A Very Long Engagement

[modage]

Synopsis: From the director and star of Amelie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Audrey Tautou) comes a very different love story, A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT, based on the acclaimed novel by Sebastien Japrisot. The film is set in France near the end of World War I in the deadly trenches of the Somme, in the gilded Parisian halls of power, and in the modest home of an indomitable provincial girl. It tells the story of this young woman's relentless and sometimes comic search for her fiancée, who has disappeared. He is one of five French soldiers believed to have been court-martialed under mysterious circumstances and pushed out of an allied trench into an almost-certain death in no-man's land. What follows is an investigation into the arbitrary nature of secrecy, the absurdity of war, and the enduring passion, intuition and tenacity of the human heart.  
Release Date:  November 26, 2004 (limited).  
Distributor:   Warner Independent Pictures

FRENCH TRAILER HERE: http://www.allocine.fr/webtv/acvision.asp?CVid=18369524&Emission=1&BookMark=

FRENCH WEBSITE WITH FILM CLIP: http://wwws.warnerbros.fr/movies/unlongdimanche/#

[kotte]

Visually stunning as Amelie.

The trailer isn't subtitled it looks like a french Cold Mountain.

Anyway, can't wait.

[modage]

US TRAILER:

[jonas]

I just posted that link in Jeunet's spot in the Director's Chair forums.

Looks fantastic!!!

I read the book and it's a great story, I'll be seeing it opening weekend.

[grand theft sparrow]

That trailer gives me that feeling you get when you start drinking and you feel like you have to pee but you really don't.

I can't wait to see this.

[hedwig]

-- woah..........that trailer............(minus the voice over)....man....the visuals, music, audrey, beauty, holy. holy. holy.

[03]

i read the book too it is wonderful
and jodie foster is going to be in this too?

[MacGuffin]

and jodie foster is going to be in this too?

Yep:



US Poster:

[MacGuffin]

'Amelie' Star's New Movie Causes Controversy

Amelie actress Audrey Tautou's latest movie is causing uproar amongst French film-makers, who are angry about the funding it has received from American company Warner Brothers. The makers of the movie, Un Long Dimanche De Fiancailles (A Very Long Engagement), have requested a $4.3 million subsidy from the French agency that supports film-making - The Centre National De La Cinematographie. But others in the Gallic film industry have brought legal action to block the payment, insisting the money is to preserve French movies from being dominated by Hollywood. They argue Tatou's new movie should not qualify for the funding, as most of the $55 million needed to make it came from Warner Brothers.

[Ghostboy]

Going to see a French movie (co-produced by the US, but hey, three cheers for united nations) that is virulently, violently anti-war was probably the best thing I could have done today.

Granted, it's good but not great. The first half hour of the film is exceedinly moving. Gradually, it becomes less so, as the mystery becomes more and more complicated and the characterizations that made Amelie so wonderful fall by the wayside in favor or minute twists of plot. As in Cold Mountain, the bond between the two lovers is lessened by keeping them apart for the whole film. I think that, since nearly the entire cast of Amelie appears at one point or another, it would have been a good choice to cast Matthieu Kassovitz once more as Audrey's beau -- their chemistry from Amelie would have carried over from that film to this, even though they're playing completely different characters.

But still, it is a commendable and worthwhile film with a great many wonderful elements and a stance on war that will touch many of us to the core.

[MacGuffin]

'Amelie' Director Defends French Credentials

The new film "A Very Long Engagement" was filmed and set in France and uses French actors, extras and technicians. And now its French director is fighting in French courts to prove his film is French.

Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet of "Amelie" fame is battling to prove his credentials after a court challenge by rival producers who want to block his new film from French government subsidies because they say it received U.S. funding.

"A Very Long Engagement" opens in the United States on Nov. 26 and is receiving rave advance reviews with some predicting it will be a candidate for a best picture Oscar. But the French government has not submitted it for consideration as the year's best foreign language film. The French candidate for that prize is "Les Choristes" by Christophe Barratier.

"It's completely surrealistic," Jeunet said of the court challenge, drawing a comparison with Oliver Stone's new epic about Alexander the Great, which won some French public funding, though it was not filmed in France or in French.

"Oliver Stone's movie 'Alexander' is French -- his mother is French and he did the post-production in Paris so it's French, no problem. And this one is not French, can you believe it?" Jeunet told Reuters in an interview in New York.

