Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Writers:

Sébastien Japrisot (novel)
Jean-Pierre Jeunet (story) ...
(more)

Release Date:

27 October 2004 (Belgium)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Romance | War

Tagline:

Never let go

Plot:

"A Very Long Engagement" tells the story of a young woman's relentless search for her fiancée, who has disappeared from the trenches of the Somme during World War One.

Plot Keywords:

Guillotine | Art House | Albatross | Hope | Brittany

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 16 wins & 21 nominations

Cast

Audrey Tautou	...	Mathilde
Gaspard Ulliel	...	Manech
Dominique Pinon	...	Sylvain
Chantal Neuwirth	...	Bénédicte
André Dussollier	...	Pierre-Marie Rouvières
Ticky Holgado	...	Germain Pire
Marion Cotillard	...	Tina Lombardi
Dominique Bettenfeld	...	Ange Bassignano
Jodie Foster	...	Elodie Gordes
Jean-Pierre Darroussin	...	Benjamin Gordes
Clovis Cornillac	...	Benoît Notre-Dame
Jean-Pierre Becker	...	Lieutenant Esperanza
Denis Lavant	...	Six-Soux
Jérôme Kircher	...	Bastoche
Albert Dupontel	...	Célestin Poux
Jean-Paul Rouve	...	The Postman
Elina Löwensohn	...	German woman
Julie Depardieu	...	Véronique Passavant
Michel Vuillermoz	...	L'il Louis
Urbain Cancelier	...	Priest
Maud Rayer	...	Mme Desrochelles
Michel Robin	...	Old Man Visiting Battlefield
Tchéky Karyo	...	Captain Favourier
Jean-Claude Dreyfus	...	Commandant Lavrouye
Philippe Duquesne	...	Favart
Bouli Lanners	...	Chardolot
Stéphane Butet	...	Philippot
Christian Pereira	...	Archives officer
François Levantal	...	Thouvenel
Patrick Paroux
Solène Le Pechon	...	Mathilde (10 Years Old)
Virgil Leclaire	...	Manech (13 Years Old)
Florence Thomassin	...	Narrator (voice)
Thierry Gibault	...	Lieutenant Estrangin
Myriam Roustan	...	The Cafe Prostitute
Gilles Masson	...	The Murdered Officer
Sandrine Rigault	...	Mariette Notre-Dame (as Sandrine Rigaud)
Michel Chalmeau	...	The Priest of Milly
Marc Faure	...	The Prison Director
Rodolphe Pauly	...	Jean Desrochelles
Xavier Maly	...	Chardolot's Friend
Till Bahlmann	...	The German Prisoner
Tony Gaultier	...	Gravedigger
Louis-Marie Audubert	...	Gravedigger
Jean-Gilles Barbier	...	The Sergeant
Marc Robert	...	Soldier
Pierre Heitz	...	Soldier
Philippe Maymat	...	Soldier
Eric Debrosse	...	Soldier
Michel Gondoin	...	Soldier (as Mike Gondouin)
Pido	...	Menacing Corsican (as Eric Fraticelli)
Philippe Beautier	...	Joker on the Train
Gérald Weingand	...	Conned Soldier
Luc Sonzogni	...	Conned Soldier
Xavier Berlioz	...	Orderly
Frankie Pain	...	Madam
Marcel Philippot	...	Bourgeois Man
Pascale Lievyn	...	Bourgeois Woman
Jean-Claude Lecoq	...	German Machine Gunner
Rufus	...	Breton
Esther Sironneau	...	Nurse
Stéphanie Gesnel	...	Prostitute
Frédérique Bel	...	Prostitute
Alexandre Caumartin	...	Stretcher Bearer
Eric Defosse	...	Stretcher Bearer
Gaspar Claus	...	Stabbed German
Jean-Philippe Bèche	...	Georges Cornu
Anaïs Durand	...	Hélène Pire
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Morgan Berthon	...	Un soldat regardant Manech
Vincent Bowen
Christophe Perie	...	Soldier
Aleksandrs Petukhovs	...	Soldier
Rachel Berger	...	Petite prostitute (uncredited)
Xavier Bonastre	...	Un bourgeois (1910) (uncredited)
Marie-Thé Colmagne	...	Une bourgeoise (1910) (uncredited)
Aleksandra Kacprzak	...	Passante sur la place de l'Opéra (uncredited)
Arnaud Klein	...	Soldier (uncredited)
Julien Lecat	...	Un soldat (uncredited)
Arnaud Marciszewer	...	Baptistin 8 ans (uncredited)
Arnaud Mathey-Dreyfus	...	Soldier Hooked in a Tree (uncredited)

