Talk:A Very Long Engagement

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Contents 1 controversy 2 New Question 3 A question 4 novel v. film

[edit] controversy

"But the NATIONALITY of this movie originally belongs to the FRENCH country. As the cast and the crew of the movie were FRENCH, that's why it was a FRENCH movie but many people still disagree to this fact and say that the revenue and the earnings were given to WARNER BROS.(US)." This sentence is poorly written and not really encyclopedia style (not to mention it comes off as somebody having an axe to grind against US studios). Could someone rewrite and clarify just what exactly is trying to be said?

Sorted.Cop 633 12:18, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Other French filmmakers objected to the French government subsidizing the film since Warner put up so much money. It's very clearly worded in the article. What's the problem. William (Bill) Bean

Like the old Kirk Douglas Movie from 1957, "Paths of Glory", this movie is clearly anti-war and portrays the French Military and by extension, the French Government in a very bad light for the way they treated their soldiers during World War One. That first movie was banned in France for many years for showing some of the more negative aspects of French Military Life.

History tells us that after the battles on the Somme and Verdun (1916) and the Chemin-des-Dames (1917), a large percentage of the French Soldiers actually mutinied and refused to fight because of the conditions in the battle zone and because they felt that their lives were being needlessly sacrificed. There were court-marshals, death sentences and executions handed out by the authorities to quell the rebellion. It is not a particularly memorable part of the history of World War One that the French can express pride in.

Though this is a fictional story, perhaps the reasons detailed above will shed some light as to why this movie appeared to be out-of-favor by many residents in its country of origin. It deserves to be seen and given credit though, for it is truly a magnificent artistic achievement. There is very little "American" about it. The credits show a long list of French actors, artists, and producers. This movie is a classic for the ages. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.117.207.171 (talk) 21:10, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] New Question

So, does Jodie Foster actually speak French? The way I see it, there's two possibilities. She either speaks excellent French, or was coached on correct pronunciation since she only has a couple of minutes of dialog in total but her accent is excellent. So, which is it?

She speaks French. Tatou mentioned it in an interview... somewhere... Staecker 21:26, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

She was in a school called Lycée Français de Los Angeles when she was young. Lapinmies 06:41, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Check IMDB about the movie. One of the trivia items on the movie states that Jeunet met Foster in Paris and invited her to participate in the film with that small role. I thought it a rather good role personally. The article goes on to state that Foster is fluent in French. William (Bill) Bean

[edit] A question

I thoroughly enjoyed this film but I do have one question. Did the French army ever really throw court martialled soldiers into no mans land as a punishment? Or was this just an invention of the author? Lisiate 23:21, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] novel v. film

Should this article be broken out into two? The novel v. the film? This, I believe, is the common treatment of this type of relationship. I don't mind doing it, and filling out the related infoboxes. Portia1780 (talk) 20:44, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Be aware that it isn't a requirment to have two different pages. There are numerous pages here at wikipedia that have the book and the film on one page. It is usually only done when there is enough info to support two seperate pages as was done recently to Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff . In my opinion I don't think that there is enough info here to support two pages. But I am just one editor. If a consensus is reached to split them I would suggest that you move this page to A Very Long Engagement (film) as everything that is here on the talk page (and almost everything on the main page) is about the film. This will keep the edit histories for the film tied to the page for it. Also, most any other page that is linked to this one - i.e. Jeunet and Tatou's articles and filmographies - will be because of the film. Then create a new page for A Very Long Engagement (novel) and add new info about the book there. As you started this thread here I will add the {{split}} tag to the main page to (hopefully) get more input from other editors. MarnetteD | Talk 23:36, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

If someone is willing to supply enough material to make a healthy stub for the book, then splitting would be good, but only if there is sufficient fresh matter (there only appears to be 2 relevant sentences, currently). -- Quiddity (talk) 07:31, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

No point splitting the article since there is no material for the new artice to be split out. Until that time there is no need for the split request. I will remove the split request. -- Alan Liefting (talk) - 10:50, 20 May 2008 (UTC)