Treatment for Amélie genre movie.

log line: awkward young man sits on a bench next to a woman with her lunch next to her. we think that he is attracted to her but in the end he goes for the lunch.

treatment: a man is sitting on a bench (we hear his stomach growl) when an attractive woman sits down next to him, on her lunch break. romantic music is cued in.

he eyes her and she notices him. subtly, she shows him cleavage as she opens her lunch. we see his eyes double take as he tries to look away.

she looks up and catches him staring. he looks away. they awkwardly sit next to each other.

as we are looking at him, we hear her moan. his eyes dart towards her and she is sucking the chocolate off her finger as she holds a pudding cup.

his face shows pain/desire. by now we see him writhing on his bench seat. barely able to contain himself.

she stands up and he freezes. we see her walk away behind a tree slowly, hinting at him to follow her. he just stares at her as we see her leave her lunch behind.

he stands up and the screen fades to black.

fade back in. he is on a rooftop somewhere, happily eating the lady’s lunch. romantic music keep splaying on a more cheerful note.

Amelie: Stylistic Devices

The first stylistic device the Director of Amélie uses is color correction. Many of the scenes, and consequently many of the shots, have a distinct yellow feel to them. Either the room starts out as yellow (yellow walls, yellow curtains) or the characters wear yellow. In many scenes there will be that overwhelming presence of yellow. In outdoor shots such as this one, color correction becomes evident as even the yelowness of the sun is exagerated to give the whole film a unified, magical realistic feel. This feel of surrealness is intended to make us understand that although this is the real world, weird, magical tings are stil going to take place.

Furthering the director's intent on creating a surreal world, there is the blend of reality and CG graphics. The personification and physical manifestation of Amélie's imagination serves as our bridge to magical realism. We undestand that anything can happen in this film and that weirder,, yet comedic things will also take place, furthering our interest in the movie, beconing us to continue to watch.


Another way the director destroys our reality is by breaking the 4th wall. Several times throughout the film, characters will break out of the story and adress the audience directly. Here it is the comatose neighbor who wakes up for a second to confirm Amélie's suspicions on why she is asleep. Also, by waking up, we are pulled into Amélie's psyche as she thinks it is possible for the neighbor to just wake up and fall right back asleep. This possiblity of the impossible happening continues to reinforce the idea that this is a magical realism film. Every stylistic element in this scene is meant to enhance the magical feel to the story. The curtains are even yellow in the background, as is the headrest.

One way the director adds humor to the story is by exploiting Amélie's quirks. First, he gives her some oddness about her like collecting stones, or wondering bizarre things (how many people are having an orgasm at that moment). Then he proceeds to show us couples having orgasms. The uncomfortableness of watching characters have orgasms is enough to draw a chuckle or an embarassed and uneasy smile, but then he takes us back to a close up of Amélie as she tells us the exact number of people having an orgasm at that moment. I feel that the director is intentionally trying to break the conventions of film making by introducing "inappropriate" material and resenting it in a comic light. He uses comedy as a form of filmic satire.

Treatment: Life's Playground

A harmonica plays in the background as we get a view of a neighborhood street with a park a few steps away. A narrator comments that “not all summer afternoons are filled with fun and freedom. Take it from me, I know from experience.” A kid is being picked on by 3 guys. Jared walks along the street and sees them.

Flashback to a scene where a little kid who looks like Jared is also being picked on in the same park. They are taunting him the same way that the older guys are taunting the kid Jared sees.
We return to the present and Jared starts walking over to the scene. The guys look up at him and the one who appears to be in charge comes forward, asking him what he wants.

Before the guy can finish his sentence, Jared takes a swing at him and knocks him to the ground. He looks briefly at him and then walks on to the next guy. He takes him out as well. He walks on to the last guy who’s holding the kid by the collar.

Jared grabs the guy’s wrist and wrenches his grip loose, punching him in the stomach. The guy collapses. He takes up the lead bully again and punches him in the face, sending him flying.

Flashback cuts in as the guy is flying to Jared-kid flying backwards. The bully is picking on a younger Jared. Time mixes and Jared is preying on his younger self. He realizes that something is amiss, but he continues to act out his role and pick on his younger self.

His younger self cries out “why won’t you leave me alone?” time flashes back to the past and a bully is standing where Jared was standing before. The bully advances on Jared-kid.

Time flashes back to the present and Jared crouches over the bully and places one hand on his throat and raises the other hand in a fist. The bully is struggling to breath.

We get an intense look of Jared’s eyes as he struggles with himself and we are taken back into a flashback.

The bullies are pinning Jared down and one of them is about to drool onto his face. He is trying desperately to free himself but he is unsuccessful.

Rapid cuts between past and present: the drool falling onto his face and Jared-older punching in the bullies face.

