Eyes Wide Open

Amélie is like a French graphic novel come to life. All the scenes drip with color. You know how every film these days is orange and blue? Well, Amélie comes close with its orange and green color palette, but it's all so warm and welcoming that we don't care.

Because the scenery is so beautiful—to say nothing of the attractive cast—Jean-Pierre Jeunet shot the film with an array of wide-angle lenses, often using different size lenses depending on each actor's face (source).

Finally, Jeunet enhances certain scenes with cutting-edge (for 2001) special effects (source), like when Amélie's animal paintings and pig lamp have a conversation, or when, as a girl, she imagines that the clouds look like animals.

All of these tricks combine to create a world both realistic and whimsical, which is the perfect fit for Amélie, who finds magic in the world every single day.