A Very Long Engagement
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Movie Reviews of A Very Long Engagement
Movie Review: The dream duo from Amélie does it again!
Summary: 5 Stars
A Very Long Engagement is based on the novel by Sébastien Japrisot, and follows a spunky Breton girl crippled by polio, Mathilde (played by the luminous Audrey Tautou from Amélie) as she searches for her fiancé, who was supposedly executed for treason during WWI. Several of the cast and crew from Amélie reappear, including Ticky Holgado, who plays an oily private detective, director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, whose rich colors saturate and bring to life bygone eras with ease. There are some similarities to Amélie: Mathilde says to herself, "If I reach the bend in the road before the car, Manech will come home alive," and other such similar incantations in an effort to stave off bad luck.
The story switches between Mathilde's quest for the truth as she infiltrates military archives, tracks down wives of the other soldiers executed for self-mutilation, and struggles to maintain hope that her fiancé Manech (the charmingly boyish Gaspard Ulliel) somehow survived the brutal punishment of being tossed into No Man's Land and left to fend for himself, and Manech's experiences in the horrific front line trenches filled with mud, rats, and corpses, constant shellings, and the spectre of death that stalks them. We see men blown apart into shockingly vibrant confetti, stabbings by bayonet, murders, and the darkest sides of humanity that war brings out in people. There are a confusing number of characters, particularly in the trenches, but Jeunet makes an effort to develop distinct personalities for each since they all have similar appearances.
One highlight is Jodie Foster as the Polish wife of one of the officers in Manech's company. Jodie was fluent in French by the age of fourteen, and does all her own voiceovers in French editions of her films, so it was a charming surprise to see her delightful character here.
Beautiful on-location scenery in Brittany (Finistère), Paris, and the countryside, a lush soundtrack, vibrant cinematography, eye-popping visual effects, and a luminous optimism for life in the midst of the horrors of war, A Very Long Engagement is sure to delight fans of Amélie, WWI buffs, and lovers of romance alike.
The bonus DVD includes segments on how the film's incredible visual effects were accomplished, a documentary of Paris in the 1920s, deleted scenes with director's commentary, and a making of featurette.
Rated R for graphic violence, sex, and nudity.
Movie Review: "Je ne sais quoi...."
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't exactly know how to describe it, but "A Very Long Engagement" is a magnificent visual essay on love, beauty, tragedy, hopelessness, and hope. Watching this movie is a powerful experience that touches all of the senses. Its worth watching several times so that you can take in all of the stunning visual beauty, the subtleties in the dialogue, the performances, and the gorgeous settings.
Its a the wonderful example of art and expression that touches the heart, representing so much of what is beautiful about french films. Most of the films produced in the country of my birth (USA) are big budget, insensitive, and superficial displays of brute force and celebrity. I'll admit, it took a second viewing for this ugly american to make sense of some of the scenes, limited by the english subtitles and my eight grade french.
There are so many things to say, and most of it has been said by others much better than I can. Here are my highlights:
1.) Love and loyalty. The young woman so touched by the love of the young man (had she thought her polio made her unlovable?), that she refuses, over a period of several years, to give up on a relationship based only on a few wonderful days.
2.) Audrey Tautou: Most beautiful women are usually described as visually stunning. Tautou must be one of the most beautifully feminine females in cinema, not because of how she looks, but what she is. Voice, movement, attitude, expressions, strength, vulnerability, emotions, etc., she is beautiful to watch - even if she didn't have those incredible eyes.
3.) The ending in the garden - saying so much, and saying so little. So graceful, so wonderful, so disappointing. What has happened to these two young people? What will happen to them?
4.) The seemly random hand of fate, chance, and cruelty. The unspeakable horror of WWI. The most beautiful and the most ugly of human behavior, side by side, each making the other look more extreme.
Yeah, its long. You have to pay attention, and at some points it's difficult to tell some of the young male actors apart from each other. In the end, however, I was thankful to be able to absorb at least some of what this film has to offer. With the exception perhaps of only the odd title ("A Very Long Engagement"), it was entirely magnificent. "Enchantee!"
Movie Review: A suspenseful movie with wonderful cinematography
Summary: 5 Stars
Of the two world wars, the first one caught my attention due to the absurdity of the trench warfare and the lack of clear evil on either side. A Very Long Engagement is the story of Mathilde's search for her lost fiancé who disappeared in the war. It is a love story for all the soldiers who left behind fiancé's, wives and loved ones. The novel by Sebastien Japriosot, read many years ago, didn't leave much of an impression on me but something about the gorgeous cinematography and pacing of the film did.
