One of the most ambitious and unusual projects in French cinema, it is the realization of a 10-year-old dream for director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Upon reading Sébastien Japrisot's novel in 1991, Jeunet was thoroughly enthralled by the extraordinary love story - and its heroine Mathilde - and dreamt of adapting it for the screen.
"The first time I opened it, I couldn't put it down until I'd finished it," he recounts. "First, it's a very, very lovely, strong and original story about this young woman who refuses to accept that her lover's dead, despite all the evidence. Second, I found many of my own preoccupations and interests in it, like the 1914-18 War and Paris in the 20s. A blend of innocence and fantasy impregnates the whole period despite the gravity of events."
Jeunet found the main character's determination to be especially compelling. Says Jeunet, "It all comes down to that. The epigraph to Japrisot's book is a quote from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland…The ability that some have to see what others can't see or, more importantly, to not look at what all the world sees, is something that moves me deeply. Mathilde is deeply convinced she is right, despite what everyone else thinks. She finds herself alone against the world. And even if she has moments of doubt, she finds the strength to convince the others and win them over. I deeply understand this ferocious willpower and obstinacy. It's similar to someone who wants to make films but comes from a background that completely discourages it."
At the time, Jeunet had just shot his first feature Delicatessen. When the relatively unknown director learned that Warner Bros. held the rights to the book, he put this particular dream on hold, continuing on his own wildly imaginative path as a filmmaker.
Ten years later, the worldwide success of Amélie had definitely altered his situation. Jeunet learned that Warner Bros. still held the rights and now planned to make a film of the story. His desire to adapt Japrisot's book was rekindled and his passion for the project had, in fact, become even more pronounced since he had finally met the ideal actress for the part of Mathilde: Audrey Tautou.
"When I first read the book, I wondered who could play Mathilde but couldn't think of anyone. When I met Audrey I immediately thought, 'Here's Mathilde, standing right in front of me.'" On the evening of the Oscars® ceremony (where Amélie was nominated for Best Foreign Film, Best Screenplay, Best Photography and Best Art Direction), he asked his Amélie if she would like to do another film with him. She replied: "Sure, if it's with the same crew!" This only convinced Jeunet all the more. He resolved that A Very Long Engagement would be shot in France, in French and with French actors and French crew. Warner Bros. accepted. Gaining 35% of its funding from Warner Bros., the film would be produced by 2003 Productions - a French production company created by Francis Boespflug, in which Warner Bros. holds a minority capital interest. The two companies had already co-produced two films: Josiane Balasko's L'ex-femme de ma vie and Charles Nemes' Le Carton. Thus, the dream began the process of becoming reality.

THE WRITING PROCESS
While funding was being organized, the director began adapting the novel, collaborating with Amélie scriptwriter, Guillaume Laurant. "It's a breathless novel," comments Laurant. "Japrisot's way of carrying us along right to the end is really captivating…[We were primarily concerned with] capturing the subtle balance between this light-filled love story and its horrific context. What's so beautiful about A Very Long Engagement is that the heroine's tenacity, strength of will and faith transcend the horrors of war."
Jeunet and Laurant worked tirelessly to uncover the simple story to be found at the very core of the sweeping novel, in order to keep the ambitious project focused on the heroine's journey throughout the film. "Our first task was to take this ultra-sophisticated machine apart, like dismantling an engine into its separate components to see how it works," Jeunet explains.
Laurant elaborates, "First we worked together to agree on what had to be kept and what discarded and decide upon a structure. Then Jean-Pierre wrote a 30-page synopsis. On the basis of that, I wrote a first version of the script. After that, it was a constant to-and-fro between myself and Jean-Pierre until we came up with a final version. I really enjoyed working with Jean-Pierre because of his constant concern for simplicity and efficiency."
In adapting the novel, the writers also had to make some difficult decisions in creating a more cinematic version of the story. In particular, Jeunet and Laurant had to find a way to translate the epistolary parts of the book into the immediacy of film. While a classic literary device, the use of letters sent and received by Mathilde in the course of her inquiry can be particularly difficult to adapt.
"We kept some letters but poeticized them visually," says Jeunet. "And we transformed many into actual meetings between Mathilde and the other person. In movies, you really need a little more efficiency and spectacle without going over the top. I also took the opportunity (I couldn't resist) to introduce a few of my personal ideas along the way. Let's say that Mathilde is a bit more active in the film and spends less time reading than in the book."
