Sound/music

The sound in the opening is a rather important feature in this opening. As mentioned in a previous posts, there is a song composed by Yann Tiersen playing at most times. Tiersen composed all the songs for this film so they all fit the movies aesthetic and mood (more fast music when dramatic things are happening, slow music when  more calm events are unfolding).The music is instrumental so it doesn't detract from the narration or what the actors are doing in the film. This type of music appeals to the French viewer because it is familiar and aids to the nostalgic feel (it may be similar to music from their childhood). Other viewers who watch with subtitles will like this music because it is so obviously 'french' and completes their foreign film experience.

 The music in the first short scene before the credits is more violin heavy than than the song playing in the credits, and it is played at a lower volume. The means it doesn't detract from the narration and the diagetic noise in the scene, which has been heightened. The diagetic noise has been heightened to enhance the idea that small things can change a persons life/fate in the long term. Because the diagetic noise is usually barely noticeable, you notice it a lot more and it shifts perception of what is happening (like when that bug gets ran over, you feel a bit sorry for it). As the song builds intensity by getting faster and adding more instruments to the work, it makes you excited for what is coming next, before it stops almost anti-climatically.

There is a shift in the music after the short narrated shots as the music becomes more focused in a montage type scene. The narration stops and the music becomes more piano based as the credits come up. This makes the viewer pay more attention to the introduction of Amelies character and what she is doing. Diagetic sound is still used, but it is less heightened than in the previous scene. This may be because when Amelie is playing she doesn't think too much about what she is doing and gets lost in a safe fantasy world so the sounds are less important. The music composed by Tiersen fits with this fantasty ideal well. The violins/accordian/piano group are written to be rather whimsical and this works with the idea that Amelie is still safe inside her childhood fantasy world even though she is now an adult (the scene with the soccer game on the roof, and the sabotage of Collignon are parrallels in this sense also). 


This music with violin is quite whimsical and that aids the idea of a fantasy world being created. Later on you in the film it is revealed that Amelie creates this world because here childhood is quite closeted, and this is how she copes. But before you know this fact, you just think she is a little girl who is off-with-the-fairies while playing listening to some pretty sounding music.