May 14, 2009
A lovely film that takes a tragic look at the changing France of the 20th Century.
Audrey Tautou, Dominique Pinon, Gaspard Ulliel
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 and her relentless search...( read more
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DVD Release Date: May 24, 2005
Stats: 4,023 reviews
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Flixster Reviews (4,023)
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November 16, 2008It starts with the ugliness of war, in the trenches of the first world war. The creators of "Amelie" tell the story of Mathilde, whose fiancee got lost in the chaos of war and her relentless search for informations about his fate. That requires some concentration from the side of...( read more)
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July 31, 2008Mathilde: [peeling an apple] If I don't break the peel, Manech is alive.
Audrey Tautou stars in another beautifully made film by director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The story mixes romance, mystery, and war, and looks absolutely wonderful throughout, due to Jeunet's eye for lovingly de...( read more) -
June 28, 2008Walter, aloha e and Happy Tuesday. You know me, Walter. You know that things like captions will never throw me off --
I will gladly read captions until doomsday --
(or until the two cows I have came home -- if I lived in a democracy --
oh, wait, I do live in
...( read more) -
November 19, 2009Stunning visual recreation/imagination of WWI France as Audrey Tautou clings to hope that her fiancee was not actually killed in the trenches, contrary to the assumptions of her family. Her resolute search for the truth comprises the whole movie, a long journey filled with flash...( read more)
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November 7, 2009OK, so Jean-Pierre Jeunet is back, sticking his filmic style to his homeland, and explores the senselessness of war with the characteristic gourgeousness and humor that Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) posessed. It is moving and visually beautiful, but I'm utterly convi...( read more)
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Critic Reviews
December 17, 2004
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times
December 17, 2004
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
A Very Long Engagement probably has too many elements -- and too many characters -- for its own good. But its heart, like its heroine's, is in the right place. full review
December 17, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
A film that is a series of pleasures stumbling over one another in their haste to delight us. full review
December 17, 2004
Ty Burr, Boston Globe
You probably need a score card to keep track of everybody, but that's one of the pleasures of Jeunet's film, and it's also inextricable from his larger point: that war dehumanizes but people re-humanize. full review
December 16, 2004
Marcy Dermansky, About.com
Both a whimsical love story featuring, "Amelié" star Audrey Tautou at her most adorable, and a nitty-gritty depiction of the horrors of trench warfare. It's a very bad mix. full review
November 13, 2004
Nick Schager, Slant Magazine
Enjoying the film depends on how much one can stand visionary carnival barker Jean-Pierre Jeunet's brand of impatiently imaginative, aggressively artificial filmmaking. full review
Comments
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September 28, 2009First movie ever with Dog Farts...so it has that going for it. That made me laugh.
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October 20, 2007a beautiful film. the end was the prettiest...pretty gaspard uliel in a sunny garden, innocent as a schoolboy, all safe and sound, smiling to audrey tatou.
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May 10, 2007Nov. 2004 Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet My take having just seen this film? Raw footage of war.FRENCH MOVIE with your choice of French, English or Spanish subtitles Love story of a young carpenter Maneche & his fiance, Matilda.(Audrey Tatou) Matilda first travels as she beginto a convent to read a letter a fellow soldier(Esperanza) wrote Maneche in Somme(BEFORE Maneche is sent as 1 of 5 into "No Man's Land") Matilda viists a Detective in Paris seeking survivors of the famous trench/bunker Bingo Crepuscule. Cost? 20 francs per day (+expenses) On a more serious note, filming beings graphically depicting harsh reality of trench warfare in "The Great War (WW I)". E.g., mustard gas attacks; flooded trenches; Soldiers' diet (when lucky)Beetroot soup..lavendar honey, cocoa from NIgeria; penalty for soldiers who wounded themselves was court-martial>>death penalty. Jody Foster very convincingly plays the wife of one of Maneche's closest soldier buddies, Bastioche whom Matilda visits...
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