The author of this article: Chuan Meimei
" A Long Engagement " is a French war romance film produced by Warner Bros. in 2004. It is adapted from the novel of the same name by Sebastian Gerpesot, which mainly tells the story of Mathilde. A touching story about a 19-year-old lame girl who waited for her fiancé Manek in World War . Directed by Pierre Jeunet, starring Audrey Tautou / Gaspard Ulliel/, with a Douban score of 8.1. The film was released in France on October 27, 2004, and in mainland China on March 4, 2005.
The horror and gloominess of the war scenes in the film are in sharp contrast with the quiet, silky and beautiful natural scenery of the heroine's hometown in France, which is as quiet as an oil painting. The rationality of life's existence is demonstrated to the maximum extent, and the absurdity of war is also fully exposed. The film was nominated for 12 French César Awards, and won five awards including Best Cinematography and Best Supporting Actress, as well as a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the 62nd U.S. Golden Globe Awards.
The two words "sadness" and beauty.
The French are famous for their romance. This film, which reflects the First World War, describes the cruelty of war and death, but what really touches you is the heroine Mathilde (played by Audrey Tautou). ) Perseverance in looking for a husband, waiting without abandonment. She was convinced that her fiancé Manek ( Gaspard Uriel ) was not dead, so she waited foolishly and looked for him foolishly. Sometimes, even at night, I want to stay awake and look at the faint shadow on the glass, but my consciousness is gone. There was a bed slanted in front of the damp wall, and a huanghuali-colored cat leaned in the center of the bed, calmly expressing its sorrow in a lonely posture.
The news of Manek's death broke Mathilde's legs. In the director's shots, what left Manek with was not the luck on the battlefield, but the girl's perseverance in pursuit.
The opening chapter shows the atmosphere of war shrouded in the gloomy sky and muddy darkness. The long trenches are filled with water up to their ankles. The trenches of the French army that have temporarily ceased fire are full of dying French soldiers. The anxiety of the war has made people exhausted. Also disgusted. A certain sergeant was ordered by Shang Feng to send five French soldiers who were sentenced to death to the no-man's land where France and Germany were fighting. It was called "Bingo Dusk" at the time. Their charge was "self-harming deserters."
The five executed soldiers are: Barstow, a carpenter, who accidentally injured his hand because he shot a mouse with a pistol in his sleep; Frances, an electric welder who hated war, took the initiative to grab the hot machine gun barrel with her hand and injured her hand; Benoit, who was harvesting crops on the farm, was forced to serve as a soldier. Although he fought bravely and even strangled the domineering officers of the company, he hated the war so much that he shot his right hand; Angel was a pimp from Corsica. , although he was a swindler and a thief, he was very devoted to the prostitute Tina, and was sentenced to five years in prison for this. After being drafted to the front line of Verdun with war punishment, he and his comrades shot each other and wounded their own palms. It can be said that except for Barstow who was accidentally injured, the other four people did intend to maim themselves to escape from the battlefield.
The youngest is the lighthouse keeper Manek, who is 5 months away from turning 20 years old. He was so frightened by the brutal and bloody war that he put his cigarette-lighting hand out of the trench in the middle of the night and was shot by the Germans, losing two of his fingers. He was once a heroic hanging tower boy in his hometown town. When he was 10 years old, he met 9-year-old Mathilde. He saw her walking with a limp and asked her if your feet hurt when you walked. Their childhood sweethearts became good friends. He knew that she contracted polio when she was a child and became disabled. He never laughed at her, but took good care of her. He carried her up to the high tower, and they played, chased, and kissed on the open space at the top of the tower. They were each other's best playmates, and as they grew older, they naturally became lovers. He carved MMM on the big bell at the top of the tower - Mathilde loves Maniac, Maniac loves Mathilde.
He admired his girlfriend's breasts in the shadow of the lamp. His girlfriend shyly blew the lamp and he lit it again and again.Their young bodies took a strange liking to each other. That night was their first time. The boy was clumsy and the girl was shy. They finally had each other and decided to spend their lives together. But the young man who was too excited and too innocent actually fell asleep while holding the girl's breast. But he felt a fire in his hands, and the next day he was drafted into the battlefield.
How reluctant the girl was to let her lover leave her side. She watched the car carrying Manek drive away, and suddenly there was a voice in her heart saying, if I rush to the corner first, my Manek will be alive. return. She walked through the woods of the town and ran limping quickly on the mountain road. She ran uphill and downhill desperately, panting. Finally, she passed through the thorns and reached the corner in advance. The car drove over, and she smiled happily. He would come back, she was convinced.
