DVD Review: Un long dimanche de fiançailles (A Very Long Engagement)
Set in France during and immediately following the First World War, the story unfolds slowly in a series of jigsaw-puzzle flashbacks, each told from a different point of view, each revealing or concealing something different. Audrey Tautou (Amélie) plays Mathilde, a sweet French girl whose fiancé, Manech, was lost in peculiar circumstances in the trenches of the First World War. Manech aime Mathilde, Mathilde aime Manech, MMM: if Manech were dead, thinks Mathilde, she would know. Thus she feels completely justified in spending her inheritance on the search for her lost love, against the advice of all her acquaintance. As she uncovers layer after layer of deception, greed, lust, corruption and murder, it becomes clear that there may be no easy, simple answer to her heart’s question.
The rundown:
- Beautiful cinematography
- Soaring musical score by Angelo Badalamenti
- Great performances by Tautou as the stubborn, lame Mathilde; Marion Cotillard as a cold-blooded murderess; Jodie Foster as a wife who made a devil’s bargain; and a score of others
- Fantastic direction by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who also made Amélie
- A plot that drags you along relentlessly through so many twists and turns I couldn’t even count them all
Conclusion: Watch it as soon as possible! Fortunately, the DVD has no English language track, so there is no choice but to watch it in French. The French subtitles follow the script very closely, and make it easier to follow occasional fast, dialect-heavy sections (think soldiers with thick accents); there are also English and Spanish subtitles on the American release.
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