A Very Long Engagement (DVD)

...her way to prominence as a leading actor in French film, her love interest Matthieu Kassovitz had redefined the world's view of Paris through the seminal street flick La Haine (like 8 Mile, but with a better soundtrack) and director Jean-Pierre Jeunet was working with a smaller budget than he had for Alien Resurrection, a gig he'd landed by virtue of having helmed a brace of corking French science-fiction fantasies. In fact, Amelie was just the ...
...the English-speaking world is a bit condescending about this kind of thing, so we just patronised the hell out of them. That was then. Now, however, Jeunet hopefully finds his audiences better prepared. Based on a novel, his fifth feature film sees him reassemble many of his regular actors to support Amelie (sorry, Mathilde) on her quest to work out what happened after her fiance, Maneche, was exiled to no-man's land for self-mutilation in the trenches ...

Olly_Plimsoll 31.03.2005 · Read full review
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Review of A Very Long Engagement (DVD)

A Very Long Engagement (or Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles to give it its proper title) is the fifth film by the influential French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, after Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children, Alien: Resurrection and 2001's Amélie. It stars Audrey Tautou, who of course teamed up with Jeunet to create the brilliant Amélie, which is one of my favourite films ever, so I had high expectations of this. It is based on the novel by Sebastian ...
...set in France, made by a French director, with French actors and in the French language, and based on a French book. But there's no pleasing some people. The story tells of childhood sweethearts Mathilde (Audrey Tautou) and Manech (Gaspard Ulliel), who fall in love and get engaged. But when Manech joins the army to fight in the First World War, Mathilde is left fearful that he will never return. When she hears that Manech is one of five soldiers ...

l-m-n-o-p 01.10.2005 · Read full review
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Review of A Very Long Engagement (DVD)

...of five soldiers sent to a trench named Bingo Crépuscule (crépuscule meaning twilight) in No Man's Land, where death was almost certain; their fate was the result of having injured themselves, either accidentally or deliberately in an attempt to avoid combat. 'A Very Long Engagement', based on the novel by Sébastien Japrisot, is directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet of the much-loved film 'Amélie', whose star of course was also Audrey Tatou. 'A Very Long ...
...is a huge undertaking filled with grim, grey episodes of fighting in the trenches of World War I, visits to the bustling 1920s city of Paris and more peaceful scenes of Mathilde's life in the cottage where she was brought up by her aunt and uncle after being orphaned at a very early age. Tautou gives a superb performance as the young woman who is convinced that she can discover the fate of the man she loves so dearly. Still limping following a childhood ...

denella 01.02.2009 · Read full review
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Review of A Very Long Engagement (DVD)

...French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet has a unique way of looking at the world and has previously impressed with such thematically and literally dark sepia-toned films as “Delicatessen” and “The City of Lost Children”. He also introduced the world to the romantic whimsy of “Amélie”, starring the elfin Audrey Tautou. In “A Very Long Engagement” he marries dark and light to create a tale of love against the odds. Taking a novel by French author Sebastian ...
...and redemption. He also has a strong vein of humour running through the film (just watch the running gag about the postman who likes to make an entrance). That being said, he doesn’t disregard the horrors of war, with many visceral scenes showing just that. He plays with a non-linear narrative that incorporates flashbacks and flash-forwards, so we discover things at the same time as Mathilde. Of course he indulges himself in plenty of flights of ...

afy9mab 21.03.2005 · Read full review
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Review of A Very Long Engagement (DVD)

...perfect is by no means a task to be envied, anything that follows inevitably being left wide open to scrutiny and the most judgemental of examinations. So, as I approach the perilous prospect of the following paragraphs, I do find it necessary to confirm that yes, I am without a shadow of a doubt directly comparing A Very Long Engagement (2004) to director Jean-Pierre Jeunet's outstanding Amelie (2001). Unfair as it may seem, I do have good reason: ...
...Right? The story concerns a young woman (Mathilde, played by the lovely Audrey Tautou) and her constant struggle to come to terms with and accept the absence of her fiancée Manech (Gaspard Ulliel) after his supposed death at the hands of The Great War. Empowered by her spiritual connection with Manech, Mathilde searches far and wide refusing to accept that he has perished; all the while attempting to unravel the mystery surrounding the events that ...

onaploppable 13.08.2006 · Read full review
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Review of A Very Long Engagement (DVD)

...and tells the story of a girl (who cripples by polio since the age of 3) limps around on her way to find her fiancé. He has been court-martialled and him and his comrades have been sent out to nomads land to be killed in the crossfire so they are all left there to do. But do they?... The film tells of the story to try and find her fiancé after a tip-off from a relative that he may still be alive. Audrey Tatou plays the part convincingly as an ...

Broadster1984 09.06.2006 (04.07.2006) · Read full review
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Review of A Very Long Engagement (DVD)

...be far superiour. it was a beautiful story and delivered in a beautiful way. and the brillient thing about this movie is that Jean-Pierre Jeunet manages to create a movie that would usualy be considered to be a girls movie and make it enjoyable to everyone. if anybody can sit through this movie and not hide a tear or feel and undying love towars audrey tatou then i apploud you. this is the perfect movie to watch with a lover or a closer friend, by ...

rik.ayres 03.02.2009 · Read full review
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Review of A Very Long Engagement (DVD)