| A Very Long Engagement | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Jean-Pierre Jeunet |
| Screenplay by | Jean-Pierre Jeunet Guillaume Laurant |
| Based on | Un long dimanche de fiançailles bySébastien Japrisot |
| Produced by | Jean-Pierre Jeunet Francis Boespflug Bill Gerber Jean-Louis Monthieux Fabienne Tsaï |
| Starring | |
| Narrated by | Florence Thomassin |
| Cinematography | Bruno Delbonnel |
| Edited by | Hervé Schneid |
| Music by | Angelo Badalamenti |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures (France) Warner Independent Pictures (United States)[1] |
Release dates |
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Running time | 134 minutes[1] |
| Countries | France United States[2][3] |
| Language | French[1] |
| Budget | |
| Box office | $69.4 million[6] |
A Very Long Engagement (French:Un long dimanche de fiançailles,lit. 'A Long Sunday of Engagement') is a 2004romanticwardrama film, co-written and directed byJean-Pierre Jeunet and starringAudrey Tautou,Gaspard Ulliel andMarion Cotillard. It is a fictional tale about a young woman's desperate search for her fiancé who might have been killed duringWorld War I. It was based on the 1991 novel of the same name bySébastien Japrisot. The film is a co-production between France and the United States. It was released theatrically in France on 27 October 2004 and in the United States on 26 November 2004.
The film receivedAcademy Award nominations forBest Art Direction andBest Cinematography at the77th Academy Awards. Marion Cotillard earned theCésar Award for Best Supporting Actress, while Gaspard Ulliel won theCésar Award for Most Promising Actor at the30th César Awards.
Five Frenchsoldiers are convicted of self-mutilation in order to escape military service duringWorld War I. They are condemned to face near-certain death inno man's land between the French and Germantrench lines. It appears that all of them were killed in a subsequent battle, but Mathilde, the fiancée of one of the soldiers, refuses to give up hope and begins to uncover clues as to what actually took place on the battlefield. She is all the while driven by the constant reminder of what her fiancé had carved into one of the bells of thechurch near their home, MMM forManech aime Mathilde (Manech loves Mathilde; a pun on the French wordaime, which is pronounced like the letter "M". In the English-language version, this is changed to "Manech's marrying Mathilde").
Along the way, she discovers the brutally corrupt system used by theFrench government to deal with those who tried to escape the front. She also discovers the stories of the other men who were sentenced to no man's land as a punishment. With the help of a private investigator, Germain Pire, she attempts to find out what happened to her fiancé. The story is told both from the point of view of the fiancée inParis and the French countryside—mostlyBrittany—of the 1920s, and through flashbacks to the battlefield.
Eventually, Mathilde finds out her fiancé is alive, but he suffers from amnesia. Seeing Mathilde, Manech seems to be oblivious of her. At this, Mathilde sits on the garden chair silently watching Manech with tears in her eyes and a smile on her lips.
A Very Long Engagement was filmed in France over an 18-month period,[7] with about 30 French actors, approximately 500 French technicians and more than 2,000 French extras.[8][7] Right before the film's New York City and Hollywood debut, the film's production company, 2003 Productions, which is one-third owned by Warner Bros. and two-thirds owned by Warner France, was ruled an American production company by a French court, denying the studio $4.8 million in government incentives.[8]
The film had a production budget of€45 million[9][4] (US$58 million),[5] and earned $69.4 million in theaters worldwide.[6]
Joséphine Japy auditioned for the role of a child in the film. She did not get the role but she credits her encounter withJean-Pierre Jeunet as being decisive in her desire to become an actress. Following the audition, Jeunet came up to Japy and standing at her height, said: "Joséphine, can I talk to you like an adult? Today, it won't be you, but one day, we'll meet again...". Japy said that Jeunet's words had a real resonance and made her "want to hang on, believe and keep going", and if Jeunet had not taken the time to say that to her that day, she might not be here [talking to the interviewer].[10]
The film received generally positive reviews from critics. OnRotten Tomatoes, 79% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 146 reviews, and an average rating of 7.40/10. The website's critical consensus states, "A well-crafted and visually arresting drama with a touch of whimsy."[11] OnMetacritic the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on reviews from 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[12]
Peter Travers ofRolling Stone praised "miracle worker" Jean-Pierre Jeunet and called the film "an emotional powerhouse."[13]
Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times rated the film three and a half stars out of four wrote, "Jeunet brings everything together—his joyously poetic style, the lovable Tautou, a good story worth the telling—into a film that is a series of pleasures stumbling over one another in their haste to delight us."[14]
Manohla Dargis ofThe New York Times gave a negative review, stating that "Mr. Jeunet shows no interest in animating the characters in his dollhouse world."[15]
The film received Academy Award nominations forBest Art Direction andBest Cinematography at the77th Oscars, losing both toThe Aviator.[16][17][18] It was not selected as theFrench submission for theAcademy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, in favor ofThe Chorus. Marion Cotillard won theCésar Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance, while Audrey Tautou was nominated for Best Actress.
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