Almost like an afterthought, A Very Long Engagement portrays trench warfare more effectively than any film I can remember, except perhaps All Quiet on the Western Front. Sentimental family reunions, the reading of letters, everyday conversations, pull us into scenes of brutality on the front. When an old war hero arrives at Mathilde's house to recount a tale of the war, his suspenseful story is intercut with a visual representation of the actual events. Mathilde is shocked by his story, but the soldier is not finished and goes on to say, "what happened next was even worse . . ."
The investigative pace of the film will please anyone who appreciates a mystery. The ridiculously named Bingo Crépuscule, where the main events take place, is visited repeatedly from the perspective of various soldiers. The fate of Mathilde's fiancé is revealed through acts of bravery and betrayal. The motif of MMM (Mathilde marries Manech) works nicely at several plot turns.
I liked the fact that the film never lingers on tragedy, humor, love, memory or present moment too long. All these emotional scenes are shuffled together rather quickly, leaving only the clear line of the "wire" to hold on to. This feels like a more realistic approximation of what these characters must be going through and preserves a lightness of tone.
A Very Long Engagement has a rich look to it and high production values. Saturated shots of the French countryside are contrasted with the grays and blues of the trench or the polished look of Paris.
Other startling scenes include a silent-film style French Guillotine execution, a meeting between Mathilde and a woman on a parallel path, and a view through the trenches while soldiers arm their bayonets.
Movie Review: a fine bottle of smooth wine
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie has become one of my very favorite movies. I have watched it four times and every time I get something new from it. Each time my heart swells with admiration at this perfect example of the film makers art. It is a joy to watch.
Where to begin to describe its virtues? The scrupulously accurate sets, circa 1917? The magnificent vistas, whether the Brittany coast or the trenches of northern France? The attention to detail: the wagons & autos on the Place de l'Opéra; the one man shelters dug into the side of the trench; the broken Christ and Cross in the opening shot and the later reference to a church?
Depth of meaning? "Bingo Crepuscule". Before the War 'Bingo' was the nickname for the French national lottery.
'Crepuscule' is French for "twilight". Twilight: the 'no-man's-land' between the warring sides. War? What is war but a national lottery of life and death? The draft is even conducted by chance by pulling numbers at random......and you need five numbers to get 'bingo'....... ......"Bingo Crepuscule".....
Which brings us to why you can watch this film several times: there is absolutely nothing wasted in this film. Every piece of information the film maker gives you is needed. Tuck it into your sleeve, you'll need it later. Example? The tuba: sometimes Matilda plays a distress call, sometimes music...... but.... do you note when she plays what? It's not at random.
The acting? Ah, the acting, such an evenness of excellence, it is like fine smooth wine. You're not even aware how good it is, it goes down so easily - every actor, every part; great and small.
Even the small little dramas are deftly done, like mini operas: the whore killing the fat man or the man in the tunnel. Ah, and how well all the little dramas are so skillfully woven into the fabric of the larger drama!
Even the sound track gives important information: it wasn't until the third time I watched it that I realized the metallic 'thunk' was a dud bomb.... which drove a character into a basement beneath a church....(remember the wheat field)......
There are so many little jewels in this film. It is a true pleasure to watch.....again and again.......each time you come back a little richer.
Movie Review: A great artistic film!
Summary: 5 Stars
Once more the French fertile imagination decides to make a real punch demostration of superb good taste and charm picture, get its goals without apparent effort. The dinamism and engaging script won't let you down. You will face and be part of this sensible drama in search for a love in the middle of the First War. Pierre Jeunet employs the War only as a big frame to tell us a love story and the inexhaustive hope that feeds the soul of Audrey Tautoo, a twenty years old girl who never gives up for his love's life. She suffered of polio in her early childhood but that is not any obstacle to prevail in what she believes.
The script is real web that will involve several secondary stories but the whole ensamble is conceived as a huge watch mechanism, so well articulated and filled of intelligent doses of black humor all the way.
Andre Dussollier, Jodie Foster, Dominique Pinon and all the cast is simply outstanding. The crude war sequences are admirably well filmed, loaded with intense realism and profound humanity before any other circumstance. Jeunet does not judge, he just only watchs and presents the kindness and the abominable horror of certain human beings not only in the War but far beyond the War field. The destroyed indult letter of Poincaré that never came, will work as a complex fixed idea of revenge because the life of these five men will be narrowed linked.
If you like the artistic films, if you want to enjoy of a whole film, without fissures that face you with the reality of those years you will enjoy this one. No doubt just a second and go for this artwork.
Nowadays the lovely, funny and expresive face of Audrey Tautoo. Jeune as Stanley Donen with the other Audrey, and at least fifty million people in the world are simply bewitched with her charisma and outstanding presence. Undoubtedly she would seem to fill the long long time expected emptiness left by the other Audrey, at last.
Pierre Jeunet's handle camera is just equalled by Terry Gilliam in what rapture travellings and close up concern.
A must in your collection.