A Very Long Engagement (Un Long Dimanche De Fiançailles)

[Chevalier Bayard]

Today I've seen with Nau, the new movie from one of my favourite directors : Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Un Long Dimanche De Fiançailles (international title = A Very Long Engagement)



After the hudge success of Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain (topic to be released soon ) 3 years ago, Jean-Pierre Jeunet is finally back with again Audrey Tautou playing the main character of the movie



She plays Mathilde, a young woman in 1919 whose fiancé, Manech (Gaspard Ulliel), has been declared "dead on the front" during World War I. But Mathilde doesn't want to believe her fiancé is dead as she knows in her heart that her lover is alive.

She then starts to investigate about the official circumstances of Manech's death to know the truth, hopping that she will find an answer to her foolish hope.



She learns very soon that to escape the madness of the war and get back to her sooner, Manech managed to get his hand shot.

For this he had been sentenced to Death by a martial court for voluntary auto-mutilation and forced with four other condamned to leave the security of a trench named Bingo Crépuscule for an hopeless position in the no man's land between Bingo Crépuscule and the german trench.

From a version to another one of the same story Mathilde, little by little, solves the puzzle and goes further in her quest for the truth.



This movie was quite unexpected from Jean-Pierre Jeunet as it's, for once, not a story full of fantasy but a movie anchored in the awfull reality of War.

The story indeed allows Jean-Pierre Jeunet to show us the horror of "la sale guerre" (the dirty war), the World War I, during which millions of people have died in never-ending trench warfares where officers used to execute all the soldiers who didn't want to fight, letting them the choice to be executed by the enemy or by their officers...

The war scenes are really impressive and emotional. Jean-Pierre Jeunet appears to be as good when he takes us to a ride in the too real nightmare of war as when he invited us in lands of dreams and fantasy like in The City Of Lost Children or Amélie.



But even if it is very different from his former movies Un Long Dimanche De Fiançailles is for sure a movie directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

We find again in this movie some incredible pictures including close shots of the actors or great travelling. We find back also Jean-Pierre Jeunet's very special way to tell stories with incrustations of a pic in another one or the use of a narrator voice.

Even if the story is quite hard emotionnaly speaking, we find again in this movie some very funny scenes Jean-Pierre Jeunet masters. The humour is never far especially thanks to the characters who are all very well written.

We find also, as in all Jean-Pierre Jeunet's movies, actors giving their best. The "usual cast of Jean-Pierre Jeunet" is in this movie including Dominique Pinon, Ticky Holgado (who sadely won't be in the next movies as he died on january 22th of a lung cancer ), Jean-Claude Dreyfuss, and so on...

But this group is joined by other very talented actors like Marion Cotillard (you could have seen in the 3 Taxi or in Big Fish), André Dussolier (Agents Secrets but not totally "new" as he was already the narrator in Amélie), Jean-Pierre Darroussin (Family Ressemblance), Albert Dupontel (Cashtruck), Clovis Cornillac (Mensonges et Trahison), Jean-Paul Rouve and Julie Depardieu (Podium)... and many others including, last but not least, the amazing Jodie Foster who after a 2 years absence comes back on our screens, using for once her perfect french



So in this movie you've got incredible pictures from one of the most talented directors and best storyteller of the moment. You've got also an incredible casting giving its best playing very rich characters.

Clearly, this movie is a must see and its dvd will be a must have (I do have all his movies yet)

The movie takes 2 hours and a quarter and I haven't seen the time goes by at all. 8)

Though I would have prefered that Jean-Pierre Jeunet drives me again in a land of fairy tales he masters so well. On one hand I'm happy to see he is not prisonner of one genre, ... on the other ... I'm also a little bit disapointed and that is what is preventing me to give this movie a 6/6 ...

But ... I can't give it less than a hudge 5/6 and invite you all to see it if you ever have the opportunity to do so.

PS: Albie !!! There are albatrosses in this movie!!

Chevvie

[Black Widow]

Actually Chev, I think the story takes place in 1920, not 1919 (because Mathilde is 20, and she was born in 1900). :blush:


I've seen it yesterday too.
Jeunet is brilliant, as always. the pictures are beautiful, the actors perfect, and there's Angelo Badalementi (faithfull composer of David Lynch) for the score. therefore I don't see any reason not to see this movie.
some will say Mathilde looks very much like Amelie (not only because of Audrey Tautou), well it's normal: Jeunet created Amelie from the book this movie is based on.

I liked it but I didn't really get involved emotionnally (even if I cried a little bit). still a good movie. Jeunet has so much talent.
I give it 4/6 (but I think more 4,5)

[Chevalier Bayard]

No no the story does take place in 1919

Just check the official website.

About Angelo Badalementi indeed I was very pleased to see his name appearing but finally I found the score very "classic".

It serves well the movie but does not add more value, unlike the brilliant score Angelo Badalementi had done for The City of Lost Children, his first cooperation with Jeunet.

For our non french speaking friends around, I've just found a tiny but english trailer HERE and there is a page for the movie at Warner Independantwhere, I hope, we'll find a real large trailer soon

[Nau of Sands]

i think it deserves a 5

i found the picture was rather emotional

what prevents me from putting a 6 is rather the feeling Jeunet reduces all the stories he can tell to his own universe,

whatever he depicts : a fictionnal Montmartre in the 90's, or a science fiction butcher, or the first world war, or alien without predator but with our holy queen, or an island with kidnapped children,

the mood of his universe is always the same, beautiful, generous, but a bit childish as well

I got the feeling that I open one of those old music boxes for children when i see a Jeunet's movie. It s a toy that invites you to a magical journey, but it remains a toy, and once you close it, you forget it.

Incredibly beautiful pictures indeed, amazing actors. I have to watch it again.

[Albatross]

Really enjoyed this film, was well directed (not that I doubted that it would be, since I've liked the Jeunet films I've seen) and had great visuals.

Can't quite give it a 5, simply because some of the captions were a little too fast, given how much information was being said and how many names kept cropping up... I should really stop watching these subtitled films late at night when i'm tired I guess, but there you go...

4.9/6