FemaleFirst.co.uk: DVD: A Very Long Engagement

A Very Long Engagement - 1 Disc Edition [DVD] [2004]
enlarge	Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet Actors: Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, Jean-Pierre Becker, Dominique Bettenfeld, Clovis Cornillac Studio: Warner Home Video Category: DVD List Price: ~~£18.99~~ Buy Used: £1.69 as of 25/11/2009 02:06 GMT details You Save: £17.30 (91%) New (19) Used (27) from £1.69 Seller: zoverstocks Rating: 8 reviews Sales Rank: 3294 Format: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen Languages: English (Subtitled), French (Original Language) Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over Region: 2 Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 Number Of Discs: 1 Running Time: 134 Minutes Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2 Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6 EAN: 7321900990967 ASIN: B000BW7I2U Theatrical Release Date: 2004 Release Date: January 2, 2006 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days


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Customer Reviews: Showing reviews 1-5 of 8 1 2 Next » Interesting anti-war movie February 4, 2009 Mr. J. Young (EU) With flashbacks before during and after WW1, the delicious Audrey Tautou as "Mathilde" yearns and searches for her lover and fiancé "Manech" who was presumed killed in the insanity of WW1, but she does not believe it. He was one of a handful of unfortunate soldiers thrown pointlessly "over the top", as a punishment (pour encourager les autres) for "self-inflicted wounds". Heading towards some Germans who were not, apparently, particularly keen on shooting them down in No Mans Land. In her search for her missing fiancé, "Mathilde" meets other women who lost their loved ones in the same grotesquely pointless incident. A scary looking Marion Cotillard goes on a post-WW1 vengeance mission murdering various men she blamed for the death of her paramour, who was another of the unfortunate condemned men. Jodie Foster pops up, speaking fluent French, as the partner of one of the other missing men. Growing up Jodie apparently attended a French-speaking school, the Lycée Français de Los Angeles and she is still fluent. As the international war-criminal, war-profiteering, bankster oligarchs, continue to send the "profane cattle" of humanity "over the top" into the abattoir of an endless "Global War of Terror" we might do well to remember the words of poor Jean Jaurès, murdered by the warmongers, on the eve of WW1. br / br /"What will the future be like, when the billions now thrown away in preparation for war are spent on useful things to increase the well-being of people, on the construction of decent houses for workers, on improving transportation, on reclaiming the land? The fever of imperialism has become a sickness. It is the disease of a badly run society which does not know how to use its energies at home." French union leader and pacifist Jean Jaurès murdered by warmongers on July 31st, 1914, just before French mobilisation and war. br / br / "Amelie" meets "Saving Private Ryan"... October 22, 2009 nicjaytee (London) A bizarre mix indeed but, believe it or not, it's a pretty apt description of this very odd but quite brilliant film. br / br /First off, you get the most realistic depiction of what war must be like since "Saving Private Ryan", only this time the scene is the trenches in the Somme in 1917... so meticulously recreated, believably presented and deeply shocking that it will leave you stunned and drained by the time you've got through the first section of the film. br / br /But then things become very different as director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and lead actress Audrey Tautou take very distinct aspects of their comic classic, "Amelie", and rework them into a much "darker" mix involving a charmingly poignant love story and an extremely complex and, in the end, pretty unbelievable detective story, centred on the fate of five men sentenced to almost certain death for self-mutilation in the trenches. Tautou plays a tougher but actually similarly sweet quirky character to Amelie, and Jeunet uses a number of the same directing techniques that made "Amelie" such unconventional but fascinating viewing - flash backs, unusual camera angles, fast scene cutting, bizarre events, and intriguingly odd characters - right down to a secret box that holds the key to a mystery. br / br /And, like "Amelie", the dialogue is in French and its delivery is fast, meaning that if you're trying to follow it with English sub-titles you're quite likely to get lost at key points. None of which sounds too promising. But no matter, because the detective story element of the film is fairly predictable, the dénouement to the love story holds no surprises and, their not why the film fully deserves a five star rating. br / br /Why it does is because Jeunet is such a brilliant director and, as a result, the film is stuffed full with superb cinemaphotograhy, first class acting, wonderful scene-setting and, above all, a "pace" that holds your attention throughout and a "style" that makes for, at times, quite beautiful viewing... until, that is, you're plunged back into his equally brilliant vision of what life was actually like in the mud, squalor and blood of the trenches. br / br /Horrific, charming, wholly believable and pretty unbelievable, all at the same time, "A Very Long Engagement" is an extremely strange film but one that will leave you marvelling at the sheer quality of its direction, photography and acting... and, as "Saving Private Ryan" achieved so successfully, it's depiction of the grim realities of war make it one of the best anti-war films that you're likely to see and one that you won't forget for a very long time. Never let go April 22, 2007 E. A Solinas (MD USA) 9 out of 9 found this review helpful Sure, the name is an open target for dumb jokes. But Sébastien Japrisot's haunting romance "A Very Long Engagement" translates well onto the big screen, with a bit of help from "Amelie" director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and