I hate movies about war. I watch them and hate them. I cried all through Saving Private Ryan.
I hate all mention of the Great War; it messes with me in a way no war before or since ever has - it is the most depressing and heart-rending war ever to me. I cry when I hold the bayonet to my British-issue rifle from early 1918, looking at the carving on the hilt and thinking about the guy who owned it and carved it.
I like to torture myself anyway, so I would rather like to see A Very Long Engagement, a French film starring that chick from Amelie (which I’ve never seen) as a woman seeking her fiance, who is said to be dead - in, of course, the First World War.
HOWEVER
although war movies are a thing I hate and yet torture myself with, movies in which people are truly in love and then one of them dies and the other one is bereft forever and heartbroken and awful are a thing which I hate and cannot watch at all. Combining the two would create a horrible horrible thing which would kill me and I’d fall in a hole and cry for six weeks until I choked to death on sadness and horror.
I realize that not knowing whether or not the guy’s really dead is, like, the entire damn point of the film. But I DON’T CARE. I will watch it for the atmosphere and to see them get back together at the end or I will not watch it at all because it will be horrid.
So if anyone here has seen it and will tell me whether or not Manech is dead, I’d be very appreciative.
You owe it to yourself to watch this film unspoiled. It is one of the best movies to be made in a long, long time. I care nothing for your pathetic fears: whether Manech is alive or dead, you will love and treasure this film, and knowing one way or the other will make it no easier or harder to watch, but it will make it much less interesting. I heartily encourage everyone to refuse this person’s desire for spoilers. If they care, they can certainly seek them out on the net without asking us. But it isn’t worth spoiling it. Not worth it at all.
Given that the film was lovely and generally well-done, but overrated, and that the mystery surrounding Manech’s fate was the least interesting thing about the film, I don’t mind spoiling this bit: He’s not, but he’s lost his memory so he doesn’t recognize Mathilde. She still hangs out with him, though, happy at his survival. Definitely the most compelling and moving parts of the movie are related to those people who do die and suffer loss.
Be that as it may, I’d recommend seeing it–better than Amelie, nowhere as good as City of Lost Children.
Why, thank you SO VERY VERY MUCH for your lovely lovely reference to my “pathetic fears.” I’m so glad you care.
I checked google first and found nothing. This is my last resort. It is not your place to make decisions regarding my movie-watching preferences; it is particularly not your place to do so as superciliously as you have.
What can I say, I do reject your fears, and I do find them worthy of great, exaggerated Wagnerian contempt! Watch the damn movie! Stop wasting your own time!
I found them after I got sick of all the people who invariably say “you must see the movie without ruining it for yourself!” who crop up in these threads.
If she didn’t want that part of the movie spoiled she wouldn’t have started the thread.
I’m glad you are seeing it. To me it is one of the best war movies ever made as it covers the people at the front and the people at home, (which is only a few hours from the front)
The end is wonderfully French.
Like the end of Cyrano, it is both it both breaks and heals your heart.