Un long dimanche de fiançailles mixes romance and mystery amid the brutal realities of World War I, and though it's a solid film, it never reaches the greatness it strives for so earnestly. Unlike most of Jeunet's other films, it takes itself too seriously, lacking much of the director's wonderful humor and imagination. For some reason, Jeunet also comes too close in theme and setting to two much better works on World War I by Bertrand Tavernier: La Vie et rien d'autre (Life and Nothing But), in which a woman searches for her missing husband in the aftermath of the war, and Capitaine Conan, about a group of French soldiers at the time of the Armistice and beyond. In fact, the opening sequences of Un long dimanche de fiançailles that take place in the hellish fox holes on the front line look like they have been lifted from leftover footage from Capitaine Conan. I'm not sure why Jeunet would do this. Unfortunately for him, Capitaine Conan is one of the greatest films about war ever made and La Vie et rien d'autre has an emotional power and complexity that only serve to make one aware of how little of the same Jeunet is able to achieve in his own work.
Audrey Tautou is charming, of course, and one enjoys watching her on the screen, but she has to carry this heavy film on her back, without much complexity in her character to explore or another strong actor to work against. One also wonders if she will get stuck playing "Amelie" the rest of her career. She's a wonderful actress, but I find myself wanting to see her in a dark action film along the lines of Nikita. Something besides the same role over and over.
One of the few times Tautou gets a break in the film is when we meet Jodie Foster's character and spend some time with her story. This is one of the best parts of the film, and if the rest of the movie had had the same emotional urgency and passion as this sequence, it would have been a much stronger work.
Jeunet could also have spent more time on Manech and the other four soldiers around him. Their stories are interesting but it's hard to follow who is who at times, and we never develop a strong emotional connection with them. More time with them and less with Tautou's Mathilde might have helped the film move a little better. One of Jeunet's strengths in Delicatessen and Amelie was creating a terrific and dynamic rhythm. This movie drags much more than it has to, getting slower (and a bit disjointed) towards the end. The role of the detective, Germain Pire, provides a bit of comic relief and an element of mystery, but Jeunet pretty much abandons the character after a couple of scenes. The mystery aspect of the film is handled poorly in general, Jeunet turning something that could have been a real advantage into a dawdling storyline that holds little or no suspense.
Visually, Jeunet does a great job again, though there aren't as many striking moments as in his earlier works. The most resonant image in the film involves a soldier carving the initials of his beloved into a battle-blasted tree trunk in the middle of a grey, apocalyptic wasteland between the French and German fronts. And while the battle scenes are sometimes powerful, there is the sense that we have seen this all before.
Un long dimanche de fiançailles was an interesting choice for Jeunet's first movie after Amelie. From a commercial perspective, it seems like a risky choice, especially given the participation of Warner Brothers in putting up money for the film. This is definitely not a ready-made hit - the movie is too long and slow for that. Many fans of Amelie will probably walk away disappointed. I respect his willingness to take such chances, but I wish he had chosen a project that wasn't so melodramatic and pretentious in the end.
And one whose plot and war theme hadn't already been done better by another director. A decent but but not great film.
Audrey Tautou is charming, of course, and one enjoys watching her on the screen, but she has to carry this heavy film on her back, without much complexity in her character to explore or another strong actor to work against. One also wonders if she will get stuck playing "Amelie" the rest of her career. She's a wonderful actress, but I find myself wanting to see her in a dark action film along the lines of Nikita. Something besides the same role over and over.
One of the few times Tautou gets a break in the film is when we meet Jodie Foster's character and spend some time with her story. This is one of the best parts of the film, and if the rest of the movie had had the same emotional urgency and passion as this sequence, it would have been a much stronger work.
Jeunet could also have spent more time on Manech and the other four soldiers around him. Their stories are interesting but it's hard to follow who is who at times, and we never develop a strong emotional connection with them. More time with them and less with Tautou's Mathilde might have helped the film move a little better. One of Jeunet's strengths in Delicatessen and Amelie was creating a terrific and dynamic rhythm. This movie drags much more than it has to, getting slower (and a bit disjointed) towards the end. The role of the detective, Germain Pire, provides a bit of comic relief and an element of mystery, but Jeunet pretty much abandons the character after a couple of scenes. The mystery aspect of the film is handled poorly in general, Jeunet turning something that could have been a real advantage into a dawdling storyline that holds little or no suspense.
Visually, Jeunet does a great job again, though there aren't as many striking moments as in his earlier works. The most resonant image in the film involves a soldier carving the initials of his beloved into a battle-blasted tree trunk in the middle of a grey, apocalyptic wasteland between the French and German fronts. And while the battle scenes are sometimes powerful, there is the sense that we have seen this all before.
Un long dimanche de fiançailles was an interesting choice for Jeunet's first movie after Amelie. From a commercial perspective, it seems like a risky choice, especially given the participation of Warner Brothers in putting up money for the film. This is definitely not a ready-made hit - the movie is too long and slow for that. Many fans of Amelie will probably walk away disappointed. I respect his willingness to take such chances, but I wish he had chosen a project that wasn't so melodramatic and pretentious in the end.
And one whose plot and war theme hadn't already been done better by another director. A decent but but not great film.