In the 2001 film “Amelie”, viewers are invited to the dreamy city of France as it is seen by an introverted young woman named Amelie, which the film takes its name from. Amelie’s childlike, romantic view of the city is conveyed through the movie’s use of color. All of France is shown in varying shades of oranges and greens, giving it a vibrant and beautiful look that immediately pops out. Since orange and green are contrasting colors, the filmmakers take advantage of this palette to also draw the eye towards certain innocuous details in the background, such as a dress or a pattern on a wall, bringing to life the city and the people who live within it through these details. Sometimes the color scheme is broken with a bright blue that immediately stands out. This seems to signify important objects, like a plastic bag that one character is constantly carrying that immediately identifies it, but watching the film it’s hard to to tell why some of these objects were coded blue, such as a car in the background of one shot.

The death of Princess Diana sparks in Amelie a desire to help all of those around her, as she fantasizes about being as beloved as Diana was. Amelie is an imaginative person, and her fantasies come to life as visual metaphors showing us her state of mind, such as one point in the film when she turns into a puddle of water and splashes to the ground out of disappointment. Her shyness makes her feel like an outsider, and she observes the lives of the people around her from the outside looking in. With the help of the film’s humorous narration, we get to see how every person Amelie meets has their own fixations, irrational fears, and unfulfilled desires. The city of France is filled with people who are dreamers but are holding themselves back from happiness. Through Amelie’s constant covert intervention in other’s lives, we see how dreams give us direction in life and bring us together, as Amelie is brought together with a man who shares her bizarre sense of wonder and imagination. However, the film also teaches us that dreams should not remain in our heads. Doubt and anxiety constantly holds us back, and they can become a prison for someone unless action is taken. Many different plotlines involving different people weave in and out of focus throughout the film, all contributing in unexpected ways to Amelie taking that step out of her own prison. The lesson the film teaches is that the people around us share more in common with us than not, and are all connected in small but significant ways; there is no reason to be afraid of each other.