Hey folks, Harry here... wow! Now I'm crazy with envy, this is one of my top of the year, can not wait, must see now films! Jeunet, when working in his native tongue, is one of the absolute best directors on the planet Earth and after AMELIE, I'd suffer through 30 terrible films from him hoping for another as bright, but looks like no fate so dire awaits us. Seems A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT is exactly what it promised us!!! Beware of spoilers... Here ya go...
Hey Harry,
About two weeks ago I caught a test screening of "A Very Long Engagement", the next Jeun Pierre Jeunet film. I've been a huge of him fan for years, loved Delicatessen, the quirky humor, and all of his subsequent films (even most of Alien Resurrection). And of course, "Amelie" sealed the deal.
I was extremely curious to see if he could pull off a film of "Amelie"'s effervescence and loveliness (Audey Tatou's and the movie's) in a war movie that is every bit as brutal and graphic as any war movie I've seen. I wanted to love this movie, sing it's praises to all my friends and to anyone else who'd listen.
And I can, because it's darn near the most perfect movie I've ever seen.
This movie is certainly not for the faint of heart. We start out marching with a group of court martialed soldiers through the sickly grey mudholes that were the French trenches during WWI. Every one of them has been sentenced to execution for self mutilation. The method of execution is certainly cruel, unusual, and mighty inventive, and I'm not gonna be the one to spoil it. In classic Jeunet style, the quick back stories of each person is told, how they got into the military, how they ended up here, and it's every bit as endearing as the opening sequence from 'Amelie'. I loved these characters from the moment I laid eyes on them. They aren't heros, or the most virtuous of people, nor are they even anti-heros. They're just ordinary men who went to war with everybody else. Rather than sentimentalizing this, however, Jeunet just lets their stories be introduced without judgement about people's actions or the war as a whole.
Among these guys is Manech (Gaspard Ulliel), Mathilde's (Audrey Tautou's) fiance, who shot himself while trying to kill a rat in his sleep. The rest of the movie involves Mathilde's attempt to find Manech, to find if he's dead or alive, and what happened to him.
This is a wonderful spine for the rest of the film. All of the quirks, vignettes, small character moments, and touches of humor Jeunet can muster are in full force here as we see her struggle. Each time she receives new information, we see more of the story unfold back in the trenches, often the same event from different points of view. Audrey's Tatou's limp, the mailman on the bicycle, the little dog, the cook, and innumerable other vignettes are wildly entertaining and still add to the story at every turn. A sequence involving a hospital, a hydrogen filled zeppelin, and a bomb nearly made me have a seizure . . .
Many of the actors from his previous films make a reappearance (such as the great! Dominique Pinon), and everybody does a stellar job. Audrey convey's seething, incredible, and dense emotion without overstating herself, and shines in scene after scene, moment after moment. Like Amelie, the undercurrents of eroticism she convey's are amazing for their truthfulness. She's not filled with boundless optimism, she struggles and doubts and nearly gives up many, many times, and I loved her for it. A lot.
Bruno Delbonnels cinematography creates these beautifully rendered scenes, startlingly vibrant in one scene, horrifyingly grey in another. It's clear that a lot of post work has been done to every shot, with every last object, tone, color, and texture adding to the atmosphere and to the story. It doesn't overwhelm the story at all (as it certainly would in a lesser movie). I don't know how in the hell he and Jeunet found the locations in this movie, because every last frame is beautiful.
Like in Amelie, the special effects blend so well with the footage, with such good reasons for it to be there, I was totally dazzled. They said they hadn't finished everything when I saw it, but I don't see how. The effects were seamless, and were used to reinforce a scenes resonance (the wheat simulatenously waving in the same direction) or add a bit of inventive humor.
The film is long, over two hours (I'm not exactly sure by how much), but is expertly paced There is a scene towards the very end, in fact, where the film slows down for a minute, and the waiting is lovingly excruciating, intentionally played to twist your heart out like a piece of fruit held just out of reach.
The only complaint, the one minor, tiny complaint, is Jodie Foster. She's a wonderful actress, she does a stellar job, perfect French. If I didn't know who she was, it would have been perfect. Because she?s so recognizable, she broke me out of the film a little when she was on-screen. This is a movie that exists so much as its own world, having the one Hollywood star there was a little strange. Again, very minor.
Fate, love, war, infidelity, cruelty, humanity, revenge, government secrets, quirky crafted characters, I had to hold on to the railing of the stairs walking out of the theater. I can't wait to see it again when it comes out.
If you decide to use this, call me Vertigo.
