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A
Very Long Engagement
Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet
based on Sebastien Japrisot's novel
Starring
Audrey Tautou- Gaspard Ulliel
Jean-Pierre
Becker - Dominique Bettenfeld
Clovis Cornillac - Marion Cotillard
Jean-Pierre Darroussin - Dominique Pinon
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Jeunet
has long delighted audiences with his idiosyncratic films.
From Delicatessan, to City of Lost Children and
Amelie, he likes to surprise, delight and astonish
us. Repeatedly. For my money, I still revere Delicatessan
for it's bleak view of humanity and wonderful, farcical
treatment of a very hungry underground movement. Now, fourteen
years later, Jeunet has grown up. Although he has ditched
his longtime partner Marc Caro after the critical negativity
of City of Lost Children, there is still the trademark
cinematic style of voiceover, eclectic montages and unique
perspectives that catch one off guard larded with a stubborn
streak of sentimentality. This is the first film of his
that is adapted from a novel and perhaps that has provided
the restraint that A Very Long Engagement shows.
You can see that he wants to give us a Jeunet movie, but
there is a straighjacket here that forces a determined narrative
line and keeps his exhuberance in check.
Simply
told, it is the story of childhood sweethearts Mathilde
and Manech, seperated by the First World War and although
Manech, her sweetheart is killed (by being abandoned between
the lines because he mutilated himself) she refuses to believe
he is dead. There is no proof, but despite all telling her
she is wasting her time, she clings to a dream; she believes
and searches incessantly for 'signs'.
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Mathilde,
played with stoic charm by the lovely Audrey Tautou,
is also a polio victim. This isn't all sugar and spice.
She perhaps is obsessed because she believes, despite
her pretty face, no other man other than Manech will
have her. Manech, we discover, is a simple soul who
should never have gone to war. His fellow sufferers
are all seen as traitors, each having mutlilated themselves
to get out of this crazy war that killed millions of
men. All of them left in no man's land to die. The war
by 1917 having consumed almost all the young men of
France, now needed the skilled men, almost anyone, including
criminals for canon fodder. (1.3 million Frenchmen died
between 1914-1918). |
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explores the plight of these men and ordinary soldiers
in the sodden trenches of France and Belgium. He doesn't
flinch from reality and there is nothing sweet or charming
about the death of a soldier being exploded, or losing
limbs, or having to go over the top to sure, absolute
pointless deaths. This may have been a war that the
Allies, including France won, but the cost to humanity
was appalling and shattered a whole generation. It is
good to see too that not everyone was brave and showing
how the mutilations went on might upset those who glorify
war, but even now , in Iraq, I am sure, we will have
soldiers seeking to find a way home and out of the insanity
of fighting terrorism there. Who can really blame them.
But in France they were not volunteers. |
Machech abandoned in No Man's Land
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Audrey
Tautou is wonderful, determined and ably guided by her Uncle
Sylvain (Domininque Pinon), a stalwart of all Jeunet's films.
He is rather subdued here, but this isn't his film, it is
Audrey's. She is obsessed to find the truth about what happened
in no man's land and will not rest until she finds Manech.
She seeks help from her trustees in Paris, hires a Detective
to find others who might have known him and each day she
awaits the arrival of the Postman ( a nice little turn by
Jean Paul Rouve).
There
are setbacks, subplots to do with another woman, Tina Lombardi,
played by (Marion Cotillard), a prostitute who seeks revenge
for her man who was abandoned with Manech. She tracks down
the guilty who condemned him to die, one by one, and kills
them. If anything Tina's story is the more interesting one,
but we are with Mathilde's journey of hope and despair and
must take comfort from that.
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The
cinematogrphy in sepia tones by Bruno Delbonnel is wonderful,
the absolutely stunning CGI recreations of Paris in
1920, complete with traffic is breathtaking. Turning
the Musee d'Orsay back in a station thrilling. |
Surpises
turn up, Jodie Foster working on a market stall is Elodie,
a woman married to one of the men Manech allegedly died
with, who has a 'secret'. Elina Lowensohn (from Hal Hartely's
Amateur) turns up in a cake shop. She too knows a
'secret'. Denis Lavant, not seen in the UK for years is
one of the mutilated soldiers.
The talent in sound design, the special effects (as bombshells
descend from the sky), the sheer brilliance lavished on
this film makes it gripping, as it takes you on an emotional
rollercoaster. The music of Angelo Badalamenti is evocative
of the era and the production design led by Aline Bonetto
is quite perfect.
This
is no trite romance. It is one girls serach for the truth
who has a determined belief in love. It might not be true,
but it is nice to think that for just over two hours it
could be.
Highly
recommended. Get the DVD now
© Sam North Feb 1st 2005
Sam
North is the author of the historical novel Diamonds
– The Rush of ‘72
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