Jeunet's next: A Very Long Engagement

Haven't found a thread for this, this film is coming out pretty soon here and it looks gorgeous. Audrey Tautou from Amelie is the lead once again, and this has an all-star French cast, using a lot of top actors as well as Jeunet's usual crew, like Dominique Pinon. Jodie Foster has a short cameo.

The story sounds a bit darker than Amelie: Tautou hears that her fiancé has been killed during WWI but doesn't believe it and goes looking for him, crossing the whole of France despite the fact that she can barely walk (in the book she's in a wheelchair), meeting lots of different people on the way. In a recent interview Jeunet said something like "Amelie was the film of youth and creativity; this is the film of maturity".

The few pictures I've seen of the recreation of 1910s Paris look absolutely stunning; technically at least this looks very good.

I don't think the trailer is out yet, the film is coming out in October in France, so we shouldn't have to wait too long; I saw the pictures in a really long article about the film in a French magazine, and the images of old Paris were really beautiful, like old postcards brought to life.

On the official site there is a pretty pointless extract of the film ("Les premieres images"); it's when Tautou says goodbye to her lover, then kinda runs thinking "if I catch up with car before the turning, then he will come back alive". You don't get to see any of the striking stuff.

Oh, you better believe this is gonna be sentimental. Jeunet was the romantic and Caro the dark heart in their association, and now that Jeunet is on his own he's just going for the heartstrings. I mean, Amelie was pretty sappy, it's the visuals and the direction that saved it.



I hope all the fans of Jeunet have got to see City of Lost Children, that's got the perfect balance of darkness and innocence, Caro's incredible art direction and Jeunet's sensibility.

Amelie was sentimental pap mostly, but of the very highest quality. Amelies's sense of loneliness is a given in every romantic comedy; every Meg Ryan film begins with her lonely and unhappy in her love life, but with a few good friends. Amelie's situation at the beginning of the film is exactly the same, it's just very well done so you really feel for her. In fact, the whole structure of the film is the classic romantic comedy, it's just so very well done.

Caro is really doing his David Lynch thing now, small experimental dark films, there was a rumour of a feature but his stuff sounds just too dark for the mainstream. It's a shame, Jeunet and Caro balanced each other perfectly.

Trailer gonna come out soon, probably later this month.

Delicatessen is out on R2 in England

The French trailer is out, it's in the grey column on the right along with the other teasers. Beware of the shitty small image syndrome.

This film looks less and less exciting the closer it is to completion.

NON-SPOILERS

Yeah, saw the movie today as well, Jodie Foster has a small part in it and speaks amazing French, like practically every actor except Tautou - this film rests on her even more than Amelie, and she is equally good if not better in this.

Don't be surprised if this film is nominated for the oscars next year - I doubt there'll be a better thriller/melodrama coming out this year, it's a visually splendid reconstruction of 1920s Paris and of WWI, has got an old-fashioned epic feel to it and skirts the line between melodrama and corny very well. The best compliment I can pay it is that for a 2 1/2 h long film where you know the final outcome walking in I was never bored for a second.

It's a good thriller, although you can tell the book was more densely packed and a lot of the plot flies by so catching all the details while reading subtitles might be a bit hard - I doubt it's going to do as well as Amelie overseas just for that reason, but I think critics and Academy voters are going to lap it up.

If you liked Amelie this film is made for you - it's unmistakably a Jeunet film, with a lot of his trademark visual effects (incrusted images within the frame, effective overhead crane shots, zoom-ins to mechanical appliances), and great reconstitutions of 1920s cranky film footage. Also Dominique Pinon is as great as ever in this and Ticky Holgado and Jean-Claude Dreyfuss make good turns.

Overall this film is like the sadder version of Amelie in a lot of ways - nothing profoundly revolutionnary story-wise (in both films the ending is very predictable, and in this one even a bit cliched) but very solid sentimental entertainment enhanced by a very good visual style. Jeunet seems to be becoming the French version of Spielberg, with his films being a bit less corny and featuring a bit more sex the normal variations between the two film cultures.