Director of ‘A Very Long Engagement / Un long dimanche de fiançailles’, Jean-Pierre Jeunet once stated, ‘Cinema since the New Wave always seems to be about a couple fighting in the kitchen. I prefer to write positive stories’. The influence of New Wave will always have a place in my heart but...well...yeah I can see where he’s coming from. Jeunet delivers a film with no definitive genre whereupon each time a new genre comes into play it feels succinct. AVLE stands tall and in my humble opinion, far exceeds his more celebrated film, ‘Amélie’.
Audrey Tautou plays Mathilde, an orphaned woman living in Brittany with her aunt and uncle. She is the young fiancé of soldier Manech (Gaspard Ulliel) who’s out on the Western Front in 1917. It all gets complicated when Manech is one of five soldiers who either accidentally or purposefully self-mutilates in hope of winning themselves a one-way ticket from the living hell of the trenches. These men are condemned to die and in circumstances where most would give up hope, Mathilde, in a childlike stubbornness, refuses to accept that her beloved Manech has died. What ensues is her relentless search for answers. Each character introduces the Great War, giving both a solider and civilian perspective that swings from horror to heartbreak. Notable actors include Jodie Foster, who painfully reminded me I need to work on my French, and Marion Cotillard who peddles one of the most emotional scenes in the film as she too looks for answers on behalf of a lover. (It’s worth noting here that you really ought to try and make a strong mental note of names as I for one will admit to being a bit lost at times).
The world of early twentieth-century France is delivered by cinematographer, Bruno Delbonnel. There is a blatant play with the colour palette. Scenes in the Breton countryside are touched with a yellow cast that might look ridiculous elsewhere but in a film with similar quirky characters to ‘Amélie’ nothing else could be more befitting. The trenches are unsurprisingly not graced with a yellow colour palate. As the camera pulls back through the trenches, in what must be a homage to ‘Paths of Glory’ Delbonnel justifies the misery that will kick-start the plot. Accompanying Mathilde’s quest for answers is Yann Tiersen’s soundtrack which captures the anxiety and hope in which we cheer her on. Tautou gives a fantastic performance, it does carry a lot of the same eccentric vibe as her role in Amélie, she may even annoy you through her slightly rude quips but ultimately you will be endeared to her. If that sounds a bit too much like an order, just wait for the lighthouse scene.
In the beginning, I said this film was better than ‘Amélie’ which probably puts me in a lonely corner. I am biased in that I have an interest in the Great War but that said I can also find war films to be the most tedious genre of them all. What has made me say this is that despite all of Jeunet’s trademark quirks that can be seen in both films there is a certain reality to that AVLE has over its predecessor. I can’t conjure up a film whereby it invokes both a reality and a fantasy and holds it so well together. The grief of war is sewn in with humour and hope. This film is a masterpiece.
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