Is anyone else seriously looking forward to this film? I couldn't be any more excited for it. The re-teaming of one of my favorite director's (Jean-Pierre Jeunet) and one of my favorite actress' (Audrey Tautou) is a great start, but after seeing the marvelous trailer, it's officialy my most anticipated film for the rest of the year. Here's the trailer:
http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wip/us/ ... qt_300.mov

Is anyone else looking forward to this? Has anyone actually seen yet?

Meh...I can't really get excited over anything Audrey does. If it weren't for Dirty Pretty Things, I'd consider her filtering process, role selection, and acting abilities sub-par. Only because she was okay in Dirty do I even give her mediocre/normal standings.

I really didn't like Amelie nearly as muchas everyone else did. I actually found it a boring and sort of predictable pieve of fluff pretending to be more than it was. Everyone always talks about the cinematography, but, which was alright, but nothing that kept me so engaged as to override the deficencies of the film. She was freakish in it, which i guess was the point. I wanted to run myself right out and see He loves Me, He Loves Me Not, because part of the promo for it was that she was so odd in Amelie.
Other than Happenstance was weak, and I didn't even finish it, but I do realize it was released much later here after she was big, so don't hold her to her earlier roles. But C'mon L'Auberge Espanole was just lame. This is really not saying much for the roles she picks. It reminds me of some of the serious mis-steps Juliet Binoche takes, only Binoche at least does some really good films to counter it, and is a decent actress.

Dirty Pretty Things was interesting, but more for direction, story, and atmosphere. Not because she was really any good in it. I still wonder why people love her so much and want to flock to her movies?

Well, I see her movies because I have an insane crush on her. I don't know other people's reasoning, though.

That's about the best picture of her ever. Its what got me to see the movie in the first place....so I guess I'm in your boat. But still that picture ain't that great. lol

Honestly, though, aside from Audrey's amazing looks, I just find her to have this otherworldly and extremely charming presence on film. There's just something really enchanting about her. And Jean-Pierre Jeunet is hands down one of the most inventive filmmakers of our time. Have you seen City Of Lost Children or Delicatessen, dolce? Hell, even Alien 4 has some amazing visuals in it.

I agree with you, dolce. I have yet to see Dirty Pretty Things, and although I liked Amelie, I wasn't totally enamored by it. Audrey was cute, but she just kind of ran around amongst a plethora of pretty colors (Not to say I didn't like the film, though. In fact, I enjoyed it quite a bit).

A Very Long Engagement, however, is one of my most anticipated for the rest of the year. Mix those purdy colors and a little World War I, and I'm there.

Hmmm. Long Engagement is at 73% over at RT with 41 review submissions. I don't know why, but I think this is a good thing. When a foreign comes in at near 100% I always get the feeling critics are embracing it just for its foreigness and to maintain their high-brow. Anyways, it seems they are, well, actually being critical of this. I've been hearing some rumors about Tautou actually being oscar worthy in this performance too. Maybe I will actually go check it out? Its already got limited release since two weeks ago, so I should be getting it around here very soon. When I wrap up finals I swear to God I'm hitting the theatre and watching like three movies in a row.

Opens this week in a few theatres.

RT standing at 74% fresh and 82% fresh for cream of the crop. A 7/10 and 7.2/10 average rating respectively. Anyone seen it yet?

The new Times reviewer thought it was superficial sentimentalism, but he's replacing Mitchell (whom used to be my fave reviewer) so I don't know his tastes well enough.

I dunno, this could be another weak Audrey movies where she's the main vehicle for pushing it through? Maybe not, since enough critics liked the movie, but I might sit on it until I hear from you guys. Its definately not top of my list right now. :?

This actually looks to be one of the first foreign films I *want* to see. Very, very interesting trailer. I've heard the buzz for Amiele and Dirty Pretty Things, so I *might* check it out given the chance. It looks like a winner.

I quite enjoyed A Very Long Engagement - certainly many of the visuals were quite literally breathtaking - but as much as I enjoy a complex, time-shifting story, I found this one to start to push the limits of my patience and comprehension. In the long run that's not necessarily a bad thing - I'm sure it will reward multiple viewings, but I think it could have really benefitted by being tightened up by about 15 minutes. Audrey Tautou is good as always, partially because she's just got "the look" - she reminds me of Helena Bonham-Carter who just looked so perfect in all those movies with historical settings (which reminds me - how about that 20 minute sex scene at the end of Wings of a Dove ).

4 out of 5.

I heard the book was quite demanding in the sense of time and narration as well. I'm going to check it out this weekend and let you know what I thought.

Anyone else seen it yet? Makeshift? I heard Xia saw it too.

well, assuming the "coming soon" on a theater here's web site is accurate, and not "in general", AVLE, HoFD, and In Good Company all open this weekend, here. l hope so, as that'll pretty much finish out 2004 for me (sepping for MDB, and a couple other random ones) And if it is indeed the case, l'll definintely be seeing Very Long Engagement. the more l rewatch Amelie/think about it, the more l love it, and l really liked it to begin with. plus the trailer for this is great... :? :up:

Living in Medford, OR kinda limits my chances to catch this in theaters.

