|
Directed by: Jean-Pierre Jeunet Starring: Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, Jodie Foster This film features the director and star of Amelie, so you know it's going to be good. In fact, it is very similar to Amelie in the sense that it is a mystery that Audrey Tautou's character is unraveling. Basically, Mathilde (Tautou) and Manech (Ulliel) are childhood friends turned lovers. Mathilde unfortunately suffers from polio and has trouble walking, but that doesn't stop Manech from carrying her up his father's lighthouse. Everything is peachy, the two are engaged, then WWI rolls around and Manech is drafted along with every other fit frenchman. This movie goes to great lengths to depict war as a pointless atrocity. The battle scenes, while not depicting actual campaigns, are very interesting because they show how life was in the trenches. It was so terrible that many soldiers would self-mutilate themselves to get out of war duty (they are court-martialed and if found guilty, are executed). Manech takes this route, and his dickhead captain sends all the self-mutilators out into No-man's Land without weapons. The focus of the movie is Mathilde using clues she picks up (as well as the aid of a PI) to piece together what really happened after the group was sent out into the battlefield. Official records indicate that Manech is killed, and he even has a grave. But of course Mathilde will not accept this and will go to great lengths to discover the truth. This film has a very similar feel to Amelie, and the same quick cuts and sharp dialogue as Amelie, though overall it is a much darker movie. If you liked Amelie, you will for sure love this film. Despite the fact that it was 2+ hours, I never once was bored with it. Though be sure to bring your glasses because the subtitles are super fast. My one gripe is that it's a bit hard to follow which characters were what, but in the end, what you need to know is delivered flawlessly. 5 stars. RATING: 5.0 PROS: Great cinematography, nice depictions of futility of war, Audrey Tautou CONS: A little difficult to keep up with the characters ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://imdb.com/title/tt0344510/
|
#
?
Dec 2, 2004 04:50
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 06:56 |
|
|
Just saw this today. I dare say it's better than Amélie. It's a safe bet to say that if liked Amélie, you'll like this; If you didn't care of Amélie you may still like this. The main draw of this over Amélie is that it's a more emotionally complete movie. Whereas Amélie seemed to play the same emotional high notes over and over, this movie goes for the full range. There are many gloriously happy moments and even more heart-breakingly depressing ones. There's also more at stake. Instead of Amélie's focus whimsical games and secret crushes, A Very Long Engagement takes on the more weighty subjects such as the death of a loved one and the pointlessness of war. Which brings me to one of the movie's main strengths: Its war scenes. Truthfully I think these war scenes are as good as, if not better, than the reigning champion of Saving Private Ryan. They focus on a handful of men instead of a full company or army. And the flashback style of story telling lets you know each man's back-story and emotional connections before showing the horrors he faced on the battlefield. Present here again is Jean-Pierre Jeunet fantastical direction style. You'll often see clips of characters in faux-old-style to show back-story, sweeping crane and dolly shots, oddly shaped people and the wonderful narrator. I agree that there are times where keeping each of the characters straight was a problem, but I chalk at least some of that up to coming in a few minutes late. But, really, that's a minor quibble in the overall experience. My only other complaint is that it seemed to emotionally peak and fall so often that when the real emotional peak is reached it feels somewhat anti-climatic. The movies plays the same basic pattern over a number of times, moving closer to the end each time, but it was still enjoyable. The real reason you'll want to see this, though, is escapism. Nearly no one working in films today knows how to bring you out of your own world and into the movie's world as well as Jean-Pierre Jeunet. It's two hours of solid entertainment, though you'll appreciate for a lot more than that. A great movie all around. 5/5 Also: Why the hell was Jodie Foster in this movie? That threw me for a loop. When I saw her she seemed familiar but I didn't want to believe it was her, it just seemed too weird. But there she is, playing a somewhat throw-away part. She has excellent French, too (or so I'm told -- I don't speak it myself). It's the oddest casting decision since casting Julia Stiles in The Bourne Identity/Supremacy.
|
|
#
?
Dec 23, 2004 11:31
|
|
|
This is by far my favorite foreign film. Its not lighthearted and comical like Amelie was but still has some pretty funny quick one liners. Its great as a war movie and great as a drama. My only problem with it is that its hard to keep up with names and faces. I've heard and read reviews saying its a very violent\gore filled movie but what violence is in the movie is done tastefully, also another bright point is in this french film you dont see any hairy armpits on women. Overall I give it a 4.5\5.