The film, which reunites Jeunet with rising French actress Audrey Tautou from "Amelie," is a World War One story of five French soldiers accused of cowardice who are sent to die in no-man's land between the trenches.

The fiancee of one of them, played by Tautou, refuses to believe he is dead and launches an investigation after the war to track him down.

"A Very Long Engagement" is among the most expensive films ever made in France with a budget of around 45 million euros ($58 million), most of it provided by a group of French companies including Warner Brothers France.

"It's just a question of commercial competition," Jeunet said, dismissing the court challenge by two associations of French producers who argued that it was not wholly French and was therefore not eligible for subsidies that could amount to several million euros depending on the film's revenues.

"The producers are obsessed because there's a new studio and they don't want to share the cake," Jeunet said. "It's very cynical, very hypocritical."

France is fiercely proud of its artistic heritage, battling to preserve French-language cinema and literature against the U.S. cultural hegemony that is spawned by Hollywood.

Jeunet said the case was not so important because of the money involved but rather for the future of French cinema.

"I suppose Warner is going to produce something in Italy and Spain and they're going to forget France and it will be a pity," he said.

Tautou, whose mischievous eyes and crescent smile won millions of fans in the off-beat comedy "Amelie" in 2001, is tipped as a possible nominee for the best actress Oscar.

[MacGuffin]

'Amelie' Star Tautou, Director Reunite



When Jean-Pierre Jeunet found his Amelie, he quickly knew he also had found his Mathilde.

French actress Audrey Tautou shot to international stardom with Jeunet's frolicsome 2001 romance "Amelie," about a sheltered waif in modern Paris venturing into the world in search of happiness.

Now Jeunet applies the visual flair and breathless pace of "Amelie" to the heavier story of Mathilde in "A Very Long Engagement," starring Tautou as a sheltered waif in post-World War I France venturing into the world in search of happiness.

Before you roll your eyes and decide that Jeunet and Tautou are stuck in a groove, consider that "A Very Long Engagement" is based on the late Sebastien Japrisot's 1991 novel, the only book the director ever read that he felt compelled to adapt to film.

Reading the novel years before he made "Amelie," Jeunet was drawn to the fragile yet fiercely determined nymph at the story's center. He found a kindred storyteller in Japrisot, whose nimble prose resembles the whimsical voice-overs of "Amelie."

So was "A Very Long Engagement" a natural followup to "Amelie," or was "Amelie" shaped by Jeunet's impressions after reading "A Very Long Engagement"?

"I don't know if the book influenced Jean-Pierre when he made `Amelie,'" Tautou said, sitting alongside Jeunet for an interview with The Associated Press. "Maybe it was more unconscious, because when you read the book, it's true, immediately you feel that this book was written for him."

Likewise, Jeunet figures Mathilde was written for Tautou, who won the lead in "Amelie" after Emily Watson turned it down.

The success of "Amelie," whose $33.2 million domestic haul makes it the top-grossing French-language flick ever in the United States, gave Jeunet the clout to pursue "A Very Long Engagement," which he had wanted to turn into a film for more than a decade. But unlike "Amelie," there was no second choice for Jeunet on a lead actress.

"Because I met Audrey, she gave me what I needed to make this film," Jeunet said. "If she had refused it, I think I would have not made this film. Because for me, she was Mathilde."

Part love story, part war tale, "A Very Long Engagement" follows the travels of a woman who against all evidence to the contrary refuses to believe her fiance died in the trenches. She embarks on a far-flung journey to discover the truth, enlisting a colorful assortment of confederates in her search, including Jodie Foster, who took on a small role acting in French.

Though packed with graphic battle images depicting the bedlam and absurdity of World War I trench combat, the film is laced with warm humor, fanciful images and a breakneck initial sequence reminiscent of the "Amelie" opening, right down to the beguiling voice-overs.

"The balance between the horror of the war and the tenderness of the love story was the interesting thing. The contrast between these two universes, these two worlds, was for me the richness of the movie," Tautou said.

The petite 26-year-old actress once thought about becoming a primatologist because she was interested in studying monkeys. In her late teens, Tautou began studying acting, and her first feature film, 1999's "Venus Beauty Institute," earned her honors for best new actress at the Cesars, France's equivalent of the Academy Awards.

