breakfastcowl

A Very Long Engagement

Fraught Valentine viewing! It has been just over 20 years since taking the train over to see this one's opening run at the Angelika in Dallas, TX, all of us riding high on a multi-year Amelie fixation. I had forgotten how much of a (nearly convoluted) mystery it all is, but also how greatly it centers the nation-scale plight of the men in the trenches and the hearthside desperation for closure and continuance. I can see how much Jeunet's sense of humor might push some folks out of the moment given the subject matter, but I'm still there at the gallows display, with illogical, absurd hope standing center stage. The imagery of returning back to a battlefield only to have it be unrecognizable, reclaimed by nature, always brings me to brink. The scars of our past require maintenence and upkeep, an act of will to remember and pass on.