Very Long Engagement, A

aka: Long dimanche de fiançailles, Un
France 2004, 128 minutes
Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet
In French with English subtitles
Genres: Foreign Cinema, Drama / Romance, War

Topics: Period - 1910s.

Feat. Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, Clovis Cornillac, Marion Cotillard, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Jodie Foster

Aroview: Another crowd-pleasing favourite from the dir. of AMELIE, which uses the Great War as setting for the fairytale search by Audrey Tatou for her fiance (Ulliel) in the aftermath of the Battle of the Somme.

Convicted of cowardice, her fresh-faced soldier boy was sent to seemingly certain death, but clues emerge in post-WWI France that seem to indicate he may have survived. Recruiting various Parisian oddballs for her quest, Tatou becomes enmeshed in several quirky side-plots, all of which dir. Juenet orchestrates with customary ease, poetic touches and visual quippery.

Because of its unusual blend of the tragic, comedic and whimsicial, this has not found universal favour, yet it never trivialises the subject matter, and finally emerges as one of the most satisfyingly robust of recent French populist outings.

Adopt-a-Movie Kindly adopted by Menno van Dam