The screen is black and we hear the narrator’s voice along with the harmonica playing in the background. “Sometimes you have absolutely no control of those summer afternoons.”

The Jared is revealed sweeping the streets with a cop standing by, watching him. Jared is wearing handcuffs. There is a student reporter walking next to him with a pen and open notepad.

The voice comes back: “Actually, you always have control.” It becomes apparent that it is Jared’s voice. He speaks as he is sweeping the street. “Your choices affect what you do tomorrow. You got to think before you act, you know what I mean? The guy didn’t die nor nothing, but like, that didn’t matter to the judge you know? He said this wasn’t a game. Lemme tell you, when you’ve got three years of this ahead of you, you realize how easy it woulda been to not hit that guy.”

The screen fades to black with the sounds of the street still audible. The credits fade in and out. “It woulda been really easy, now that I think about it…”

-Fade-

The Dramatic Moment

I would have to say that in my short film, my character would be a high school guy, possibly a pretty big guy. I want him to be a guy because when i portray his confusion, I want it to almost have the feel of him having an anger management problem, but not quite. And i feel like if it would be a woman playing the part, it would be distasteful to the audience and would be a turn off.

My character is confused and conflicted. He wants an answer or some form of guidance but there is no one to help him, so he has to turn to himself and rely on his own judgment to make the right choice.

Should he choose to punch the bully's face in, he would ultimately corrupt his character and forever taint what he was doing through moral convictions. But on the flip side, if he refrains from giving in to the temptation, he rises above the challenge and crystalizes his morality and yet at the same time, breaks the cycle of violence he became entangled in.

When it comes to the dramatic moment itself, we have our main character, come upon a scene of bullying. He remembers how he was bullied and decides to continue to strive for vengence. But in this scene, he stumbles on another act of bullying, and this time, it's too much for him. He is about to deal a blow that will kill the bully and he is faced with the moral dilemma of either doing it or not. The dramatic moment should focus on his confliction. I think that I might want to introduce a parental figure that could have passed away, appear to him in his mind and discourage him from corrupting himself further.

I am debating whether or not to make this a tragic plot or not. If it ould be, I would like to include some allusion to the bible, how Jesus took upon himself the sins of humanity and was crucified to cleanse humanity. If not, I would like to allude to Lazarus's rise from the dead, as in our character's redemption.

Some things to consider... I'll be sure to post my approved treatment when I get it done.

Plots that Kill

A plot line I would like to take the time to look at is the Moral Plot.

This plot line is used by the movie Chinatown. In Chinatown, there is a morality tale that is being played out concerning corruption and its fluctuating presence in society. This film noir implements this plot line to conform to its genre conventions of social criticism. It also places emphasis on the main character's moral dilemma, not only being a PI, but having a bad reputation as a PI without the power of the police to stop evil.

When it comes to a story of my own, I was thinking about using a story that follows the tale of the cycle of violence and how to break it. A kid is picked on during his childhood and as soon as he becomes stronger during high-school, he decides to turn his new strength on the bullies, helping out other kids who are picked on, yet going overboard and almost killing them. This story will deal with the theme of the cycle of violence and I don't know if it will be a unique take on the plot, but it should be interesting. I'm going to try to focus profoundly on his inner turmoil and I haven’t decided yet whether or not to try to connect it to society as a whole, depending on how much time I have.

I definitely envision a high schooler, probably a big guy acting, with a little skinny kid acting as his younger self. I see the character as male because seeing a woman in this role will probably be a turnoff, seeing as violent women are generally discomforting to watch, especially if it looks like they have an anger problem.

I'd say my character is definitely dealing with trying to find a balance in his life. All in one moment, he is conflicted with taking the path of vengeance or the higher road. I want to try to capitalize on that emotion.

I still haven’t decided yet whether he will come out virtuous or not, but if he does, it will be saying that the cycle of violence can be broken and that people can learn to live with one another.

For now, the details of my plot are a little sketchy, but I do want to make my plot unique in some way that will have a twist at the end, and leave the audience with a feeling of emotional closeness, being saddened by my film's end.

Italian Neorealism

Ideological and thematic goals

They wanted to focus on the society as a whole, not the individual. Their emphasis was on solidarity and companionship and fraternity. These films were heavily anti-fascist and focused on the hardships of a post war Italy. They did not depict the high life or create glamorous stories. These we stories about the run of the mill Italian who was struggling to survive in increased poverty and unemployment. They tried to depict the harsh reality of life after WWII that many Italians were living. They all tried to show a criticism of the status quo and make people aware of what needs changing.

