Jean-Pierre Jeunet opens with a genuine visual description of the realities of war during World War I.  The rain pours down over the desolated no man's land between the French and German border in 1917 in the opening shot.  Relentless artillery fire has stripped the land on the battle front from all sign of life while the rain water slowly seeks its way to the lowest place – the trenches.  The trenches are the home of the soldiers where they have to live among water, mud, urine, body parts, and other disgusting objects.  Endless machine gun fire forces the men to remain below the top edge of the trench as bullets hungrily seek new living targets above.  The poor conditions due to rain and overcrowding in the trenches develop terrible hygiene among the men, which creates several other enemies besides the ones in the opposing trench such as trench foot, trench fever, and other illnesses that often caused death.

Death seems to be the only way out for those who arrive to the front, which makes the notion of hope a meaningless dream.  Seasons develop different kinds of obstacles in the trenches.  Winter brings cold while in the summer diseases peaks in the trenches, as the overwhelming stench of rotting human flesh and feces would make any normal person throw-up.  As if this was not enough, the men constantly struggle with sleep deprivation due to nightly bombardments while proper meals are something of a heavenly dream.  Morale could not be lower while an abundance of madness lingers in minds of the soldiers in this nightmarish home of World War I.  Unknowingly at the time, this is a year before the end of World War I, but for those who live in the trenches it might as well have been an eternity until the end of the war.  The only desires these men have are to leave the madness of the trenches behind them at any cost.

Having the notions of the conditions of World War I in the mind, it becomes clear what compels a man to shoot their own hand while trying to leave the trenches and the battlefront behind them.  In he beginning of the film Jeunet introduces five men who all have shot their own hand in order to avoid the trenches.  However, all of the five men have been sentenced to death due to the act of self-mutilation, which is observed as a sign of cowardice.  The five condemned wander through the trench at Bingo Crepuscule where flashbacks disclose the identity of the five men.  Up to this point in this review, you the reader, might think that A Very Long Engagement is a war film, but do not let this notion trick you.  This is a love story where one of the five condemned men, Manech (Gaspard Ulliel), who is or was, which is never clear until the end, engaged to Mathilde (Audrey Tautou).

Two years after World War I, Mathilde still awaits the return of Manech, her first and only love.  She holds on to her hope that he is still alive through silly speculations and wishful thinking while she contacts survivors from Bingo Crepuscule where Manech supposedly died.  Through many of survivors Mathilde hears often the similar stories of his death, but she refuses to accept the stories.  Persistently, she hires a private detective to look up more information while she continues her own personal investigation of the fate of her fiancé.  Unlike the trench war previously described, Mathilde quest resembles a fairy tale where she is determined to find her prince.

To say that this is an anti-war film might be true to some degree, but it does not present a complete image of the story.  Jeunet portrays several different notions in this story such as love, hope, death, relationships, vengeance, and more.  Through the survivors from Bingo Crepuscule Mathilde learns much about the five condemned men, but the audience also learns much about why life is worth living through these stories.  In essence, A Very Long Engagement tells a story of life and the glue of life – love.  Love is the main theme, which Jeunet throws into contrast with numerous different notions such as death, hatred, and anger.  Through the contrasting elements Jeunet accentuates the importance of love.  Thus, it is more accurately stated that this is a love story.

There is strong presence of cinematic symbolism that Jeunet uses from the opening scene with the broken crucifix with a partial and dangling icon of Christ until the very final scene.  In the first scene, the importance of hands comes into the image where the Christ icon hangs from only one hand.  The five men were also injured in their hands while several scenes stress the importance of hands carrying out actions.  This could suggest that people with two hands can carry out different kind of deeds. In this case, the hand could deliver both love and hatred.  Love representing emotional touch and handshakes while hatred displays the notion of pulling a trigger that kills another fellow human being.  Thus, the notion of mutilating one hand could then extend the thought that the five condemned wanted to end their ability to carry out hatred and brutality against mankind.

In a clever intricate woven tale Jeunet incorporates flashbacks and voiceovers into a complex narration of Mathilde's pursuit for the lost Manech.  Visually the fragmented storyline encourages the audience to ponder Mathilde's yearning for Manech along with the aftermath of war, which displays terrific editing.  The camerawork bears a resemblance to his preceding films Delicatessen (1991), The City of Lost Children (1995), and Amelie (2001), but it still feels original.  It is obvious that Jeunet is more comfortable telling stories that are slightly bizarre and fantastic.  What Mathilde learns about Manech's fate will not be revealed here, but one thing is certain, A Very Long Engagement is a marvelously touching story that offers both comedy and tragedy on a very high level.

DIRECTED BY

COUNTRY

France / USA

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