Three years have passed in a flash. The girl misses her young man so much that she thinks of him no matter what she does. Just like the games we played when we were children, we were always counting on our fingers to figure out what would happen. When her uncle and aunt called her to eat, she thought, if the dog comes, it proves that he will not die, and the dog is really coming; even if she peels an apple, she will say in her heart, if the apple peel stays connected, she will Being able to find Celestine, the battlefield chef, is a good sign. The unforgettable lovesickness accompanies Mathilde every second and bites her heart.
As for Manek, he also missed her girl, so that night might be considered a meal for the last time. The military cook asked him what he wanted to eat. My companion said, the chef can't do anything else, but he can conjure up the dishes you ordered. Sure enough, 15 minutes later the chef brought out a cup of hot chocolate and a honey bun, which he had just ordered. Manek ate with a smile and said, "I can go home after eating. I can see her because I have been sentenced to death." Otherwise, we have to wait until the war is over. When will it end? How sad, he is not yet 20 years old, my eyes are red...
For four years, Mathilde has never stopped looking for her fiancé Manique, using the inheritance left by her parents to her Hire the famous private detective Pierre. This is a very interesting little old man. He boasts about his great powers and has successfully solved a train derailment case before. When Mathilde asked him about his salary, he readily said 20 franc a day. He successfully found Tina Lombardi, one of the five death row inmates, Angel's lover. : ( Marion Cotillard ) She is a prostitute, but this prostitute has a soft spot for Angel. , in order to avenge her lover, she later designed to kill the faint official La Rouye and a soldier named Duvernay. The faint official hid the president's pardon order and deliberately sent five death row prisoners to die at Bingo Night. Barstow was killed by the German Hyacinth, and the welder Frans was hit by the Germans while holding up his white shorts. And An Qi was killed by Duvina himself. He was that kind of ruthless person.
Both Tina and Mathilde were investigating the situation of the five death row inmates, and determined that three of them were dead. The remaining two were Manique, the farmer Benoit, and Mathilde. De found Celestine, the military cook, by placing a missing person notice in the newspaper. He provided clues and they were seen being taken to a field hospital.
Mathilde asked the chef Celestine to take her to Bingo Dusk once. Walking on the road of death of her fiancé, her heart was extremely heavy. Accompanied by her uncle, she went to the Irish Cemetery of French soldiers. Seeing her fiancé's grave, she sat down and said to him: You were proud of yourself before you were one year older than me, but now I am older than you were then. In the cafe, she accidentally bumped into the sister of German soldier Gant, who came to visit her brother's grave. She heard the cook and Mathilde discussing the farmer's letter home to his wife. She copied part of the letter onto the passenger message board. She quietly told Mathilde that her brother had told him that the three French condemned prisoners were really dead, and that the farmer and the boy who was carving on the tree were injured. She is German and suffered a lot during the war. Her younger brother was killed by French soldiers at the age of 23. She said time will heal everything, she was really kind.
The clever Mathilde quickly deciphered the true meaning of Benoit's letter home: informing his wife to sell the old house and farm and buy a remote farm called "The End of the World". After the war, he lived there anonymously with his family. He told Mathilde the last story of Manique: He also carved your name on a poplar during the war, and the German fighter plane Hyacinth hit He was killed, but his desire to survive was very strong. I went to rescue him after escaping from the cellar. I carried him on my back and replaced his battle card with someone else's. He bore the name of a dead soldier on the battlefield, Jean Delroy, in the field hospital. Of course, he himself changed into someone else's battle card, Corporal Gold, and survived by luck in the end.
Finally, private detective Pierre wrote a letter telling Mathilde that Manek, who had lost his memory for many years, was found in a small town. Manek has been living in the church under the name of Jean Delrot and was adopted as an adopted son by Jean Delrot's biological mother. My adoptive mother just passed away two months ago.
This story is so tortuous and complicated. What is commendable is that Mathilde never gave up looking for his fiancé. Her aunt repeatedly advised her that she was young and beautiful, and it would be great to find a good boy to start a family and have children, but she remained unmoved at all. Her parents died in a car accident when she was three years old. Fortunately, her lawyer helped her family buy life insurance. She used the inheritance to hire a private detective to investigate the inside story of "Bingo Twilight" and connect the key characters. , followed the clues, and finally found the fiancé who had been told that he had been "dead in battle."
