Starring: Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, Jean-Pierre Becker
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet Category: IIB (French)
Jean-Pierre Jeunet leaves behind much of the flights of fancy of box-office smash Amelie (2001) for a film with a darker soul. But he still manages to infuse enough of his magic into A Very Long Engagement to make it a resoundingly sweet tale, despite the carnage that covers the action. Set amid the horrors of the trenches of the first world war, the film begins by following the fate of five soldiers condemned to death for mutilating themselves rather than going back into battle.
Central to it all is the tale of Manech (Gaspard Ulliel) who has left behind his lover Mathilde (Audrey Tautou). On hearing that Manech has been lost, Mathilde tries to find out the facts for herself.
This leads us to examine just what happened on the day the five were sent into no man's land to await their death, and what happens to all those involved after that fateful day - from the man who sentenced them to death to the soldiers told to carry out the orders. Here, Jeunet allows his brand of storytelling to take hold.
It has the air of a fairytale, at times, and this is helped both by Tautou's elfin charms and Jeunet's visual flourishes.
