to the pay binoculars (also blue). While the color blue is not extremely common in the film, in Amelie's apartment there are two bright blue lamps with bright blue lampshades. Blue is symbolic in this movie of searching for happiness and love. Like the lamps bathe objects in blue, Amelie finds she can help others find happiness. Nico's mystery man is a bald man who has thrown away many photos of himself at photo booths all over town. With Amelie's indifferent feelings toward sex in the past, the juxtaposition of the color blue and the sex shop suggests Nico is the one for her. Blue also appears when the main characters are looking for love, which theoretically, leads to happiness. For example, when she decides to use her gift of helping others on her dad, her small blue lamp is clearly visible on the table beside her.
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Acceptance Essays