Tautou's other movies include the ensemble tale "The Spanish Apartment" and its upcoming followup "The Russian Dolls," the romantic thriller "He Loves Me ... He Loves Me Not" and Stephen Frears' "Dirty Pretty Things," her first English-language film.

Jeunet spotted Tautou on a poster for "Venus Beauty Institute" and brought her in to audition for "Amelie." When Tautou's screen test started, Jeunet realized almost instantly she had the role.

"All my life I remember the tests, because after three or four seconds, I knew she was Amelie," Jeunet said. "I was hidden behind the camera because I cried."

"Amelie" grabbed five Oscar nominations, including best foreign-language film and original screenplay, co-written by Jeunet.

"A Very Long Engagement" might have become a favorite to win the foreign-language Oscar this awards season, but the film did not open in France in time to qualify for that category.

It is eligible in other categories, and with a comparatively weak field of prospects among Hollywood films, "A Very Long Engagement" is catching buzz as a potential nominee for best picture, actress and director. Jeunet said he prefers going after the bigger Oscar prize, anyway.

The 49-year-old director became interested in film as a youth, when he bought a Super 8 millimeter camera and began making short movies, then animated shorts, music videos and commercials.

"It was my philosophy, if you want to do film, buy a camera and do something. Just do it," Jeunet said. "I did it little by little. It was a long process, especially in France. You have to be patient."

His first two feature films, 1992's post-apocalyptic black comedy "Delicatessen" and 1995's visually wild fantasy "The City of Lost Children" earned Jeunet acclaim and landed him in Hollywood to direct "Alien: Resurrection," the fourth installment of Sigourney Weaver's space-monster franchise.

Neither Tautou nor Jeunet have settled on their next projects, though the prospect of a third collaboration between them prompted playful banter.

"Yes. It's impossible to avoid," Jeunet said, adding an aside to Tautou, "Trilogy?"

"Never," Tautou slipped in quietly. "Never again. It's just too much promotion."

"The most difficult part is to find a good story to interest you for three to four years," Jeunet said. "And if I find another story with a young woman..."

"...with dark hair, dark eyes," Tautou interjected. "Not too tall, not too short, and she's French, maybe it's going to be me."

"OK," Jeunet concluded, feigning tired resignation. "One more time."

[Ultrahip]

Well I just saw this at 'The Paris' (I wish it was 'Le Paris') in NYC.

I loved every moment of this film, even more than I loved Amelie. Tautou is just such a great, different, gorgeous actress. The film has some of the best running gags I've ever seen. Visually...well you all saw the trailer. Just multiply it by a very long running time, which did not detract from it or the film. Honestly I wish it never ended.

The plot was quite intricate and it is somewhat hard to keep tag of things, but it is not distancing. I think I felt the way Mathilde must have as she went on the way herself, which really just made the film better. Some critics have said the film was manipulative in delivering it's emotional punches. Well...consider me manipulated, because it makes you cry more than once, but there's lots of happy crying as well, especially during the scenes of Mathilde and Manech as children. Doesn't every "serious" movie go to meticulous lenghts in editing to try and deliver as powerful an emotional blow as possible? I don't know what those critic were getting at...maybe that the emotions were cheap shots? They felt pretty genuine to me. Standout supporting role, among many, goes to the mailman, who's driveway skidding never gets old. Dominique Pinon's revenge on the postman for constantly messing up his gravel driveway is hilarious.

I'm sure most people here already had some desire to see this after Amelie, but really, everyone should watch this. It is bliss.

[MacGuffin]

Court Rules French Film Not French Enough

Never mind that Jean-Pierre Jeunet's new film is a French story filmed in the French language featuring one of France's biggest actresses. A Paris court has ruled that "Un Long Dimanche de Fiancailles" (A Very Long Engagement), which opened Friday in the United States, is too American to compete in French film festivals because of its Warner Bros. backing.

The movie, which opened at the end of October in France to much acclaim, stars Audrey Tautou, the winsome young actress who went from virtual unknown to international star with Jeunet's 2001 romance "Amelie."

The National Center for Cinematography, or CNC, made state funds available for Jeunet's movie in October 2003. A producer's association immediately questioned the film's nationality and filed a complaint.

On Thursday, the court canceled the CNC approval, saying that 2003 Productions, a French company acting as the delegated producer for the movie, was created solely "to allow the company Warner Bros. France ... to benefit from financial help even though (the fund) is reserved for the European cinematographic industry."

