Thursday 12 January 2012

Un long dimanche des fiancailles - A very long engagement

2004 by Jean pierre Jeunet - French movie

The director who gave the brilliant Les Fabuleux destine d'Amelie Poulain, joins again with Audrey Tautou. This time it is a period love story though.

A young woman is desperately looking for her fiancee, who was condemned to death during the first world war, in the French - German battle lines.

This is a picture perfect example of a director making a very different movie from his previous one. And for Audrey Tautou, as well, this is quite a different role.

There is love through out in this movie, it is not right on the screen though. But it is omni present. Love is the only reason why Methilde is still searching for her Manech, even if all reports and witness comments were against. The way the movie goes on this search, almost like a detective story, is really nice. There is an excellent mix of emotion with simple comedy with scenes from battle field.

I felt it a bit too long though. The sound recording and mixing of this movie deserves 11/10 marks. Beautiful cinematography too. And once again, yet another strong performance from Audrey Tautou.