A Very Long Engagement (2004)

It had been a long time since I last watched this film, but one of my suitemates enjoys French film and wanted to see it after I described the plot to her. However, I didn't really remember much else beyond that. Jean-Pierre Jeunet makes rather quirky films, and A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT is no exception. There is a sense that the world he depicts could exist, and it helps that the story has an actual historical setting, but there will always be a few things that seem off-kilter or just a little weird. Weirdness done or its own sake can be off-putting, but I feel like there was a good amount here that helped to round out what were very endearing characters. In general, there was a sweetness that provided excellent counterpoint to the horrors of war that are periodically depicted. Of course, the story itself is a large part of this. Audrey Tautou's character goes on a mission to find her fiancé who went missing during the war. She never gives up hope that he might still be alive, even when things don't look they will turn out OK. A lot of French films (at least the well-known ones) are known for being downbeat and/or having depressing endings. I liked that this film is more positive and hope-filled. The only mild gripe I have is that it might take a little too long to get to the eventual destination. Not quite patience-testing, but surely the script could have been tightened a little bit. Still, this was a wonderful story told with great performances and a generous helping of visual panache. Highly recommended, especially for people who like foreign films.

How I like a romance, if only I spoke French and made war romantic. However, it is not and real love does endure as the film portrays. I was surprised to see a cameo from Jodie Foster. Didn't a guy shoot Regan to try to impress her? And to find out she is gay, oh the irony, men can be crazy. Just like the joke that Donald Glover says. When men and women breakup , I wonder who stalks who the most? Anyways, it was cool to find out that Jodie Foster spoke French. On another note, I loved the pure innocence of Audrey and her lover. The tone of the film was reminiscent of Del Torro, where the environment is an essential character, that makes you relate to Audrey innocent longing.

This film is directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Audrey Tautou ( famous for the movie Amilie ), This french film Got 7.8/10 ( IMDb rating ) and 85% vote ( Rotten Tomato ). It is based on Drama | Mystery | Romance , & won more than 30 awards on that time. Plot - Five French soldiers are convicted of self-mutilation in order to escape military service during World War I. They are condemned to face near certain death in the no man's land between the French and German trench lines. It appears that all of them were killed in a subsequent battle, but Mathilde, the fiancée of one of the soldiers, refuses to give up hope and begins to uncover clues as to what actually took place on the battlefield. She is all the while driven by the constant reminder of what her fiancé had carved into one of the bells of the church near their home, MMM for Manech Aime Mathilde (Manech Loves Mathilde; a pun on the French word aime, which is pronounced like the letter "M". In the English-language version, this is changed to "Manech's Marrying Mathilde"). Along the way, she discovers the brutally corrupt system used by the French government to deal with those who tried to escape the front. She also discovers the stories of the other men who were sentenced to the no man's land as a punishment. She, with the help of a private investigator, attempts to find out what happened to her fiancé. The story is told both from the point of view of the fiancée in Paris and the French countryside—mostly Brittany—of the 1920s, and through flashbacks to the battlefield.

The film has Audrey Tautou. And that alone is sufficient for anyone to watch the film. I had watched Amelie already and that movie is close to my heart. So this film may be it was because of those expectations is not up to the mark. It is good and a definite one time watch but somehow I felt they tried to regenerate the Amelie phenomena and failed. Anyhow the way the things are shown is truly remarkable. The concept is somewhat same as that of Cold Mountain. But in this case the girl is finding the man. But I would say I liked cold mountain more than this. Overall it was a very nice film if you keep your mind free and do not compare with any. Moreover the narrative style was amazing and in the same way as it stole the show in Amelie so it did here."A recommended watch for all."