The writers also made another difficult decision to alter another important aspect of the book. They decided that Mathilde would not be in a wheelchair but, as a victim of poliomyelitis, she would limp. "In the novel, the reader ends up forgetting about the wheelchair," notes Jeunet, "however, on screen…it would end up being too heavy. It would also have been cumbersome in terms of the production, and I wanted to be as free as possible."
Together, director and screenwriter polished the script over several months. "Our work was very different from that on Amélie," says Laurant. "Amélie was a completely original script. Jean-Pierre and I threw our ideas onto the table and constructed the film from there. Here, we started with a defined story, with twists and turns and genuine intrigue. Our starting point was specific characters that evolve and have emotions."
All this writing work took place with Sébastien Japrisot's blessing. Jeunet had explained to him what he was going to do. "Unfortunately, I didn't have time to meet him," says Jeunet. "When we spoke, he said, 'Now it's your baby. Do it as you see fit. But come and see me after you've finished.' Alas, he died a week before the script was finished. I was sad about that."
Along the way, Jeunet and Laurant did an enormous amount of research, reading novels and period accounts. Jeunet's childhood fascination with the subject provided an excellent starting point in the exhaustive quest.
Says Jeunet, "It's a strange thing. Although I grew up in Lorraine, I wasn't brought up on stories of that period. None of my family members were directly involved in the war, so they didn't pass on their stories to me. But as an adolescent, I would voraciously read everything on the subject: Les Croix de Bois, Le Feu, La Peur, Orage d'Acier...but this war was a total abomination. When people talk of WWI and, even more atrociously, of those who were shot 'as an example,' you can only condemn that war - and all wars, for that matter."
The writers researched images to help them imagine the world as Mathilde might have known it in order to recreate it in the script, relying not so much on films ("There aren't many good ones, other than Kubrick's Paths of Glory and Lewis Milestone's All Quiet on the Western Front," says Jeunet) as news reports and period documents. "For Jean-Pierre, it is extremely important to get every detail right," says Laurant. "We needed to get a visual feeling for all the novel's nooks and crannies and the situations that Japrisot describes. So we had to do a lot of research, to get as close as possible to reality."
Ever since she learned of his death, she has stubbornly held to her intuition, like to that thin wire. Each time it snaps, she ties it again. She never gets discouraged. And Mathilde has a cheerful disposition. She tells herself that if the wire won't lead her to her lover…it's no problem. She can always use it to hang herself.

CASTING
Upon completion of the script, the first person cast was also one of the first people to read it. Tautou says, "What touched me immediately was Mathilde's determination. Although everything seems to indicate that her quest is impossible, she continues to believe in it totally. Personally, I wouldn't have been able to battle on in the way she does."
On the story's broader message, Tautou comments, "It's a love story about two people who are separated by the war. The power of the film comes from the relationship between Mathilde's tenacity - she'll do anything to find her lover, who everybody thinks is dead - and the brutality of the historical context. There's nothing maudlin or gratuitous in the feelings that are portrayed. Through this love story, we can understand the horror and the infamy of this war."
Upon completion of the screenplay, Jeunet began assembling an eclectic, surprising cast for the film. He brought together a diverse group of actors with different approaches, blending experience and techniques. He also sought out distinctive faces, personalities and temperaments.
"I did what I always do," says the director. "I looked for the actors I thought would best play the characters, without trying for a glittering cast. This time was different, because my experience and success with Amélie meant I could have aces, even for the small roles." While Audrey Tautou is backed up by some of Jeunet's regulars, including Dominique Pinon, Ticky Holgado, Jean-Claude Dreyfus and Urbain Cancelier, there were also a lot of new faces. These include Clovis Cornillac, Marion Cotillard, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Julie Depardieu, André Dussollier (who did the voice-over for Amélie), Tchéky Karyo, Jérôme Kircher, Denis Lavant and Jean-Paul Rouve.