Directed by
Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Writing credits
Sébastien Japrisot		(novel)
Jean-Pierre Jeunet		(story and adaptation) and
Guillaume Laurant		(story and adaptation)
Guillaume Laurant		(dialogue)

Produced by
Francis Boespflug	....	associate producer
Bill Gerber	....	executive producer
Jean-Louis Monthieux	....	executive producer
Fabienne Tsaï	....	creative executive producer

Original Music by
Angelo Badalamenti

Cinematography by
Bruno Delbonnel

Film Editing by
Hervé Schneid

Casting by
Pierre-Jacques Bénichou
Marie-Sylvie Caillierez
Valerie Espagne

Production Design by
Aline Bonetto

Set Decoration by
Véronique Melery

Costume Design by
Madeline Fontaine

Makeup Department
Jean-Charles Bachelier	....	key hair stylist
Christophe Chabenet	....	special makeup effects artist
Sylvie Ferry	....	special makeup effects artist
Dominique Galichet	....	makeup artist
Marie-Pierre Hattabi	....	hair stylist
Sébastien Imart	....	special makeup effects artist
Pierre-Paul Jayne	....	special makeup effects artist
Frédéric Lainé	....	special makeup effects artist
Géraldine Lemaire	....	assistant hair stylist
Franck Mendoche	....	hair stylist
Pascal Molina	....	special makeup effects artist
Annabelle Petit	....	special makeup effects artist
Stéphane Robert	....	makeup artist (as Stéphane Lagadic)
Jean-Christophe Roger	....	makeup artist
Nathalie Tissier	....	key makeup artist

Production Management
Laurent Chiomento	....	unit production manager
Nicolas Davy	....	assistant unit manager
Jean-Marc Deschamps	....	production manager
Eric Duchêne	....	unit production manager
David Le Gall	....	assistant unit manager
Alain Mougenot	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
David Artur	....	assistant director
Matthieu de la Mortière	....	second assistant director
Cécile Denis	....	second assistant director
Guilain Depardieu	....	second assistant director
Arnaud Esterez	....	first assistant director
Julien Lecat	....	assistant director
Arnaud Mathey-Dreyfus	....	second assistant director
Thierry Mauvoisin	....	first assistant director
Pascal Roy	....	first assistant director

Art Department
François Borgeaud	....	props
Luc Desportes	....	storyboard artist
Francesca Balestra Di Mottola	....	art department trainee
Franck Gies	....	carpenter
Mathieu Junot	....	production design assistant
Anne Le van ra	....	art department coordinator
Delphine Mabed	....	production design assistant
Hélène Rey	....	assistant set decorator
Hélène Rey	....	assistant set dresser
Patrick Schmitt	....	assistant art director
Nicolas Vrancken	....	set dresser

Sound Department
Vincent Arnardi	....	sound re-recording mixer
Marilena Cavola	....	sound editor
Sophie Chiabaut	....	sound
Cedric Denooz	....	sound effects editor
Gérard Hardy	....	sound editor
Denis Jaillet-Marsigny	....	sound recordist
Laurent Kossayan	....	sound effects editor
Guillaume Leriche	....	assistant sound re-recording mixer
Alexis Place	....	assistant dialogue editor
Jocelyn Robert	....	sound mixer trainee
Igor Thomas-Gerard	....	dialogue editor
Jean Umansky	....	sound
Yannick Vergne	....	assistant sound editor
Alexandre Widmer	....	sound effects editor

Special Effects by
Jean-Baptiste Bonetto	....	special effects
Noel Chainbaux	....	special effects assistant
Yves Domenjoud	....	special effects supervisor
Denis Gastou	....	special effects makeup
Olivier Gleyze	....	special effects supervisor
Olivier Marais	....	special effects technician
Jean-Christophe Spadaccini	....	special effects makeup

Visual Effects by
Christophe Belena	....	scan and printing: Duboicolor
Axel Bonami	....	digital compositor
Cyrille Bonjean	....	digital compositor
Lucie Bories	....	digital compositor
Emmanuelle Carlier	....	visual effects coordinator
Alain Carsoux	....	visual effects supervisor
Nicolas Daniel	....	HD coordinator
Thierry Delobel	....	digital artist
Séverine De Wever	....	production coordinator
Stephane Dittoo	....	digital compositor
Xavier Fourmond	....	digital compositor
Rip Hampton O'Neil	....	technical director
Arcier Hugo	....	3D digital artist
Élodie Ichter	....	scanner operator
Abdel Ali Kassou	....	processing: DuboiColor
David Klett	....	3D digital artist
Aurelie Lajoux	....	digital compositor
Emmanuel Le Courbe	....	digital compositor
Bruno Le Provost	....	3D supervisor
Jeremie Leroux	....	compositing supervisor
Benjamin Massoubre	....	2k operator
Cecile Peltier	....	digital compositor
Benoit Philippon	....	visual effects
Sebastien Rame	....	compositor
Aurore Rousset	....	3D animator
Bruno Sommier	....	3D shooting supervisor
George Tornero	....	digital compositor
Georges Tornero	....	digital compositor
Daniel Trujillo	....	sequence supervisor
Edouard Valton	....	visual effects producer
Jean-Marie Vives	....	digital matte painter

