Rating: R
Genre:
Drama
Theatrical Release: 10/27/2004(France),
Release Date: 07/12/2005
SubTitles: English/French/Espanol
Dubbed: French
Sound: DD5.1
Run Time: 133 Minutes
Flags: Brief Nudity, Adult Situations, Adult Language, Sexual Situations, War Violence
Distributor/Studio: Warner Home Video
Audrey Tautou, who rose to international stardom with the title role in
Jean-Pierre Jeunet's worldwide smash
Amélie, reunites with the director for this
drama, set during the darkest days of World War I and its immediate aftermath.
Mathilde (
Tautou) is a pretty but frail young women who was left with a bad leg after a childhood bout with polio.
Mathilde lives in a small French village with her
Aunt Bénédicte (
Chantal Neuwirth) and
Uncle Sylvain (
Dominique Pinon), and is engaged to marry
Manech (
Gaspard Ulliel), the son of a lighthouse keeper who is fighting with the army near the German front.
Manech is one of five soldiers who have been accused of injuring themselves in order to be sent home; in order to discourage similar behavior among their comrades,
Manech and the other soldiers are sentenced to death, and the condemned men are marched into the no man's land between the French and German lines, where they are certain to be killed.
Mathilde receives word of
Manech's death, but in her heart she believes that if the man she loved had been killed, she would know it and feel it. Convinced he's still alive somewhere,
Mathilde hires a private detective (
Ticky Holgado) shortly after the end of the war, and together they set out to find the missing
Manech.
Jodie Foster appears in a supporting role as a Polish expatriate living in France.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
