A Very Long Engagement (2004) by Mark Zuiderveld

Title/Year: A Very Long Engagement, 2004
Director/Birth Country/Year born: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, France, born 1953
Budget: $56.6 mil
Gross: $90.1 mil (worldwide)
Synopsis: A young French woman searches for her fiancé who may or may not have been killed in the Battle of the Somme during World War One.
Political/Social Commentary: Exposing war as a negative event; exploitative of soldiers, conveying soldiers as victims instead of heroes. Favors romantic perspective of a woman in love during a horrendous and bloody war (the juxtaposition of these two different elements).
Narrative/Visual keywords: Melodrama, flashbacks, letter writing (correspondence), coincidences, trench warfare, ensemble cast, multiple character POVs, vigilante justice, dramatic irony, romanticism, eroticism, nostalgia, deception, gangrene.
Main character/Arc: Mathilde, a stalwart detective-type of person (diagnosed with polio) in search of her fiancé, Manech. She is romantic yet robust in her personality. She lives with her aunt and uncle in the countryside.
Notable collaboration: Actors from Jeunet's previous films: Audrey Tautou (Amelie, 2001), Dominique Pinon (City of Lost Children, 1995), music composer Angelo Badalamenti (City of Lost Children)
Historical relevance/recognition: Nominated for Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography Oscars for year 2004 (77th Academy Awards). Received positive reviews from critics worldwide. Roger Ebert, film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times, wrote in his 2004 review, "…we have an idea of the trench warfare that makes WWI seem like the worst kind of hell politicians and generals ever devised for their men. To be assigned to the front was essentially a sentence of death, but not quick death, more often death after a long season of cold, hunger, illness, shell-shock and the sheer horror of what you had to look at and think about. Jeunet depicts this reality as well as I have ever seen it shown on the screen, beginning with his opening shot of a severed arm hanging, Christ-like, from a shattered cross." 
Etc. It's interesting to note Jean-Pierre Jeunet's visual style; his colors are traditionally faded brown and green, giving an eerie decayed interpretation of the world.


Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Very_Long_Engagement#cite_note-3
               http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=verylongengagement.htm
      http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041216/REVIEWS/41201006/1023


Mark's answers to A Very Long Engagement:

1.  The higher ranking French General (rank?) is portrayed negatively b/c he himself is overlooking his duties. He receives a correspondence (the pardon of the 5 prisoners) and purposefully ruins the letter by putting in the bathtub that he’s in, thereby muddying the ink on the letter and destroying the duty he is to carry out. He also overlooks the letter of pardon by ripping it to shreds while he is ogling pictures of naked women at his map table. Social class is evident here b/c it shows the upper class as the villain.

2.     Manech and the four other prisoners are primarily portrayed as victims. On the battlefield they are conveyed as being surrounded by death and destruction. One man escapes through a trap door in the ground; he later takes food from the dead man’s coat and feeds himself. In another scene a dead body is used as a shield against being hit by bullets. In the beginning a soldier pisses into another soldier’s helmet and covers up the evidence; this shows the deceptive attitude of soldiers and portrays military duty as a form of perversion instead of noble authority. Jeunet (and most French people I would argue) take stock in portraying the controversial aspects of human nature and showing flaws in behavior.

3.     Yes, the film’s cinematography paints a romantic picture of the time period and blends well the flashbacks of the battlefield with the present action of Mathilde travelling to the city in France for seeking information. The visual strategy is romanticized. The music enhances the melodrama, as well as the sweeping shots of the train going by (the camera angle and movement seems computer generated, but Dutched to give a sense of fast movement for the metaphor of gaining more knowledge about Manech and his whereabouts). The flashback scenes of Manech on the battlefield is a good spectacle b/c it shows him in the middle of cross fire; the grenade being tossed and landing in the Jerry plane.

4.     The enemy (the higher ranking official) is portrayed a bit exaggeratingly. The Marion Cotillard character is originally portrayed in an evil way, but her actions are justified, seeking vengeance. The German enemies are portrayed as neutral. The enemies that are conveyed are deceptive and on the same side of the French, giving the idea that soldiers and heroes on the same side are backstabbing each other and the cause (in a civil war type sense).