Stunts
Rémi Canaple	....	assistant stunt coordinator
Rémi Canaple	....	stunts
Alexandre Cauderlier	....	stunts
Patrick Cauderlier	....	stunt coordinator
Yan Dron	....	stunt rigger
Sebastien Soudais	....	stunts

Camera and Electrical Department
Michel Amathieu	....	director of photography: second unit
Julien Bullat	....	video assistant
Bruno Calvo	....	still photographer
Juliette Castanier	....	second assistant camera
Arthur Cloquet	....	camera operator: second unit
Robert Dona	....	grip
Bruno Dubet	....	key grip
Sophie Lelou Mollard	....	electrician (as Sophie Mollard)
Beatrice Mizrahi	....	director of photography: second unit
Valentin Monge	....	Steadicam operator
Steeven Petitteville	....	assistant camera
Yvan Quehec	....	electrician
Ferencz Radnai	....	rigging gaffer
Michel Sabourdy	....	chief electrician
Ludovic Simeon	....	video assistant
Christophe Sournac	....	electrician
James Swanson	....	aerial director of photography
Alexandre Szabo-Fresnais	....	assistant camera: Technospeed
Eric Vallée	....	first assistant camera
Natacha Vautrin	....	camera loader
Richard Weber	....	set lighting technician

Animation Department
Aurore Rousset	....	animator

Casting Department
Marc Robert	....	casting assistant

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Loïc Barnier	....	costumer
Catherine Boisgontier	....	costume supervisor
Marie Bramsen	....	costume design assistant
Chloé Lesueur	....	dresser

Editorial Department
Nicolas Criqui	....	digital conformation
Céline De Seyne	....	director of post-production
Céline Kélépikis	....	assistant editor
Lionel Kopp	....	post-production advisor
Yvan Lucas	....	colorist: Eclair
Philippe Reinaudo	....	digital intermediate technical director

Music Department
Angelo Badalamenti	....	orchestrator
Bryan Clements	....	scoring crew
Edouard Dubois	....	music consultant
Mark Eshelman	....	scoring crew
Greg Loskorn	....	scoring technician
Phil Marshall	....	conductor
Phil Marshall	....	orchestrator
Adam Michalak	....	score recordist
Bill Pearson	....	music recordist
Dennis S. Sands	....	music scoring mixer

Other crew
Laure Auger-Robert	....	personal assistant to director
Laure Auger-Robert	....	production secretary
Christine Bodelot	....	production controller
Élizabeth Boorn	....	production coordinator
Jean Brun	....	administrator
Marie Ducret	....	scripte assistante
Jennifer Gay	....	translator
Sophie Hennard	....	production assistant
Aude Lemercier	....	location scout
Christophe Maratier	....	weapons
Arnaud Mathey-Dreyfus	....	location scout
Frédéric North	....	helicopter pilot
Peggy Pere	....	aerial coordinator
Christophe Perie	....	stand-in: Gaspard Ulliel
Julien Perrin	....	video conforming
Luc Poullain	....	aerial coordinator
Anne Wermelinger	....	script supervisor

Thanks
Jacques Perrin	....	thanks: "Le Peuple migrateur" footage

Production Companies

• 2003 Productions
• Warner Bros. (co-production)
• Tapioca Films (co-production)
• TF1 Films Productions (co-production)
• Canal+ (participation)
• Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC) (participation)
• Région Poitou-Charentes (participation)
• Région Bretagne (participation)
• Gerber Pictures

Distributors

• Warner Bros. (2004-2005) (worldwide) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (2004) (France) (theatrical)
• Argentina Video Home (2005) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Argentina Video Home (2005) (Argentina) (VHS)
• Fox-Warner (2004-2005) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (2005) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (2005) (Brazil) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (2005) (Czech Republic) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (2005) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (2005) (Italy) (all media)
• Warner Bros. (2005) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (2005) (Mexico) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (2005) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (2005) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Warner Home Video Española S.A. (2005) (Spain) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2005) (Switzerland) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2005) (Germany) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2005) (Netherlands) (DVD) (VHS)
• Warner Home Vídeo (2005) (Brazil) (all media)
• Warner Independent Pictures (WIP) (2004) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Warner Sogefilms S.A. (2005) (Spain) (theatrical)

