A Very Long Engagement
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
- drama
- romance
- war
The story
Young Frenchwoman Mathilde searches for the truth about her missing fiancé, lost during World War I, and learns many unexpected things along the way. The love of her life is gone. But she refuses to believe he's gone forever — and she needs to know for sure.
What it’s like
Warm, saturated color against bleached trench greys: A Very Long Engagement moves between sun-washed Brittany coastline, sepia-tinted wartime flashbacks, and the honey-lit interiors of a Parisian apartment packed with clutter and small objects. Jean-Pierre Jeunet's camera glides and tilts with playful precision, using bold split-diopter tricks, quick whip pans, and tableau-style compositions where every corner holds a detail, while Angelo Badalamenti-inflected strings and a whimsical accordion underscore keep the mood buoyant even in grim places. The vibe is bittersweet and storybook-tender, a wistful puzzle-box melancholy suited to a rainy weekend afternoon, a comfort rewatch with tea, or a long evening when you want something romantic that is also whimsical. The pace is unhurried and digressive, circling through a cast of eccentric side characters, and its emotional arc follows a stubborn young woman refusing to accept a loss. Violence is real but brief: wartime deaths and a few harsh trench scenes are shown with sudden, unsentimental impact, and there are some frank depictions of prostitution and bodily injury, though no gore is lingered on. For people who love romantic longing, quirky character detail, and the fairy-tale look of Jeunet's films, with a tolerance for wartime sorrow.
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