In this particular scene, Amelie is crossing out one the possible leads for who she thinks she can return the childhood box to. The sound of Amelie crossing out the name is especially emphasized as though the director is focusing the audience's attention to this action. This sound emphasis then transitions into the sound of a train passing by. It seems as though the sound editor and the director wanted to suggest that the crossing out of the name had the vigor and emotional value of a train passing by during a normal afternoon: as though it were monotonic.
Throughout the movie Amelie picks up skipping stones and places them into her left jacket pocket. Since skipping stones is her coping mechanism, collecting stones to skip later suggests that she is preparing herself emotionally for anything that she may encounter within the scene. Usually she picks up a skipping stone during the establishing moments of the scene so that it suggests that the director is asking for the audience to pay attention to these key scenes in the film.
In this certain scene Amelie is reading over multiple letters from the landlord's late husband trying to find out which snippets of the letters she can use in order to compose another letter. The sound changes as she reads different letters to emphasize that different letters are being read through. Sound is essential in this scene because it conveys an image of the landlord's husband going through various situations. It is the only method of conveying the idea that different letters are being used.
Sweeping camera angles
Also during this scene the cinematographer uses many different camera angles to convey a sense of variety.
Good point on the recurring motif with the skipping stones. I see that the stones represent that an important event is about to happen or like a new chapter is starting. But they also represent who she is.
ReplyDeleteThe sounds of this film was very important and you showed that well with your example of the pen scratching out the names on her paper. Having the sound as the most emphasized point did bring out the emotion of her feeling a failure in not finding the owner of the box.
ReplyDeleteThe wording on your first point was slightly confusing so I had to read it a few times. But your second point was really good. I never thought about the stones in that sense of symbolism for the importance of scenes. Good job picking that up.
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