Title/Year: A Very Long Engagement, 2004
Director/Birth Country/Year Born: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, France, b.1953
Budget: $47,000,000 (estimated)
Gross: $70,115,868 (Worldwide)
Synopsis: A young French woman sets out in search of her fiancé, whom she believes may still be alive despite being reported as killed in the line of duty during WWI.
Political/Social Commentary: Depicts the dark side of war and that it is not glamorous. That the soldiers aren’t heroes, but rather just men trying to survive minute to minute. Shows that soldiers aren’t invincible and experience great consequences and trauma if they have survived.
Narrative and Visual Keywords: War, melodrama, blood, death, survival, vengeance, true love, passion, determination, mystery, closure, hope, relentlessness, countryside, battleground, trenches, France, Germany, detective, truth, commitment, disease, violence, romanticism, sacrifice, trauma, despair, conflict, heartbreak, grief, narration, multiple storylines.
Camera/Lighting/Editing Technique: The lighting in the war scenes was very dark and eerie, and the lighting in the scenes with Mathilde had a yellow tint that was much brighter and hopeful. There were a couple prolonged shots with Mathilde when she was trying to run and catch up to Manech after he had just left for the war. Also the last scene when she was walking through the garden to Manech. There weren’t many quick cuts except for in the battle scenes, because overall the movie had a slow pace to it.
Main Character/Arc: Mathilde is a hopelessly in love heroine determined to prove her fiancé is still alive. She continues to be hopeful despite her low chance of success and no one else believing her. She follows her intuition to love and closure of the past.
Notable Collaboration: Hervé Schneid is a very highly acclaimed editor and has edited all six of Jeunet’s films. Dominique Pinon who played Mathilde’s uncle, has taken part in all of Jeunet’s films as well. Other notable actors that Jeunet has worked with in his previous work include, Audrey Tautou (Mathilde), Ticky Holgado (Germain Pire), and Jean-Claude Dreyfus (Major François Lavrouye).
Historical Relevance/Recognition: Nominated for Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography in the 2004 Academy Awards. Also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in the 2005 Golden Globe Awards.
Random Fact, Etc: In the opening scene a soldier lights his cigarette with a lantern, but it never lights and he pretends to smoke it anyway. Jean-Pierre Jeunet met Jodie Foster (whom he later casted in A Very Long Engagement) in Paris at the cafe which was used to shoot scenes in Amelie. While they were talking, some tourists asked them to move so that they could take a picture of the cafe that they knew was featured in Amelie.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Un_long_dimanche_de_fiançailles_(film)#Cast
1. Yes, I found this particularly relevant in any scene with Major Lavrouye. The main one that sticks out is when he is delivered a list of prisoners that are to be released, and instead of carrying out the order he purposely ruins it by getting it wet in his bathtub. In the scene he is shown as very obviously being wealthy and living extravagantly. In scenes before this one the soldiers are shown living in mud trenches and suffering from injury and disease, meanwhile this major is shown being pampered while taking a bath. This displays the large gap in social class and the carelessness and narcissism of the higher ranks, who lack compassion so much that a soldier is just a number to them and sparing their lives is just a burden.
2. The film very clearly depicts soldiers as suffering victims through scenes of them bleeding out, being blown up, their brains being blown out, dying of cold and disease, and living like animals in the trenches. I think what showed this the most was when the five prisoners were sentenced to be executed by their own men, and were completely powerless over being killed even by their own side.
3. Yes, in this film I think it offered both romantic and war melodrama. Through the whole Mathilde storyline it was romantic and exaggerated because it was so unlikely that she would succeed, but she was determined to because she was so in love. There was one scene when she was hobbling to beat the car to the bend and if she did that meant Manech would come home alive. During this scene like many others, there was very dramatic music played and very beautiful and picturesque shots of the countryside. On the war side of things, the melodrama was mostly with the very violent and gory scenes of people being killed. A scene that sticks out was when a man’s insides exploded onto Manech and after that moment experienced a mental break.
4. I think the enemy is portrayed as atrocious, especially with Major Lavrouye’s character. It is hard to fathom that a man could so carelessly rip up a paper that was to save five men’s lives, much less by a man that was supposed to be on their side and advocate for them. It seemed a bit exaggerated in which the way he did it, by splashing it around in his bath water and getting a sense of pleasure out of it. As far as the Germans go, they were definitely portrayed as relentless and rather heartless. Especially when the German soldier shot the man that was surrendering and pathetically begging for his life. As well as when the French were charging and the Germans mass murdered them so quickly and effortlessly.
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