"Amelie" et "Chocolat"

Jean-Pierre Jeunet's 2001 film, "Amelie", differs drastically from the 1988 film "Chocolat" from director Claire Denis in drastically different ways, one of which is the setting. "Amelie" tells the story of a young girl in Paris named Amelie, who grows up to become a waitress. She finds a small trinket box in her flat and when she goes out to search for its owner and finds him, Dominique Bredoteau, she is overcome with joy. The bright vivacity of the colors in Amelie reflect her demeanor, one of bright, bubbly vivaciousness and the setting of Paris, a high fashion, high energy, hustle and bustle city, reflects Amelie's high energy as she seeks out to commit other good deeds for people, hoping they will be touched. The bright, flashy colors used by Jeunet seem to bounce off the screen as Amelie bounces all over town trying to find Bredoteau to return his trinket box and to return Nino's photo album.
The high energy and bright colors of "Amelie" present a stark contrast to Denis' "Chocolat". Cameroon is the setting for this fictional drama. Throughout the film, the camera pans a landscape of vast African plain speckled with lifelessness. The trees with their wistful brown trunks and branches and the dry yellow gold of the plain itself reflect this, as does the pallor of the sky seem to wash out the shot. The inactivity and staleness of these colors reflect what is happening in the film, which does not have a lot going on in its plot. France, a young girl lives with her frequently absent father and mother at a colonial outpost, and she befriends Protee, the family servant. The plot of this film does not develop much more than this; France's father tries to repair their plane and they finally leave the post.
The settings of "Amelie" and "Chocolat" both reflect successfully the plots of each film and create moods that spill from the screen and into the minds of spectators. Amelie's bright, bubbly demeanor is well-captured in the bright colors and swift movements of the camera where as the staticness of the plot and slow pans of the camera reflect the activity of the plot and both exude a mood from their spectators; Amelie's is warm lighthearted, ambitious and bubbly and Chocolat's is drab and dull and somnolent.