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Actors: Audrey Tautou, Gaspard UIliel, Jean-Pierre Becker, Ticky Holgado, Julie Depardieu, Jodie Foster
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about A Very Long Engagement |
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A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT (Un long dimanche de fiançailles) is a movie cowritten and directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie) in 2004. This film earned five French Academy awards and numerous international awards in 2004 and 2005.
During WWI, five French soldiers are sentenced to death by a court martial for having wounded themselves. Among them, there is Manech, the young fiancé of Mathilde. In 1920, Mathilde still doesn't accept the fact that Manech is dead. She hires a private detective to find the soldiers who were present during the last hours of his fiancé and soon discovers that no one has actually seen Manech killed. She is convinced now that Manech is still alive and starts to question the relatives of the convicted soldiers.
--Daniel Staebler, Resident Scholar
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Mathilde (Tautou), born on Jan. 1, 1900, is lame with polio at an early age. She falls in love with childhood friend Manech (Ulliel), who gets carted off to the front in 1917 and sentenced to be executed with four other potential deserters for self-mutilation (in Manech's case it was an accident). The five men disappear in no-man's-land between French and German lines and are presumed dead. Convinced that her beloved is still alive, Mathilde goes on a search for him in 1920. She hires crack private detective Germain Pire (Holgado), follows the prostitute Tina Lombardi (Marion Cotillard) who is also searching for her beloved among the missing men and incidentally killing the various officers she holds responsible for his possible death, meets a woman named Elodie Gordes (Foster) who has her own secret relating to one of the five, and slowly unravels a complicated mystery involving purloined orders, switched identities, and chance. Writer-director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie, City of Lost Children) created a 2004 movie that combines mystery, war, and romance.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of A Very Long Engagement |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of movie:
- 1900-1920's
Inner struggle or disability
Yes
War impact on civilians/veterans
Yes
Kind of conflict:
- war, WW I
Coping with loss of loved one?
Yes
Coping with loss of
- Husband/boyfriend/squeeze
Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Profession/status:
- unemployed
Age:
- 20's-30's
Eccentric:
Yes
- obsessed
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Hair color?
- brunette (Brown)
Hair type
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn straight
- (woman) long straight
Body type
- (woman) skinny
- (woman) average
Unclothed?
- Chest and Buttocks
Events of movie makes character more...
- sad
- tougher
Ethnicity/Nationality
- French
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor?
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- missing body parts/abilities
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Hair color
- brunette (Black)
Hair style
- (man) short/standard straight
Body type
- (man) very skinny
- (man) average build
Unclothed?
- chest
How much in movie?
- 20%
- 40%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- French
Main Adversary
Identity:
- general circumstances
Setting
Europe
Yes
European country:
- France
Misc setting
- fort/military installation
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- explicit references to deaths
- very explicit references to deaths and torture
Movie makes you feel...
- encouraged
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- kissing
- touching of personal anatomy
- actual description of sex
- seeing nude female butt
Non-American film?
Yes
What language?
- French
Subtitles?
- Yes
Any profanity?
- Occasional swearing
If soundtrack VERY NOTICEABLE...
- Orchestra/classical
Is this movie based on a
- book
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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