The year is 1920. Mathilde (Audery Tautou) is determined to find out what has happened to her beloved fiancee Manech (Gaspard Ulliel) in World War One, certain that he cannot possibly be dead. Her explorations expose the lives of five men, including Manech, who attempt to wound themselves to escape the horrors of the World War One trenches, who were punished by being thrown into No Man's Land-and whose treatment has been neatly removed from the records.
Mathilde's adventures lead her into a tangled love triangle as the desperate 'Biscotte' Gordes (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) tries to get his wife Elodie (Jodie Foster) to have a child with his friend Bastoche (Jerome Kircher). She also crosses paths with the lover of another man (Dominique Bettenfeld), Tina Lombardi (Marion Cottilard) who is also desperate to find out whether her man has escaped death, yet has a rather different way of going about her search.
The film is directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who previously collaborated with Tautou on Amelie, which (much to the suprise of my French teacher) I haven't actually seen. Yet, what I gathered is that Amelie is pretty far removed from Un long dimanche de fiancailles. This film jumps between rural Brittany and the World War One trenches, and the difference scenically is incredible. The farm that Mathilde lives on with her Aunt & Uncle and the surronding countryside is beautiful, open and colourful, whereas the trenches (as anyone who has ever done history knows) are grey and black muddy, watery hells on earth.
Jeunet's depiciation of trench life is brilliant, and appears pretty much spot-on, and the watcher is fully immersed in the horrible surrondings. There's a also a far bit of blood if you like your 15 films like that-mostly showing the self-harm the soldiers put themselves through, and the shelling and shooting between the trenches and in No Man's Land. But, thanks to Tina Lombardi, the blood shed doesn't stop in the 1920s, and if you were even considering getting a ceiling mirror over your bed, you will soon reconsider having seen this.
Tautou turns in a lovely performance as Mathilde, not overplaying her character's slight disability in any way, and motivated by an undying hope for her fiancee's life. Cottilard is again, wonderful, and I'm tempted to track down more French language films with her in. Ulliel doesn't really speak much, he does bear more than a passing resemblance to the lovely Eddie Redmayne, and also doesn't overract in situations which could definitly be seen as prime moments for attention seeking.
I was most suprised by the appearance of Jodie Foster in a French-language film, as I was totally unaware that she was bilingual, the only actress I really knew does that kind of thing regularly is Kristin Scott Thomas. Foster does well, even if her characters main arc is being filmed having sex a lot.
My favourite performance in the film came from Jean-Paul Rouve, who played the postman. Seriously. He added some much needed humour to the film. Interestingly he played Edith Piaf's father in La Vie en Rose which starred Marion Cottilard, and he could not have been more different in that film.
This is the last film that I will watch in French with school and I've really enjoyed them all. I'm hoping to finally see Amelie and Coco Avant Chanel over the holidays as well.
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