Cooter Brown fucked around with this message at 06:13 on Dec 24, 2004 |
|
#
?
Dec 24, 2004 06:11
|
|
|
Jean-Pierre Jeunet co-wrote and co-directed City of Lost Children, which was on of my favorite movies, period. If you want style, watch that. I think this movie was decent, but not anything amazing. The plot was VERY hard to follow and I think that's true even if you speak French. The dialogue was really quick, so you need to speed read your subtitles. A lot of stuff seemed really pointless and show-offy to me. There were some huge set scenes that were obviously CG and I remember seeing them and I felt it was such a waste. They met Jodie Foster in this ginormous outdoor recreation when they could have met her inside. Why go to all the lengths to build that? Feels like hubris to me, didn't add anything whatsoever. For the record, Saving Private Ryan was WWII, this showed WWI. As for realism, I'd say it's kinda iffy: they had a guy knock down a biplane with a grenade. They had said plane shooting at ground troops (they shot at other planes, that gun couldn't even swivel that low unless he banked the plane.) Guys are eating chocolate and meat on the front line. No amount of horsetrading was going to get those items. Cornflower was one of those characters everyone likes. But I never really understood why. We saw almost nothing of him except people looking all moon-faced and sad at him. Interesting. Visually very pretty, though the sepia tone got kind of tired. A good try. 3.5
|
|
#
?
Dec 25, 2004 07:00
|
|
|
Excellent movie, I really enjoyed all the performances, the photography and the score (by Angelo Badalamenti, a usual for David Lynch films). Watching the film, it reminded me of last year's film "Cold Mountain", but I added the qualifier: "Like 'Cold Mountain', but alot better!" Rated 5/5
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2004 20:12
|
|
|
I saw this earlier tonight and quite liked it. It was a little hard to follow at times what with the fast paced dialogue/subtitles etc, I got a little confused with all the different names why did that guy want to kill Mathilde? but it all made sense in the end. I'm looking forward to the DVD so I can watch it again. The war scenes were absolutely amazing. I just sat there thinking "NO loving WAY WOULD YOU EVERY GET ME NEAR THAT KIND OF poo poo". In fact pretty much every scene in the film was beautifully shot. It was a long film but it didn't drag at all... Audrey Tautou has an absolutely perfect face and bum!, I'm going to marry her. She makes me go all swoony  4.5/5
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2004 13:58
|
|
|
Finally saw this and I have to say I enjoyed it more than Amélie. The film was obviously much more serious than Jeunet's last effort and I think that was for the better. While I can't say I cried or got misty-eyed, it still was a fairly moving piece on the usefulness (or lack thereof) of war and one woman's relentless search for her fiancé. The cinematography was excellent and the amber hue given to a lot of the shots worked really well. Tautou played her role excellently and the supporting cast worked well. I, too, was taken aback and wondered if that was really Jodie Foster. To my surprise it was. Anyways, the film smacked of Jeunet and he's moving into auteur territory if he can keep churning out fantastic films like this. 8.5/10
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2005 08:08
|
|
|
I don't have a lot to say because I'm still in awe, but I absolutely LOVED this film. The story, the cinematography, the star; all beautiful. I'm an absolute sucker for Audrey. How can you not be and I love Jeunet's films. All masterpieces... ok, so Alien 4 wasn't.... overall, I give it a BIG 5/5.
barkums fucked around with this message at 06:33 on Jan 21, 2005 |
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2005 08:30
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 06:56 |
|
|
quote:Magicmat came out of the closet to say: Jodie Foster lives in France and is also responsible for bringing a number of French films that would have otherwise never made it here. She's in a more minor part because she's not a French actress, so she's lower on the hierarchy to the purist French. Don't be fooled though--her French is im-loving-peccable. It's rare to see an English speaker nail French even roughly well, and she's almost without accent. I think this would be about as unusual as seeing poor Christophe Lambert in Highlander for a Frenchman. Anyway, this movie was awesome. It was a little hard to differentiate characters at times, which makes me more than grateful that handlebar moustaches have died out. Still, it was a seamless movie. I loved Mathilde, and I loved how her tuba playing grew steadily more complex the further into the mystery she got. (did you catch that?) 5/5.5 for sure
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2005 21:44
|
|