the wonderful Audrey Tautou. br / br /Mathilde (Audrey Tautou) is a pretty young girl who was left crippled by polio, and is being raised by her uncle and aunt. Before World War I, she fell in love with a boy called Manech (Gaspard Ulliel), but he was sent to the war and killed. Three years later, Mathilde gets a mysterious letter with shocking news: Manech was not killed in action, but condemned to death by being sent unarmed to the front lines -- and miraculously, he might still be alive. br / br /Mathilde is determined to find her lover -- dead or alive -- and learn what really happened on that day three years ago. So she puts out ads in the papers, gathers accounts, and hires a detective to follow the cold trail. And slowly the gaps in the stories emerge, giving Mathilde clues to whether Manech died... and where he might be now. br / br /"A Very Long Engagement" (French title: "Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles") diddles a few details from the novel, but is faithful to it in the ways that matter -- the "MMM" inscriptions, the non-linear storytelling, the horrors of World War I. In some ways, it seems almost impossible to transfer onto film without creating a pretentious mess -- but it wasn't. br / br /Jean-Pierre Jeunet proves that "Amelie" was no fluke, but this time he relies mostly on visual artistry, rather than in magical realism. He also reminds us, by displaying the French countryside along with flashbacks of the front lines, that war is stupid and wasteful. But it's not an obvious, slam-in-your-face reminder. Like the romance, it's delicate and wistful. br / br /The only problem with "A Very Long Engagement" is the "long" part -- it's truly exquisite, but it does drag a bit. Since it can be summed up as "girl searches for her seemingly dead lover," there are only a few twists along the way. But the beautiful visuals may make up for that in part. The cinematography by Bruno Delbonnel is particularly striking, tinted in sepia or black and white. The entire movie has the feeling of an old photograph brought to life. br / br /The love between Manech and Mathilde is not a grand passion, but it is a very real love -- it's not implausible to believe that two such people might have existed. Tautou is sweetly elfin as Mathilde, creating a likable heroine that it's impossible not to root for. Ulliel gives an equally good performance as the boyish, naive Manech, a perfect match for Mathilde. br / br /"A Very Long Engagement" is a truly beautiful follow-up to the magical "Amelie" -- a war story, a love story, and a mystery all in one. Enchanting. Great French war epic December 9, 2008 Antonio Moncayo (Zaragoza) 4 out of 4 found this review helpful This is one of the most underrated movies in recent times. br /It tells the story of a young woman trying to find he fate of her fiancee who died in the French trenches in WW1. br / br /Beautifully shot mostly in location plus some studio-trench shots , the open French country side provides a perfect background for the story. br / br /The plot is excellent and the movie never looses pace ,I had to watch ot twice as it can be a little slow to understand with subtitles. br / Woman after the war November 6, 2007 Trevor Willsmer (London, England) 2 out of 2 found this review helpful A Very Long Engagement does a surprisingly deft job of balancing the absurdities and horrors of war with the absurdities of everyday life and the tenuous nature of hope and history, both ever changing and prey to the unbalancing influence of the smallest detail. More than most, this is really a film about the enduring pains of war that linger long after the last shots are fired and the battlefields are grown over as Mathilde's journey for her lost love goes from hospitals to widows to cripples to the thousands of official forms that once meant life or death. It's here that the film's lavish budget is really felt, allowing the story to span a wounded country eager to forget but unable to, as well as recreating the front lines. The reconstruction of the trench scenes is similarly impressive, although, as in Jasprisot's novel, the attitude of the poilous is much more sympathetic than it would have been in reality (deserters and self-inflicted wound cases were widely hated by soldiers at the front, who generally felt they should take their chances alongside them). br / br /Its use of narration pays dividends, establishing that each of the five condemned man has a life and people that care about them. It's still done with Jeunet's characteristic quirkiness and black visual humor, but that's all too the good. And while there are some similarities, Tatou is not exactly Amelie here, all-too-ready to dismiss a helpful source as a slut in her own small-minded determination. The little games she plays with fate might seem whimsical, but she loses as many as she wins. Even the ending that proved so unacceptable for US audiences by opting for neither an obviously happy/unhappy ever after ending is just right, leaving its characters in limbo but not without hope. br / br /A final touch of absurdity is added by Jeunot's audio commentary, where he complains over the end credits that despite spending more money by filming in France with French cast and crew entirely in the French language, the film was met with astonishing hostility by the French film industry which immediately declared it a foreign film and moved that it be forced to repay it's small government subsidy and be ruled ineligible for all French awards. I guess now he knows how George Stevens felt after being persuaded to shoot The Greatest Story Ever Told with a US crew in Monument Valley instead of cheaper foreign shores now only to be ridiculed and abused by the industry for his troubles... In filmmaking, like war, nothing really changes. br / br /Although the one-disc version does include an audio commentary, it's definitely worth springing for the two-disc version for the 73-minute documentary and deleted scenes instead. Showing reviews 1-5 of 8 1 2 Next »

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