History Film / AVeryLongEngagement

* {{Asshole Victim}}s: Tina Lombardi's victims. Thouvenel was a ruthless and chauvinistic sergeant who shot her boyfriend/pimp dead as he tried surrendering to the Germans, and Lavrouye was an {{armchair|military}} major who was corrupt, incompetent and destroyed the presidential pardon letter that was sent to spare the life of the condemned soldiers, allowing their execution (and he did so out of pure laziness and pettiness).

* CatScare: Mathilde's cat jumps from the window and starts a fire. [[spoiler: It was actually Benoît Notre-Dame sneaking into her room, contemplating whether strangle her in her sleep.]]

* AmateurSleuth: Mathilde grows some shades of this while digging into the circumstances of Manech's disappeareance. While she hires a private detective, she handles the investigations far better (mostly through piecing things together actually, the detective meanwhile is still useful as he does the grunt work of finding the whereabouts of the people that she needs to see, and it's ''not'' easy, especially when he goes to UsefulNotes/{{Corsica}}, where he nearly gets shot).
* AmnesiacLover: [[spoiler: Manech turns out to be alive, but amnesiac. Mathilde reunites with him at the end.]]
* {{Asshole Victim}}s: Tina Lombardi's victims. Thouvenel was a ruthless sergeant who shot her boyfriend dead as he tried surrendering to the Germans, and Lavrouye was an {{armchair|military}} major who was corrupt, incompetent and [[spoiler: destroyed the presidential pardon letter that was sent to spare the life of the condemned soldiers, allowing their execution. And he did so out of pure laziness and pettiness.]]

* BittersweetEnding: Mathilde [[spoiler:finally finds Manech, who is alive and well physically, but has lost all memories of his life prior to the war, including those of her and of their relationship. However, it's hinted they restart from the beginning, and the doctors also imply he might eventually regain the memories he's lost.]]

* EpicMovie: By French cinema standards, it surely was one, as an expensive PeriodPiece featuring a tragically cut short love story and long quest to find a loved one, with World War I as backdrop.

* ShellShockedVeteran: Given that it's a film set in the trenches of World War I, we see a lot of these, but most explicitly Manech who loses his grip on reality after a few too many close calls (see LudicrousGibs above) and eventually becomes amnesiac.

* SpitefulSpit: Tina Lombardi spits on the blade her lover uses to stab her former pimp. This is a FiveSecondForeshadowing on when she does the same thing...with the responsible of her lover's death.

** For example, there's the scenes where the poor French soldiers climb out of the trenches on the No Man's Land and are completely obliterated by German machine gun fire and artillery within seconds. One ends up particularly unlucky as he gets [[{{Gorn}} blown to bits]] by an artillery shell right in front of Manech, who gets covered in his guts.

* DodgeTheBullet: Benoît Notre-Dame miraculously survives two direct hits from ''mortar shells''.

* LostInTranslation: The three M's, in French, stand for "Manech aime Mathilde." (aime, which means loves, sounds like the letter "M"). This carries over into English as "Manech's marrying Mathilde."

* MoodWhiplash: A love story shot in sepia-tinted colour that continually cuts to scenes of unbearable brutality.

* TheScrounger: Célestin Poux, famed throughout the rank and file for pulling various tricks in order to keep the troops supplied with food.

* WarIsHell: A French film, with flashbacks set in the trenches of the battle of the Somme, during a war where France lost 9% of its male population and left hundreds of thousands crippled and emotionally scarred for the rest of their lives? You bet it's hell.

* WarIsHell: A French film, with flashbacks set in the trenches of the battle of the Somme, during a war where France lost 9% of its male population and left thousands crippled and emotionally scarred? You bet it's hell.

* KillEmAll: The scenes where the poor French soldiers climb on the No Man's Land and are completely obliterated by German machine gun fire and artillery within seconds.

* ObfuscatingDisability: Mathilde occasionally plays up her polio with a wheelchair to put others at discomfort. She also pulls this in order to elicit more help from her lawyer.

* ChainedToABed: Lavrouye when he is trapped by Tina Lombardi.

* FanService: Creator/AudreyTautou, in a few scenes. In one in particular, she looks like she should be riding a clamshell. Also we get some nice shots of Creator/MarionCotillard with a corset and sexy stokings.

A few months after the war's end, Mathilde still refuses to believe that Manech is dead, and sets out on an investigation to find out what happened to him, clinging onto the hope that he's still alive. As she investigates all over post-war France, she meets people who are also connected to the five condemned soldiers, including vengeful prostitute Tina Lombardi (Creator/MarionCotillard) and widow Élodie Gordes (Creator/JodieFoster), and learns their stories.

''Un long dimanche de fiançailles'' (''A Very Long Engagement'') is a 2004 French film directed by Creator/JeanPierreJeunet, [[TheFilmOfTheBook based on the titular book]] by Sébastien Japrisot.

* FreakOut: Manech starts the movie in a nervous breakdown as a grenade tore apart his comrade leaving [[NightmareFuel scattering the pieces all over him]].

* LudicrousGibs: A horribly realistic version, with Manech showered with the giblets of another soldier after said soldier gets blown to bits by a shell.

* AmateurSleuth: Mathilde grows some shades of this while digging into the circumstances of Manech's disappeareance. While she hires a private detective, she handles the investigations far better (mostly through piecing things together actually, the detective meanwhile is still useful as he does the grunt work of finding the whereabouts of the people that she needs to see, and it's ''not'' easy specially when he goes to UsefulNotes/{{Corsica}}).

