A Very Long Engagement (2004)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Truly Dreadful Film

People are voting emotionally.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

a rare film. for the soft images and delicate acting. for the theme of love in war time and the manner to do it different but other illustrations of same subject. for a splendid chemistry between the lead actors and for the mix between story, colors and the flavor of fairy tale. Audrey Tatou does an admirable job. not only for the magic realism of the trip of Mathilde but for the force of silence. short, a kind of oasis. for ball of memories, emotions and challenges. for romanticism. and for the precise delicacy of a story about the essence of each war - the small lives of ordinary people and theirs dedication to discover the truth. sure, the theme is far to be new. but Jeunet gives to it the right tone, colors and actors.

A very long Engagement Review MMM Audience, film-lovers, connoisseurs of war films and probably yourself are used to bloody dark scenes where soldiers cry out of despair discovering their body torn apart. But this was just before A Very Long Engagement released on October 27th 2004. This film brings a new life to war on screen. Adapted from the French novel equivalent of "A very long engagement" in English by Sébastien Japrisot, the French movie maker Jean-Pierre Jeunet brings a new perspective to the brutality of war by turning it into a kind of complicated dramatic detective story and romance full of hope and strangeness that is the love story between Mathilde and Manech. This touching film tells the story of Mathilde: Audrey Tautou a young woman tirelessly searching for her fiancé Manech: Gaspard Ulliel sent the trenches of the Somme during World War One. These two out of time persons are in love since their earliest childhood. Together, they were strong and able to face the world as the scene of the lighthouse shows it. But suddenly, war appeared and put an end to the innocent and blissful love story. I stop you abruptly; I can hear when you say "Oh this is nothing but a love story, a dud for young girl". Well, I admit that thrill seekers would probably be disappointed with A Very Long Engagement and even never watch it seeing the title! Let's speak about it: the title! I think that thanks to this title the audience is in the know that they mustn't expect disembowel soldiers like in Saving Private Ryan,without criticize this excellent film of course. Anyway, I thank dear Jean-Pierre Jeunet for having kept the original title. Yet, detective story-lovers will also get their share. The fact that it is filmed from Mathilde's point of view bothers and obscures the audience. Is Manech still alive or not? From the bottom of your seat you will try to understand as well as Mathilde, clues given to her. Complex characters such as the private detective named Pire : Ticky Holgado, the French prostitute Tina Lombardi :Marion Cotillard or Elodie Gordes :Jodie Foster bring different points of view which can let the audience think that each character is a liar and show the wrong way to Mathilde in her quest but actually they are not, they just tell it how they saw it. All along the film, Mathilde knows deep in her heart that if Manech dies she will know it and through her eyes, her lover is eternal because he lives thanks to her endless love. She tries to convince herself and never stops hoping. She embodies innocence of love as two quotes show it: Mathilde: peeling an apple "If I don't break the peel, Manech is alive""If I reach the bend before the car, Manech will come back alive" Beyond this love story, the film denounces the absurdity of war especially through Manech and his fellows portrayed at war. Rouvières: "A Trench named Bingo Crepuscule? Why not Youppie Tralala?" A Small slab of humor eases the hardness of being stuck in a battlefield. Thanks to Jean-Pierre Jeunet's intertwined qualities neither the horrific images of war nor the love story itself dominates over the other. The complementarity between the two makes the excellence and success of this film. The entire movie could be summed up by this beautiful sentence that Manech says to Mathilde which is punctuated by this alliteration in "m": "Manech M Mathilde, Mathilde M Manech" Nothing and no-one could change it.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet's epic tale of love amidst the backdrop of The Great War is terribly sad, empty, loving and heartfelt all simultaneously. It captures exquisitely what it might have been like to be among the unspeakable carnage and destruction which characterized the trench warfare of the war as well as tells a thoroughly engaging and brightly acted love story about a determined young woman searching and hoping that her fiancée remains alive after the war.Audrey Tautou, perhaps the closest actress alive who resembles Audrey Hepburn in both looks and personality, plays Mathilde, a polio-stricken orphan living in the French countryside with her aunt and uncle holding on to the belief that her lover, thin and fresh-faced Manech, will return to her from the war. Jeunet cuts swiftly between her tale which she narrates and that of another woman in search of her lost love. This second female is played by Marion Cotillard in a brilliant performance filled with both intense passion and longing sadness. In many ways, her character sits at the crossroads which this movie places itself at. The intention of looking to intensely at the destruction of the Great War and the long-term effects it had on society is summarized in her actions, which are grotesque and yet strangely understandable.Tautou carries the film mostly but Jeunet's direction is impeccable. The cinematography is gorgeous in its widescreen landscapes depicting both the heavenly countryside and the hellish warfield as accurately as possible. The narrative structure is free-flowing and engaging, leaving us to pick up the pieces along with Tautou as she searches. Anyone interested in early twentieth century history should see this film for its accurate and bold look at how one war changed the course of the humanity's future while everyone else should see it for its visual strength, bold narrative, breathtaking acting and themes as universal as the events it depicts. This is truly a modern classic.

I'm pretty hard to please when it comes to film so I am so pleased that French cinema exists. I just can't even watch Hollywood films anymore. They are even contriving 'indie' films now, and the soul has been relentlessly driven out of everything that issues forth so that the best of it is just not too trite and sentimental. When a French film is sentimental it actually brings tears to your eyes. This film is about a lot of things; the imagined innocence of childhood; the reality of growing up; the kindness of strangers; the tragedy and pain of happiness ripped away. We peep over the shoulder of our protagonist, praying for her hopes to be realised but wanting to say to her 'I'm sorry my little one, so sorry ,but life must go on' In the midst of it all, the barbarity and corruption of War-its utter pointlessness and criminality. We see the damage it does to all the humans involved; there are no heroes involved, just real human lives being torn to shreds. And what else? Ah yes. Poignancy, humour and life.