Jeunet was traveling and not immediately available for comment on the decision, Warner Independent Pictures said in Los Angeles.

The CNC said it was "carefully studying this judgment and its consequences," but did not say whether it would appeal.

In an ironic twist, Jeunet's movie cannot even become a candidate for the prestigious Cannes Film Festival awards because, with its U.S. debut, it will have been screened outside its country of origin, France. Movies shown at Cannes must not have been screened outside the country where they originate ahead of the festival.

The travails are not yet over for "A Very Long Engagement," which faces legal action from Corsicans angered by what they consider to be the movie's demeaning treatment of the population from the French Mediterranean island.

Five associations that defend the interests of Corsicans said Friday that the film, "spits" on them by showing a Corsican soldier "abject in his cowardice."

Jeunet told the newspaper Corse Matin that he was "sincerely affected" by the charges and that the soldier depicted in his film was not meant to be representative.

Despite his legal troubles in France, Jeunet can still hope for honors in the United States but not this season's best foreign film Oscar, because the film did not open in France in time to qualify. It is, however, eligible for Oscar nominations for best picture, actress or director.

[samsong]

Well I just saw this at 'The Paris' (I wish it was 'Le Paris') in NYC.

I loved every moment of this film, even more than I loved Amelie. Tautou is just such a great, different, gorgeous actress. The film has some of the best running gags I've ever seen. Visually...well you all saw the trailer. Just multiply it by a very long running time, which did not detract from it or the film. Honestly I wish it never ended.

The plot was quite intricate and it is somewhat hard to keep tag of things, but it is not distancing. I think I felt the way Mathilde must have as she went on the way herself, which really just made the film better. Some critics have said the film was manipulative in delivering it's emotional punches. Well...consider me manipulated, because it makes you cry more than once, but there's lots of happy crying as well, especially during the scenes of Mathilde and Manech as children. Doesn't every "serious" movie go to meticulous lenghts in editing to try and deliver as powerful an emotional blow as possible? I don't know what those critic were getting at...maybe that the emotions were cheap shots? They felt pretty genuine to me. Standout supporting role, among many, goes to the mailman, who's driveway skidding never gets old. Dominique Pinon's revenge on the postman for constantly messing up his gravel driveway is hilarious.

I'm sure most people here already had some desire to see this after Amelie, but really, everyone should watch this. It is bliss.

Interesting because I'm completely on the other end of the spectrum - I hated this movie.

A Very Long Engagement is, to me, the manifestation of everything critics and dissenters alike said about Amelie a few years ago, that it was mechanical, lifeless, artificial, and manipulative (I adored Amelie).  Sure the imagery here has the delirious, phantasmagoric quality of Jeunet's other works -- I've only seen three including this one -- on an "epic" scale but Jeunet is working out of his league here.  He is, quite frankly and with all due respect, a provincial artist who's charming and poignant and able to beautifully convey great emotions as he did in Amelie but only to a point; as soon as he enters a realm of engimatic feelings and, well, maturity, his whimsical poetry becomes horrendously prosaic and arbitrary.  He tries to use the same narrative/visual style here as he did with Amelie but it doesn't work at all with the story he's trying to tell.  Instead of experiencing the intensity and horror of war or the warmth of romance, we get a mediocre, lukewarm film that is the same throughout, drab and forced.  This isn't because Jeunet avoids sentimentality; in fact he only goes for that which is sentimental, striving so desperately to evoke emotions that we (or at leats I didn't) don't feel anything, just saw what he was trying to do and wincing at the failure.  The narrative structure is fashionably convoluted, annoyingly so, and what's worse is that it's as if Jeunet treated each little subplot, every digression (there are many) like a completely different film, as if he didn't know how the pieces were going to add up.  To watch A Very Long Engagement is to witness a compotent filmmaker make a movie with great intentions but without a vision.

For me the film failed on just about every level.  Like any movie it has its moments, but it's mostly to the credit of Audrey Tautou (I love her) whose performance is as wonderfully understated, nuanced, charming, and lovable as her work in Amelie.  Jeunet's images look great but are more the creation of a techie than a true artist; here his images lack a soul.  They're beautiful to look at but are without substance or significance.  Thematically everything is so straightforward and blatant that I wrote it off completely.  There's a huge "so what" factor about A Very Long Engagement because by its end, it achieves nothing.