Special Effects

• Duboi
• Les Versaillais
• Éclair Numérique

Other Companies

• Nonesuch Records  soundtrack album published by (as Nonesuch Variété)

Also Known As:

A Very Long Engagement (International: English title) (USA)
Amor eterno (Argentina) (Chile) (Venezuela) [es]
Mathilde - Eine große Liebe (Austria) (Germany) [de]
Eterno Amor (Brazil) [pt]
Kayip nisanli (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Långvarig förlovning, En (Sweden) [sv]
Lang forlovelse, En (Denmark) [da]
Largo domingo de noviazgo (Spain) [es]
Lunga domenica di passioni, Una (Italy) [it]
Pitkät kihlajaiset (Finland) [fi]
Väga pikk kihlus (Estonia) [et]

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and sexuality.

Runtime:

133 min

Country:

France | USA

Language:

French | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Taiwan:R-12 | Spain:13 | Canada:18A (Ontario) | Malaysia:U | Iceland:16 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Zurich) | Portugal:M/16 | Germany:12 (f) | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Brazil:16 | Chile:14 | Czech Republic:12 | Finland:K-15 | France:U | Hong Kong:IIB | Japan:R-15 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16 | Peru:14 | Philippines:R-13 | Singapore:M18 | South Korea:15 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Austerlitz Railway Station, Paris 13, Paris, France

Company:

2003 Productions

Trivia:

Tina Lombardi's execution scene is directly inspired by the real film of the last public execution in France, Eugen Weidmann's in 1939.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: One of the five sings a portion of La Chanson de Craonne, a famous French army song of protest against the horrors of the war, when he is out in no man's land. Trouble is the attack on Craonne in the Nivelle Offensive, which led to the song, occurred in April 1917, after the events in the movie. Words and tune logically came after that too.

Quotes:

Tina Lombardi: I regret nothing. Except my hair.

Movie Connections:

References MASH (1970)

Soundtrack:

Peer Gynt: Suite Number 1, Opus 46

A Very Long Search for a Loved One

Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet in the hit, "Amelie," employed scintillating Audrey Tatou, the most expressive young French actress in film today, to portray a whimsical and charming girl-woman in search of love. With her now as a young French rural ingénue searching for years after The Great War (aka World War I or, even better, The War to End All Wars) for a probably killed fiancé, Jeunet crafted a moving, often penetrating story centering on the charnel carnage of trench warfare.

Lame as a single-digit-age child because of polio and living with relatives who took over after her parents were killed in an accident, Mathilde is befriended by Manech (Gasparad Ulliel). Mathilde, a loner separated from her peers by her disability, and Manech become closest friends. Late adolescence brings love and lust, commitment and an engagement.

But in 1917 the French Army needed fresh meat for the bloody maw that was warfare on the almost terminally static Western Front. And off went Manech along with many others who never returned.

Employing the harshest discipline of any Western army in modern history, the French Army (which gave the world the Dreyfus trial and in World War I actually used decimation to punish mutinous regiments and divisions) sentences Manech and four others to be cast into No Man's Land without weapons, without any possibility of being allowed to return but with the macabre requirement that they respond to morning roll call if alive (not a good bet). Their alleged crime was self-mutilation to get out of combat (what we call in the American military, "SIW," Self-Inflicted Wounds).

Mathilde in 1920, steely faithful in a moving and believable way, searches fervently for her fiancé whom she believes "must" be alive somewhere, somehow. Employing artful stratagems and enlisting the willing, the paid and the dragooned, her search takes her to cities and battlefields. With resort to a child's employment of magical thinking she frequently whispers tests about what will happen in immediate, ordinary circumstances with one result "proving" for her that Manech is still alive. Tatou makes this self-deception appealing and infinitely sad.

As Spielberg did in "Saving Private Ryan," Jeunet brings the immediacy of the meat-grinding battlefield to the viewer over and over again through superb if sometimes difficult to watch cinematography. Of course no film truly captures the desperation, the epidemic fatality that gripped and demoralized the French Army after years of immobile, set-piece fighting. One needs to read Robert Graves or Siegfried Sassoon for that. But Jeunet has brought to the screen the most realistic World War I trench scenes since "All Quiet on the Western Front" (the 1930 original, of course).

Tatou is an acting tsunami here, alternately beguiling and tense and always hopeful while fighting despair. Expect to see her in many fine roles in the future. She's marvelous.

The entire cast is excellent-few are known in the U.S.

A remarkable movie with an ending that will satisfy and disturb at the same time.

Tatou and Jeunet deserve Oscar nominations.

10/10