Amelie calls the shots!

In the film "Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain" there are two particular scenes which convey the feeling of helplessness, solitude, and reverence. This is done by the clever use of the long shot, middle shot, and close up. One of the scenes takes place during a church, and the other one takes place in a theater. Both of these scenes are very powerful as they lay down the character development of Amelie and (possibly) her mother.

In the first scene, Amelie is shown alongside Amandine, her mother, praying for a "baby brother". This particular shot is as middle shot and wonderfully illustrates the moroseness of the situation. There are a bunch of candles lit up around them, but yet the room is still somehow dark. The fact that the mother and daughter are dressed in dark clothes, emphasizes how miserable things going to get (this is clever because this scene is actually foreshadowing something bad that's going to happen very soon). The fact that it's a middle shot, allows us see the environment around them, while still being able to recognize who's in it.

Shortly after the foreboding scene, we see an almost "ant-like" figure that continues getting larger and larger as the camera zooms in. It turns out that the "ant" is actually Amelie's mother. We see this through the eyes of a suicidal woman plummeting down the highest point of the church. The woman falls on top of Amandine and instantly kills her. The use of long shot, and more specifically a high angle shot, really reduces the power of Amelie's mother.

Lastly, the scene where Amelie is in a theater depicts her keen interests. She goes on discussing how she likes to notice certain details of movies no one else does and how "she hates it when American drivers don't look at the road while driving". Because these interests are so unique and not very many people can relate to them, the director gives us a close up shot that's at eye-level with her. This allows us to identify with her, and in a way see things the way she does. This is also a very beautiful shot.



Sorry but I tried look everywhere for the church scene but I couldn't find it.