I was just thinking about which films' cinematic releases I've most keenly anticipated in the last few years - and, by extension, ever - and I think that A Very Long Engagement may be top 3 to date (the others being Donnie Darko and Amélie). All signs were auspicious - directed by Jeunet, starring Audrey Tautou, and I'd loved the book, having tracked it down secondhand and read it a while back after hearing of the film adaptation.
In other words: "Objectivity? What of it?".
This time, was struck more forcibly by film's nature as wartime romantic epic but, oddly (in light of that), wasn't as swept up by the drama and romance (the first time round, I had the shivery chills at a few key emotional moments) - maybe the relative lack of emotional response on my part was simply due to this viewing's second-timeness. Still liked it heaps, though in a different way from The City of Lost Children and Delicatessen, and differently again from Amélie (Alien: Resurrection was decent, but in these parts we don't count it as part of the Jeunet oeuvre proper)...I suppose that it's a bit pointless to compare Jeunet films anyway, given that each has come at such a different point in my life, and that my responses to them have been accordingly shaped by my perspective at the time (moreover, both The City of Lost Children and Amélie have, in their different ways, been such talismanic films for me that I don't hesitate to say that they've actively crystallised and shaped important features of my mental landscapes)...
So yes, A Very Long Engagement = good.