A few months after the war's end, Mathilde still refuses to believe that Manech is dead, and sets out on an investigation to find out what happened to him, hoping he's still alive. As she investigates all over post-war France, she meets people who are also connected to the five condemned soldiers, including vengeful prostitute Tina Lombardi (Creator/MarionCotillard) and widow Élodie Gordes (Creator/JodieFoster), and learns their stories.

One year after the war's end, Mathilde still refuses to believe that Manech is dead, and sets out on an investigation to find out what happened to him, hoping he's still alive. As she investigates all over post-war France, she meets people who are also connected to the five condemned soldiers, including vengeful prostitute Tina Lombardi (Creator/MarionCotillard) and widow Élodie Gordes (Creator/JodieFoster), and learns their stories.

One year after the war's end, Mathilde still refuses to believe that Manech is dead, and sets out on an investigation to find him. As she investigates all over post-war France, she meets people who are also connected to the five condemned soldiers, including vengeful prostitute Tina Lombardi (Creator/MarionCotillard) and widow Élodie Gordes (Creator/JodieFoster), and learns their stories.

One year after the war's end though, Mathilde still refuses to believe that Manech is dead, and sets out on an investigation to find him. As she investigates all over post-war France, she meets people who are also connected to the five condemned soldiers, including vengeful prostitute Tina Lombardi (Creator/MarionCotillard) and widow Élodie Gordes (Creator/JodieFoster), and learns their stories.

After the war though, Mathilde still refuses to believe that Manech is dead, and sets out on an investigation to find him. As she investigates all over post-war France, she meets people who are also connected to the five condemned soldiers, including vengeful prostitute Tina Lombardi (Creator/MarionCotillard) and widow Élodie Gordes (Creator/JodieFoster), and learns their stories.

Mathilde (Creator/AudreyTautou) was engaged to her childhood sweetheart Manech (Creator/GaspardUlliel) when he had to enlist to fight in [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the Great War]]. Manech tried to get excused from duty by getting his hand shot, but he was instead convicted of self-mutilation and left to die with four other soldiers in the no-man's land between the French and German trenches.

Mathilde, however, refuses to believe that Manech is dead, and sets out on an investigation to find him. As she investigates all over post-war France, she meets people who are also connected to the five condemned soldiers, including vengeful prostitute Tina Lombardi (Creator/MarionCotillard) and widow Élodie Gordes (Creator/JodieFoster), and learns their stories.

* SceneryGorn: As typical of a WWI setting, the No Man's Land and the trenches are [[NightmareFuel dark, muddy and full of dead bodies (or scattered limbs)]].

The story set in 1919. Mathilde (Creator/AudreyTautou) was engaged to her childhood sweetheart Manech (Creator/GaspardUlliel) when he had to enlist to fight in [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the Great War]]. Manech tried to get excused from duty by getting his hand shot, but he was instead convicted of self-mutilation and left to die with four other soldiers in the no-man's land between the French and German trenches.

Mathilde, however, refuses to believe that Manech is dead, and sets out on an investigation to find him. Along the way, she meets people who are also connected to the five condemned soldiers, including vengeful prostitute Tina Lombardi (Creator/MarionCotillard) and widow Élodie Gordes (Creator/JodieFoster), and learns their stories.

The story set in 1919. Mathilde (Creator/AudreyTautou) was engaged to her childhood sweetheart Manech (Creator/GaspardUlliel) when he had to enlist to fight in [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the Great War]]. Manech tried to get excused from duty by getting his hand shot, but he was instead convicted of self-mutilation and left to die with four other soldiers in the no-man's land between the French and German trenches. Mathilde, however, refuses to believe that Manech is dead, and sets out on an investigation to find him. Along the way, she meets people who are also connected to the five condemned soldiers, including vengeful prostitute Tina Lombardi (Creator/MarionCotillard) and widow Élodie Gordes (Creator/JodieFoster), and learns their stories.

* ObfuscatingDisability: Mathilde occasionally plays up her polio with a wheelchair to put others at discomfort.

* WheelchairWoobie: In-universe; although crippled by polio, Mathilde can still walk, but she pulls this trope in order to elicit more help from her lawyer.

* AmateurSleuth: Mathilde grows some shades of this while digging into the circumstances of Manech's disappeareance. While she hires a private detective, she handles the investigations far better (mostly through piecing things together actually, the detective meanwhile is still useful as he finds the people that she needs to see).

* WorldOfJerkass: Corsica is depicted like this, with all the people that Germain Pire meets there being either unsympathetic to him or downright hostile as soon as he mentions that he's looking for Tina Lombardi.

* CatScare: Mathilde's cat jumps from the window and starts a fire. [[spoiler: It was actuallt Benoît Notre-Dame sneaking into her room, contemplating whether strangle her in her sleep.]]

* {{Foil}}: Tina Lombardi to Mathilde. Whilst Mathilde goes about finding out about the circumstances of her lover's death by wit and guile, Tina does the same thing by seduction and violence.

* Nephewism: Mathilde is an orphan raised by her kindly uncle and aunt.

* RemarryingForYourKids: None of Elodie Gordes' five kids are from her husband Benjamin, she married him after having them.

The story set in 1919. Mathilde (Creator/AudreyTautou) was engaged to her childhood sweetheart Manech (Gaspard Ulliel) when he had to enlist to fight in [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the Great War]]. Manech tried to get excused from duty by getting his hand shot, but he was instead convicted of self-mutilation and left to die with four other soldiers in the no-man's land between the French and German trenches. Mathilde, however, refuses to believe that Manech is dead, and sets out on an investigation to find him. Along the way, she meets people who are also connected to the five condemned soldiers, including vengeful prostitute Tina Lombardi (Creator/MarionCotillard) and widow Élodie Gordes (Creator/JodieFoster), and learns their stories.