Amelie (Cinematography)

First let's start by differentiating cinematography from art direction, at least along my lines; and by "my lines" I mean the red line. I see art direction as a mostly "in front of the red line" gig, and cinematography as nearly strictly behind. Cinematography, for me, consists of camerawork (angles, shot composition, camera motion etc., and post-visual (coloring, etc.)
I'll start with shot composition.
The visual story of this film dealt very heavily with faces; it seemed like every few minutes if not more frequently there was a tight and near-centered one shot of some one's face as they reacted to something. Tight shots like this are usually designed to focus blatant attention on things, reacting faces in this case. These "little things" are a huge focus in the movie and pointed out ever so bluntly in these shots.
I was also particularly intrigued by the shot in Amelie's father's garden, with the gnome.
There are many cases in the movie where the camera seems diminutive to the subject, but none so noticeable to me as in this shot. It strikes me like something out of the lord of the rings, when the fellowship assembles for the first time. The humans both kneeling, rooting in the dirt at his feet and the gnome stands proud and tall above them (or at least it looks that way.) This could be in reference to the change he will eventually inspire in his owner, or simply an indication of how boring and pitifully mundane amelie and her father feel at the moment, while the gnome is enjoying his first freedom in years (he'd been cooped up in the shed forever.)
There is a big contrast in this piece in concern to camera motion. Often it's slow and easy, comfortable if you will. This is ideal for highlighting the "simple things" theme. But often the camera moves quite fast, even (while on the train) nauseatingly fast and jumpy. This is, to me anyway, just another little 4th wall breech that brings you back into the realization that this is "just a story," so don't get too worked up over it. While the Amelie herself often looks directly into camera as if to chuckle at an inside joke she has with the audience, this bit of out of place camera work makes the more astute observer say "what the hell was that?" Almost like the cinematographer is playing with us, saying "I like the way your head bobs around on the cross-town train." or "we know she's got the key, but that mean old grocery store owner never will, will he?"
Now to post production go we.
And I will admit that this is a fudged line, but I think coloring in post is really a cinematographer's job over an art director. It's his/her shot, he/she should have complete control over how it looks.
This is a very colorful movie, but not like fireworks are colorful, or flowers are colorful. The colors in this movie are very subdued, or mellowed; almost as if there is no such thing as pure white. Almost like the camera is wearing sunglasses. I guess this could suggest the more relaxed attitude the film puts forth, but I'd be lying if I said I really solidly believed that.
Also many of the character's homes seem to have characteristic colors. Red for Amelie, green for the grocer, orange-ish for the landlady. I'm sure this relates to their personalities, and If I really wanted to I'm sure that site you showed us last week would tell me all about it.
There's my observations on cinematography in Amelie, or at least what I've got for now.