There is a very exciting scene. Lawyer Pierre Marly takes her to a military archives in a wheelchair to check information. She is intuitively interested in the red file. The staff tells her that it is a top-secret file and is deliberately placed in a high position. High, generally not allowed to be seen. She drove away the lawyers and staff, and actually climbed onto the armrest of the wheelchair to find the key part of "Bingo Twilight". Her disabled left leg was shaking slightly, and she almost fell off the chair, and my heart was hanging in the air. She succeeded in "stealing" this secret, which laid a solid foundation for her research on Manek's life and death. Later, even the lawyer admired her very much and used the wheelchair trick to find out the truth.
I want to say that this all stems from the word "love". She always firmly believes that dear Manek is not dead, and if he dies, she will feel it. Even if she can't avoid the unexpected, she must find out the truth. This girl was physically disabled but strong-willed, and her unswerving loyalty moved God. Her uncle and aunt were also kind and supported her.
When they left for the monastery in Saintes to meet Manek that day, her aunt suddenly cried. The lawyer thought she was sad for the death of her adoptive mother. She said I am ashamed of myself. I never believed that Manek was still alive. Even though he was still alive, he still persuaded the girl to remarry. Woohoo...it was really touching.
In the last scene of the film, the beautiful Mathilde made herself look glamorous, put on light makeup, and went to see the sweetheart she had been dreaming of for four years. She wears a white dress, which symbolizes white and pure love. She specifically told herself not to wear mascara, because her tears of happiness would overflow and her manicure would not be clearly visible. As for Manek, he has experienced countless rounds of life and death on the battlefield. It can be said that he crawled out from the dead and saved a life. He has lost his memory. The government has paid for his treatment, but so far he has not received any treatment. Can jog his memory.
I suddenly thought, if Mathilde had not been so persistent in looking for him, the young man would never be able to return to his hometown after losing his memory. He would always be Jean Delroy, and he would never see his true love in this life. How cruel and sad. Now that Mathilde has found him, I believe that her undying, great love and deep tenderness will surely soothe his war-torn heart. Then, it is only a matter of time before he can regain his memory.
This movie writes about war and love. It does not face the cruelty of war directly, but connects the characters related to the tragic fate of war through the heroine's search for her fiancé, interspersed with scenes of smoke and gunfire from time to time.Some details can touch your heartstrings and shake your soul. For example, the carpenter Benjamin persuaded his friend Barstow to go to his wife to get her pregnant again and give birth to a sixth child, because the army stipulated that if there were six children in the family, they could retire and go home early, so that they could escape the war and survive. He himself was infertile and lived with the four children brought by the widow. After the widow passed away, he and his wife Veronica formed a family again with a child. He told his wife that none of the five children were my biological child, and it would be okay to have one more, so that I could return to you. How sad? Because of the war and the interests of the rulers, they have to bear this sorrow and shame (from a moral perspective).
His wife was angry at first, and she and he hesitated when Barstow showed up, but eventually they came around. Later, the two friends suddenly turned against each other. This unspeakable secret, the entanglement and carrying capacity of human nature, cannot be explained clearly by the person involved. However, when Barstow was sentenced to death on the front line, his friend Benjamin hugged him. Can you understand the feeling? I was teary-eyed.
There is also Tina Lombardi, a prostitute. I must write a few words for her: her status is humble and even despicable, but she really loves Angel and avenges him. In the end, she takes her own life. She deserves it. "Great Women". When Mathilde saw her in prison, she handed Angel's belongings to her, which was a pocket watch with a note embedded in it, "Revenge is useless, be happy and don't waste your life for me." . She eventually went to the guillotine, failed to assassinate Marshal Pétain and was arrested. I remembered Maupassant 's " Ball of Suet " and I admired this girl immensely.
In short, this movie has a very strong anti-war consciousness and compassion. It is a war movie, a romance movie, and a suspense movie. The profound connotation deeply moved me. It has lofty intentions and profound themes among war films. Its ideological and artistic height is unique among similar themes. It is worthy of being an Oscar-winning masterpiece. I solemnly recommend it to you.
The sunset at the end of the film is so beautiful that it is intoxicating. Mathilde sat on a chair and looked at Manique, tears flowing freely. In the soft light of the garden, in the warm air, everything was so harmonious and quiet. He couldn't remember anything, but he didn't forget the greeting he said when he was a teenager, "Do your feet hurt when you walk?" In an instant, we were in tears with the heroine...
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