In the opening scene of Amelie, all the props that were used served a similar purpose. They showed her innocence as a child and her imagination. As the movie progresses, it is shown that Amelie was very lonely being home schooled and had tuff parents. The only friends she really had were her fish and her imaginated friends. The props in the opening credits such as the paper cut outs, the coin spinning, and the sound coming from the top of the class showed that all of her fun came from her imagination. This plays into our class discussion of Mise en Scéne. During the opening scene, there wasn’t much dialogue between the characters. Instead, most of story was told by the actions of the characters and the props they used.
I agree and think the props in the beginning scene played a very vital role to the opening. Each prop is a representation of childhood and innocence which Amelie clearly struggles with throughout the movie because she is constantly alone and lacks the kind of affection a young child needs when growing up.
The props Amelie plays with also are not typical toys for children. Although many children have put raspberries on their fingers, in no way are they considered entertainment for children. When she spins the coin, and tries to stop it, again she is just being creative with what she has. She then plays with a stethoscope, also not considered to be a common childhood toy. Amelie is very imaginative but I wonder if that is how she is or if this imagination was forced upon her due to the lack of love and fun parenting she gets?
In addition, the filmmakers chose to make her only friend her pet fish. A fish is arguably the most distant and impersonal animal one can have as a pet, and yet Amelie has such an intense relationship with it that she screams when it jumps out of the tank, and does not stop until her parents scramble to rescue it. This relationship shows how desperate she is for a companion, that she would become attached to a fish. Still, her mother places her own nerves over her daughter’s loneliness, and gets rid of the fish. This shows that Amelie’s parents are not only detached, but also do not care for Amelie in a usual loving parental way.