Jean-Pierre Jeunet is my favorite storyteller. Pure and simple. I love his movies. When I hear he has signed on to his next project I eagerly await the day that I am sitting in the theater seeing what world he has created for his audience to enjoy. I could guess at the type of story that may have peaked his interest but I am always surprised by what the choice turns out to be. He keeps his audience guessing. He never does the same trick twice but what we know in all his pictures we will see a story filled with childlike imagination and wonder that somehow make our cold world feel a little warmer. It doesn't matter how big or small his stories are, even the television commercials he directs have his romantic vision and his sense of humor. He has a talent that is truly unique and the stories he tells let us see wonder in the most simple places. He brings us into his imagination and that is a world I want to be apart of even if just for a couple hours.

Jeunet's Lavazza Coffee Commercial

When I first heard Jeunet’s follow up to “Amelie” was going to be a war film I was more than intrigued. A war film does not seem like the kind of film a romantic would take on. What kind of World War One story would Jean-Pierre Jeunet want to tell? The answer is an epic love story filled with adventure, mystery and some of the most incredible characters to grace the silver screen. “A Very Long Engagement” is magic on celluloid. This film is stunning. His images are so clear, pure and filled with such expressive color. From the drab grey and muddy rain soaked trenches of the battlefields to the cliffs along the french sea side covered in the light of the setting sun, the audience is pulled into a mood, a gorgeous mood of pain and hope. Every feeling is romanticized and glorified through the images we see on the screen. Above all the feeling we are drawn into most is love. This is a love story. A love story set against the worst of what man can do to one another...war.

The adventure we are taken on with these characters is not like one I have ever seen before. We follow a young girl played byAudrey Tautou, who’s fiance is sent off to fight in World War One. She receives telegram that informs her he has been killed in battle. She refuses to believe that he is gone and holds on to the hope that he is still alive and waiting for her. Her journey to find out the real story of what happened to her fiance brings her into the world filled with Jeunet’s characters. Each adding their own details to the story. As she is pulled further and further down the rabbit hole always holding onto hope even at the darkest moments. With each passing day she gets closer to the truth. There is not a moment I did not enjoy following her on this journey and I have done so countless times. This movie is pure magic and it is stories like this that keep me going back to the movies hoping to find a diamond in the rough.

Juenet adapted this story from a novel by Sebastien Japrisot but he made it very much his own. He has a way of telling a story that engages its audience through his charming and idiosyncratic characters. He has filled this film with some of the most intriguing characters I have ever had the pleasure to watch. He gives them an identity through unique qualities that feel as if they are being noticed through the eyes of a child or our purest selves. His simple descriptions get right to the heart of who they are. He strips away all the adult bullshit that comes from justification and reason and gets to the character’s core that is not guarded by title or station but by action. He has a way of making you fall in love with each of them.

After watching this film, or any Jeunet films, you could take any character, no matter how big the role, and if they were given their own movie I would be front and center day one of release. I would love to see the world through their eyes. The details Jeunet uses to define them are so engaging and so clever I am always in awe. Each character is so exact in their look, mannerisms and behavior it all just seems to make such perfect sense and makes his stories so rich and unique. These are characters that would often be overlooked in most other films but he finds beauty in the unnoticed. His actors who portray is his characters are not traditional Hollywood attractive but when you watch them you are drawn into them. You forget their physical inadequacies and see who they are and that makes them beautiful. This happens when you fall in love with who they are. It is a strange and magical gift but this is how Jeunet sees the world and it is a wonder to take part of.

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