The cinematography of the French film Amélie is quirky and whimsical. In order to achieve this mood, the director and cinematographer establish interesting compositions, close shots, and playful camera movement throughout the entire movie. I have chosen a short clip that exemplifies the overall style:
The first shot is a fairly quick camera tilt that scans the character Amélie from head to hand. The tilt ends abruptly, but not harshly, with a view of her hand dipping into a sack of grain. The close-up view is constant for the entire shot.
A cut transitions to the next scene, which simply is an extreme close-up of Amélie’s face, and a spoon that she holds up in front of her. A cut to the next shot is simply an extreme close-up.
The next scene is less straightforward than the previous ones, as far as camera movement is concerned. A bird’s eye view reveals a river dam waterfall, and the camera begins a fairly slow clockwise rotating/tracking motion. Once Amélie comes into view, she becomes the origin of the rotation, which speeds up slightly. Then, the camera pivots down until it is level with the water level, and she is level with the horizon line.
The filming is rather effective, though I think that the bird’s eye view feels rather out of place and unnecessary. Perhaps a close up of her stones hitting the water would have sufficed.
A cut to the next scene reveals Amélie in her home, and the camera follows her by tracking from the left to right side. Once the tracking motion stops, the camera zooms in slowly on Amélie, whose attention has been captured by something not in the frame. This psychic line of her gaze helps the viewer to understand the following shot, which is an over the shoulder view of the neighbor she is observed from her window. A cut to the next shot depicts Amélie closing her window from outside of her home, and the camera slowly zooms in again. A cut to the next shot shows her walk again towards her window, this time with a spying telescope in hand. Again, the director uses the concept of a psychic line to lead into the next shots.
Through the use of a vignette, which likely was added in post-production editing, viewers feel as if they are looking through Amélie’s spying glass. The camera even toggles as if it were being held by hand, and pans as if she is directing her attention elsewhere. Two more cuts reveal shots of her spying through her window, and the other from her perspective. These cuts in the window peeing scene are based on Amélie’s movements and are always forward.
Throughout this short clip and the rest of the film, straight cuts and extreme close ups are implemented. Much of the action is centered on Amélie, rather than many extraneous outside characters, though through parallel editing viewers are introduced to a counterpart later in the film. Time is compressed significantly in the entire film, and the scenes would be unrelated visually would they not be describing and involving the main character.
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