Hopefully Ashland will get it soon.

I mean, I just saw Closer last weekend (amazing movie, BTW).

Hey, you could always go to the civilized part of Oregon, P-Town. We get all the new movies Eastern Oregon, aka "The Forbidden Zone", doesn't.

It's probably a good thing Medford is in Southwest Oregon, then. :razz:

I actually used to live in Eastern Oregon, though. What a god forsaken place that is. Republicans and desert does not a good place make.

Medford's actually not that bad, though. It's the fourth largest city in Oregon (behind Portland, Eugene, and Salem), and I always have Ashland fifteen minutes away to keep me sane.

Well, it's finally playing in Ashland starting today. Looks like i'll be seeing it this weekend sometime. Finally, a new Audrey fix!

Haha, woops. But c'mon, it's not like there's anything in Oregon outside of Portland! And yeah, Eastern Oregon is awful. Every place's town hall is a gas station!

Just watched at a matinee today. I actually really liked it, I didn't find the narrative structure to be that complicated. It pretty much takes place in the present with "flashbacks" that keep getting rewritten according to new information be people that resurface. I admit the film was a bit choppy, so my patience dragged at points, but I think it has more to do with some of the "habits" that kept coming up. I didn't really need to here the tuba that often, and also how she kept testing her hopes by counting to a number, etc. Those were the weaker parts in the film in compared to the actual storytelling. I did notice that Juenet keeps doing those *tangent* histories (as he did in Amelie) and I don't love them, but they were much better used here than in the former. Ultimately at least every tangent here fit into the story and into uncovering if her finace was dead. This has to be Tautou's strongest film by far. I'm only comparing it, however, to Amelie and Dirty Pretty Things, since I did not see some of her other ones. But she was perfect for this role. She played someone who is 20 but very mature, and that's exactly her look. She always comes off "simple" but in this film it managed to be equated more to be in love and directed than just shy. Excellent job and I would consider this one of the Oscar snub performances for best actress. There were some moments (when she's out of breathe and finished running while getting upset) that were a real breakthrough for her acting style. A much fuller role.

Not an A but most likely an B+ or B I still need to do the official review so I'll figure it out while writing.

Amelie - best film EVER.

I'm glad you liked it, dolce. I haven't been able to catch it this weekend, so hopefully i'll get out to Ashland sometime during the week. Tell me, was Audrey as radiant and beautiful as ever?

I am going to see it when it comes out here later this month. It has more appeal to me than Amelie, by far.

My official review will be up soon, but here's a taste:



...Manech is so desperate to return home early that he purposefully mutilates his own hand in an attempt to be granted a permissive ride home. Only he and four other men accused of similar actions are instead punished by the French army, and are left to die in the no man’s land region between the French and German barracks one night. The series of events that unfolds in the dark of that night and the few hours of morning light are all the information that remains of the presumably dead five men. Mathilde is not convinced. Crippled since youth she sets off to Paris determined to learn the fate of Manech. She’s intelligent and pertinent for a young woman, and manages to recruit many sympathizers along her journey including the prostitute lover of one of the other penalized men. Tina Lombardi (Marion Cotillard) is the strongest compliment to Mathilde in her simultaneous quest to discover and wreck havoc upon anyone and everyone that assisted in the abandonment and death of her lover in the trenches. Because both Mathilde and Tina are women deeply in love with lost men, the contrasts and similarities in their resulting quests both emphasize the time in which both women operate and the profundity in the nuances of their personalities. Tina actually comes across as far more engaging and intriguing a figure despite her dramatically limited screen time, or perhaps because of it...


BTW, anyone who watched it caught Jodie Foster? I knew it the minute I saw her but spent the rest of the time she was on screen trying to dissuade myself of the fact. I just kept saying its a French woman that looks a damn lot like Jodie Foster. But I checked the credits, it was her. What's she doing in a French flick? I didn't even know she spoke French? Anyone with a good ear...did she do an alright accent?

All I know is that Foster speakers French fluently.

I was actually a bit disappointed.
I saw it last weekend, and again I was a bit sleepy and while I never dozed off I kept missing alot of the subtitles and while I understood the plot and everything, that may have been why it was a bit more confusing to me, but I also think the swriting attributes to that too. Maybe it's just the fact that the story itself is lightly complicated to follow and when it's in another language it kepst even more jumbled up.

I was waiting for an epic love story torn by war and that's not really what it was.

I was disappointed that they didn't show alot from their childhood, almost exactly what we see in the trailer only. We don't know why they are crazy for each other; only that they have been for a LONG time.

I think overall, the story was pretty good and something new, but it was written and executed in ways that could have been improved. I did think it dragged a bit too much and the end came out of nowhere or maybe I didn't catch it. I was also a bit let down by the actual ending, while it wasn't bad I wasn't wholly satisfied.

It just felt like it wanted to be something and at its best effort it could have almost been a classic but alot of things fell short. Not to say I don't recommend it, I just don't think it was one fo the best of the year.

B/B-