A Very Long Engagement

In terms of imagery, A Very Long Engagement is beautiful screenwriting chaos with excessive camera filters, fantastically beautiful sets and the extreme contrast between the cruelty of war and the tenderness of love. Its powerful, interesting scenes are offset by superficial kitschiness and music-video-style masturbation. A few passages had me on the edge of my seat (the airship), a few caressed my soul (the blowing-out of matches) and one shot transported me to the clouds (circling around the lighthouse in the opposite direction of the girls running around it). But I gave up watching the storyline after the first half hour. The director’s hectic storytelling, quick editing and constantly moving camera seem very contradictory in such a tranquil genre. Not to mention the later uncovering of connections with initially unclear and needlessly confusing scenes. After all, this isn’t supposed to be a sophisticated movie, for god’s sake! But I still liked it very much for its life energy and positivity. (02/10/2005)

Sebastien Japrisot’s book is quite bad to begin with. It’s a detective story told in terribly clumsy language, which presents a primitive theme in a wannabe sophisticated way of purposeful confusion, and it is therefore not surprising that the film has a similar effect. It remains relatively faithful to the source material, so hats off to those who don’t get lost in the plot chaos. The formal aspects are typical Jeunet without feeling or moderation, as his rampage (the turmoil of trench warfare is as authentic as ever) and picturesqueness (yellow-painted beauty with signs saying "kitsch!" not visible doesn't just catch the eye of the blind) meet again in an uneven whole and battle against each other throughout the runtime. The futility culminates in the moronic casting, which puts Audrey Tautou (76) and Gaspard Ulliel (84) next to each other, with the difference between them being obvious from the poster. This is a heavy misstep that, when repeated again, will in my eyes remove Jeunet from the list of the best original filmmakers. (01/04/2007)

I like the special atmosphere of the rotting decadence of the trenches of the First World War and the visual rendering by J. P. Jeunet is one of the best... excellent camera work, clear management of mass scenes and nice color filters. The battle sequence are just filler for the detective-love mosaic, which is again drawn only by the cute Audrey Tautou, who always uses her big eyes and smile. I was very satisfied with the chosen tone, which is relatively close to the bitter-unserious melodrama from Amelie, but in this film with enhanced undertones of the drama. The overlong engagements offer a rather interesting story, essentially tolerable main character and excellent visual processing, which only confirms the selected abilities of Jeunet's creative vision. I can't say that a melodramatic trip to the depths of war would get to me so deeply, but it slipped softly under over my skin...meaning that it stroked me pleasantly. I like it. (03/23/2007)

Fragmentary in terms of story, perfect in terms of visuals and captivating in terms of music. In places it lacks substance and is rather long-winded, in other places it is indescribably emotionally powerful. Too bad that Audrey is stylized into her Amelie role again. Her acting talent is capable of more than just a grinning mademoiselle. Although the wartime interludes aren’t consistent with the rest of the movie, but they don’t pull down the overall high quality. The result is a crushing victory of form over content. But it’s a quality victory. (02/10/2005)

The golden filter is removed, the subtitles have ended, and unfortunately, Jean-Pierre Jeunet loses his aura as a visually talented creator, who knows how to handle visual tricks and ideas with sufficient wisdom. He cannot decide what genre he actually prepared for the film. From beginning to end, he constantly jumps between a war drama, a gloomy detective story, and a saccharine romance. However, Jeunet is not Minghella, who could serve another Cold Mountain and instead often gets lost in the first two mentioned genres. A war film as such would probably suit him, but occasional repetition of certain scenes can be incredibly boring, just like during Mathilde's investigation, which even at times stops making sense. Moreover, when he tries to be moving in these two parts, it is occasionally risible. However, what he excels at is romance. As soon as a scene of lovers' memories appears, I almost stopped breathing, just like during her desperate attempts of "I will count to seven and if..." So, I can conclude that I managed to watch A Very Long Engagement without any problems and wished for a happy ending, but I strongly dislike the form in which I received the content. 55% (06/15/2007)

Jeunet is one of my longtime favorite directors, as his directing style based on playfulness and visuality suits me, and I generously disregard the unfinished storytelling. However, A Very Long Engagement does not require such generosity. Besides Amelie, this is his most audience-friendly film. Even here, Jeunet's fans can expect the usual colorful filters, playful scenes, detours, and quirks. However, they are subordinate to their purpose, namely to highlight the anti-war focus of the film about the search for a groom lost in the whirlwind of trench warfare. It is evident that the film was made by an acclaimed director who no longer has to laboriously gather resources for the realization of his ideas or convince stars to participate in his project. Jeunet's faithful collaborators appear again, such as the indispensable Pinon or Rufus, but also international star Jodie Foster, and they all act flawlessly. Audrey Tautou, whom Jeunet tested out in Amelie, delivers the second most remarkable performance of her career as a girl searching for her loved one. Jeunet knows how to shoot action scenes his way, so they differ from other filmmakers who shoot war films. I have to give the film the highest rating, especially for the field hospital destruction scene, when Jeunet manages to gradually increase tension second by second as the airstrike bomb slowly penetrates the roof. Overall impression: 90%. (10/15/2010)

It is all too evident how Jean-Pierre Jeunet strives to elevate the content to the level of the form, but he does not succeed. He alternates between a gray-black camera filter, which adds rawness to the war scenes, and a yellowish one, but unlike the war scenes, which I would compare to Saving Private Ryan, the romance did not impress me at all. Also the story is unnecessarily convoluted and often muddled. (03/28/2005)

A Very Long Engagement battles with a script that is maddeningly overstretched and doesn't build much, as the heroine keeps running into newer and newer dead ends, and any further clues to her quest of bringing her closer to the fate of her lover come to her in rather unexpected leaps and bounds. There is also a struggle with the source material quite evident here in how the plot sometimes blurs into something that may have been important in the book, but that adds an extra unnecessary layer in a film that already has such a complicated structure. The obsessive-compulsive disorder of the protagonist in particular took the brunt of it here. The script's limitations, on the other hand, held promise for me in terms of how Jeunet handles them, or rather, how he chooses to visually mask them. And I was not disappointed this time either. After his international success with Amélie, the director was pretty flush with cash, which is evident in virtually every scene. Jeunet isn't suggesting big events here, but he has the means to show them; and yet it's up to him what he considers 'big events'. So, while we're winking wistfully at a wartime showdown with dozens of extras, perfect sets, and special effects, our chins drop when we get to, say, the post-war marketplace scene, the treatment of which already borders on the manic grandeur of Heaven's Gate, and the camera handles it all in a single take that goes from panning to a facial close-up over the course of a five-minute bit of dialogue. It manages to salvage even the relatively futile dialogue by setting it in a surprising setting, cracking jokes in its blackest moments, and functionally linking the entire rather flimsy structure of the tragic story with running jokes. If you're familiar with Jeunet's previous films, recall the director's mindset from those. It's present throughout Engagement as well, but it's not as aggressive; however, if you get on his wavelength from the beginning of the film, it will make more sense. (08/10/2020)