The fifth man was a Cornflower, nickname for the class of 1917. He wasn't twenty yet. Now, he was afraid of everything; cannons, gas, trench sweepers, executions. Before the slaughter, he was just the opposite, braving storms in rescue operations…
In searching for the right actor to play the role of Manech, Jeunet auditioned numerous young French actors, but when he spotted Gaspard Ulliel in Michel Blanc's film Summer Things, the director knew he'd found Mathilde's lover. "There's something about Gaspard," says Jeunet. "The camera loves him. He's a wild one, but he's got a sense of timing and always hits the right note. He's absolute magic. He and Audrey make an ideal couple, both innocent and romantic - the very couple whose love story pervades the film."
While casting the film, Jeunet was also assembling his production team, enlisting the aid of frequent collaborators and long-time colleagues, most of whom have actually been with him since he started out. To shoot the film, Jeunet recruited cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, with whom he made his short films as well as Amélie. He also selected set designer Aline Bonetto (who has worked with him since Delicatessen), costume designer Madeline Fontaine (who met him on The City of Lost Children), make-up artist Nathalie Tissier, editor Hervé Schneid, special-effects company Les Versaillais and visual effects company Duboi. All enjoyed both the pleasure of coming together again after the fabulous Amélie adventure to face the excitement of the challenge that awaited them.

THE FILM PROCESS
In preparing for the shoot, Jeunet worked closely with set decorator Bonetto to address some practical concerns as well as aesthetic ones, regarding sets and locations for the project. The two researched together extensively. "That's what the adventure of cinema is all about," says Bonetto. "You get a new script, and suddenly you're thrust into a world that you know practically nothing about, and you've got to deal with it. It's incredibly exciting. You start discovering, you start looking at everything, poring through piles of images until it's coming out of your ears. I plunged, body and soul, into the 1914-18 War - which was particularly strange, since at that time our TV screens were showing images of a real war: the war in Iraq."
As always, Bonetto's point of departure was archive documentation. "Aline and I have a simple way of working," says Jeunet. "We must have gone through just about every archive and looked at every image available on the war, including photos, newspapers and documentaries. It was a real gold mine."
"The greatest challenge was obviously the recreation of the front line and the trenches," says Bonetto. "This was because the set was less predictable. All the other sets were either outdoor constructions (and we know how to handle those) or studio constructions (we know how to do those too), but the trenches were another story. First we had to find the ideal place to recreate them. This couldn't be at the actual spots where the War took place - both because they're memorial sites and the ground had been too churned up to dig a set. Neither could it be on agricultural land - this would have made the land unusable for too long." After a lengthy scout, they chose a military terrain in the Poitiers area.
"Jean-Pierre needed a very specific set-up in the trenches," Bonetto continues, "so I tried to imagine how soldiers would move around and how many tunnels we'd need. I made sketches and reworked them with Jean-Pierre. Then we made a 7-meter long dummy. This had to be sufficiently large to allow us to detect all the technical problems that might crop up. Filming a trench is complex. It's narrow, deep and there are other difficulties, like water and mud. It would have to hold up for 5 weeks, in the rain. We couldn't risk the trenches collapsing on us, so we had to construct them according to very strict standards."
They worked for six weeks in this way, on 20 hectares (approximately 50 acres) of terrain, digging and equipping 200 meters of trenches. "Each square centimeter of these trenches was sculpted, painted, finely worked and polished. Then the no-man's land between the French and German lines had to be re-created. We dug shell craters, pulled up greenery and uprooted trees on the horizon line. The production crew replanted everything after the shoot. It was a real construction site, in every sense. When Jean-Pierre arrived and I saw him climb down into the trenches and walk up and down, not wanting to come out, it was a moving moment."
In a similar fashion, Jeunet worked closely with Madeline Fontaine on costumes. "Jean-Pierre's references are always visual and concrete," says Fontaine. "He gives a precise idea of the direction he wants to go in - then our work is to rise to his vision and do what's necessary to develop his images, his world and his characters. The challenge this time came from the fact that this production was much bigger (with more extras) and had to be very authentic - particularly since this was a pivotal period for fashion. Amélie was a more timeless, allegorical film; this film describes a specific epoch. At the same time, we had to get away from fixed and rigid historical reconstruction. It was all a matter of atmosphere and sensitivity."  Read more about the costumes

JEUNET'S AS A DIRECTOR
THE VISUAL STYLE/ DESIGN/ SPECIAL EFFECTS/ POST PRODUCTION
INTERVIEW WITH JEUNET ON AMELIE