War and remembrance

Review by Vives Anunciacion
Inquirer Libre January 31 2005

A Very Long Engagement / Un long dimanche de fiançailles
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Written by Jeunet & Guillaume Laurant
Based on the novel by Sebastien Japrisot
Starring Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, Dominique Pinon
R13/ 134 minutes
Warner Independent Pictures
With English subtitles
Opens February 2

“Once upon a time there were five French soldiers who had gone off to war, because that’s the way of the world.” – Sebastien Japrisot, A Very Long Engagement

January, 1917 at the height of World War 1: five French soldiers are condemned to march into no man’s land for shooting their own hands in their attempt to avoid going into the front lines against the Germans. The five – a farmer, a mechanic, a pimp, a carpenter and a young fisherman – are taken to the trenches in Somme between France and Germany. Their bodies are eventually recovered from the trenches.

Years pass, and lonely Mathilde receives word from a former soldier who says he met one of the condemned – the fisherman, Manech – moments before he died. Mathilde investigates, and the more news she gathers, the more Mathilde becomes convinced that not only is the story of the five soldiers incomplete, but that also her fiancée, Manech the fisherman, may not have died at all. So begins her very long search.

Based on Sebastien Japrisot’s 1994 bestselling novel, A Very Long Engagement is about a young crippled woman’s undying, endless tenacity set against the backdrop of World War 1. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet reassembles his Amelie team to present a spectacular tale of passion and hope that’s part detective movie noir-ish, part Amelie whimsical, part Saving Private Ryan explosive, with shades of Stanley Kubrick’s 1957 WWI antiwar opus, Paths of Glory.

Mercy on us, it’s a relentless visceral attack on the senses. Nominated this year for Oscars in Cinematography and Art Direction, A Very Long Engagement balances the bleakness and grains of war with the warmth and cheerfulness of the French countryside. Design is equally majestic: the recreation of old Paris and the trenches is marvelous to behold. Engagement makes war look great, but says everything against it.

As Mathilde, Audrey Tautou shows in her eyes the meaning of determination, and comes off as endearing as she was in Amelie (though she may look a tad too old for her young character.) A notable surprise in casting comes midway into the film, I just can’t say whom. Let’s just say a very talented American actress can be mistaken for a regular French lady, accent and all.

War and love have been longtime movie themes precisely because they show the clash of spectacle and grace, the good and the bad, the best and the worst in humanity. Through Mathilde’s quest, we are reminded of the other characters of war, true casualties – men, women and children caught blindsided in the games of the powers that be. It is Mathilde’s stubbornness – as stubborn as an albatross trying to out-fly the wind – that makes these things happen. Through her, the lives of five dead soldiers are re-lived. Isn’t it so that man only exists for as long as he is remembered?

More than anything, A Very Long Engagement is about belief in a time of cynicism – when suffering and grief has pushed everything to its limits, it is faith that steers things away from the ensuing madness.

Check the screening schedules and do all your stuff before watching the film. This movie runs for more than 2 hours, but make sure you don’t miss a moment. Remember that.