Unquestionably, their greatest single influence was the anti-Fascism that marked World War II's immediate postwar period

a focus on collectivity rather than the individual. Solidarity is important, along with an implicit criticism of the status quo

Historical context

It is post world war two and Italy is ravaged and destruction is everywhere. Allying themselves with the Nazis proved to their detriment and as such, they suffered penalties. Joblessness was everywhere. People who had jobs making weapons found themselves out of a job. The shift from agriculture to industry in order to support the war caused great scarcity in food and led to the starving of many Italians. Those who were not going hungry were poor. As for the industry, as soon as Mussolini fell, a great number of films came out, speaking out against fascism and criticizing the status quo. So in a way, world war two helped spark the neo-realist movement in Italy.

Cinematic techniques

The Italian neo-realism movement was also characterized by its cinematic techniques. The films from this era are usually made with a freehand, semi-documentary style. These films were only semi-documentary style because although they would do one continuous take, they would stage their actors, tweak the lighting, do takes over if there was a mistake. The directors would go outside on the streets and film the regular lives of the people. They would have largely unprofessional actors. These actors were not the typical Hollywood stars, but people from the street. Also, because they would try to film the lives of people, yet be as real as possible, most of the filming was done in well lit locations because the cameras of the day could not work well in low light, and they tried to stay away as much as possible from artificially lighting the scene.

Key contributors

One of the key contributors was Luchino Visconti. His La Terra Trema was a lot more documentary style than most of the other neorealist films of the time. He also directed Bellissima, a film about the struggle of a modest Roman Family. Roberto Rossellini also contributed several films such as Roma: Citta aperta, Paisa, and Germania anno zero. Victorio De Sica brought to the collection films such as Sciuscia, and Ladri de Biciclette. His masterpiece, Umberto D., is heralded as the best film that came out of this movement. But more on that later.

Key films

La Terra Trema: This film, set in Sicily, is about a family that uses its entire life savings to buy a fishing boat so that they can survive on that fishing. This movie uses very little audio and focuses on the stark and depressing reality of this family losing its only means of survival.

Ladri de Biciclette: This film focuses on the struggle of a father trying to provide for his family. His bicycle, his source of income, is stolen and in desperation he is forced to steal a bike of his own. This film tries less to focus on the documentary style of the movement, and uses a more staged approach to portray how one moral conflict leads to another as soon as its resolved. This is characterized by some as the one true communist film of the era for its emphasis on solidarity on the community rather than the individual.

Umberto D.: This film was shot entirely in the studio. There is no real plot in this movie. It simply describes the toil of late-life poverty. The main character is a pensioner and is played by a professor. The cast is almost entirely nonprofessional, especially the main character. This story diverges slightly from the neo-realist emphasis on solidarity by focus partially on Umberto’s personal struggle to maintain his independence and identity. But it also stays true to the principles by showing that he is not alone in this struggle. The film also shows many other pensioners in the same struggle. It is ultimately the most depictive out of all the Italian neo-realist films of the simply complex lives of the masses because not only does it focus on the struggles of the community, but also provides a concrete example in the form of Umberto, and in turn uses Umberto reciprocally as a smaller version of the greater struggle.

The Cabbie: Analysis

So from this film festival that vimeo is hosting, Beyond the Still, I found another one of Laforet's movies. The Cabbie. Decidedly better produced than its sequel, Wrong Place, Wrong Time, I took some time here to analyze three shots in the movie to discuss characterization, conflict, and resolution.

Characterization: in this shot, several things can be said about this man. He is a cab driver, his clothes and the time of day he is stuck working suggest he is poor. Him cleaning off the bear shows his intention to take it somewhere, home possibly. And if we assume he's taking it home, we assume he has a young daughter. So pretty much, with this one shot, we learn about his socio-economic and familial background. And again, I imagine there isn't too much light so the camera's lowlight capabilities come in handy here.

Climax: The key in the foreground here is classic. And the rack focus brings importance to it and lets us know that this is the climax. In this shot, we're thinking about how the girl is in awe at finding this cool treasure in her teddt bear. We're wondering what the key could be for? Why was it in a stuffed bear? Our immediate suspicions bring us to the conclusion that its for something important, something way bigger than a cabbie and his daughter. Then we flash back to the initial shot. It was dropped at the airport, a place big business leaders and spies and mafia members use a lot. Our suspicions are confirmed immediately with the next shot, but this still serves as the climax to the story.

Resolution: The last shot in the scene is the resolution. Here we are revealed a chest and are led to assume that the key the girl just found opens this chest. Something is moving inside it and we can hear grunts, human grunts. The camera slowly dollies away and we are revealed the location on the chest, an abandoned warehouse somewhere. Our minds go crazy with thoughts, all characteristic of this type of cliffhanger. Who, or what, is in there? Will the key find its way there to save whatevers in the chest? If so, how? Is the cabbie going to have a role in all of this? What organization or criminal did this? Is this even a crime? Who are we dealing with here?

And there you have it, just a quick look at Laforet's film, The Cabbie.