FILM REVIEW
A Very Long Engagement
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Cast: Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, Jean-Pierre
Becker, Dominique Bettenfeld
Classification: 16VS
Running Time: 136 minutes
Opens On: 11 Feb 2005
From the director and star of Amélie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Audrey
Tautou) comes a very different love story. Based on the acclaimed novel by
Sebastien Japrisot, the adapted screenplay was written by Jeunet &
Guillaume Laurant.
As World War I draws to an end, a young French woman's greatest fight is
about to begin. Mathilde has received word that her fiancé Manech is one
of five wounded soldiers who have been court-marshalled and pushed out
into the no-man's land between the French and German armies... and almost
certain death.
Unwilling to accept that her beloved Manech is lost to her forever,
Mathilde embarks on an extraordinary journey to discover the fate of her
lover. At each turn, she receives a different heartbreaking variation on
how Manech must have spent those last days, those last moments. Still, she
never gets discouraged.
If Manech were dead, Mathilde would know.
With a steadfast faith, strengthened by hope and a stubbornly cheerful
disposition, Mathilde follows her investigation to its conclusion,
convincing those who might help her and ignoring those who will not. As
she draws closer to the truth about the five unfortunate soldiers and
their brutal punishment, she is drawn deeper into the horrors of war and
the indelible marks it leaves on those whose lives it has touched.
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