Jean Pierre Jeunet’s A Very Long Engagement observes Mathilde’s (Audrey Tautou) quest to be reunited with her fiancé Manech (Gaspard Ulliel), who is believed to have died in war. It is only natural, therefore, that we
expect Mathilde to be at the centre of the film’s beating heart, the forlorn femme around whom the director spins his romantic fancies. But it’s the episode involving Elodie Gordes (Jodie Foster) that, unexpectedly, proves the most moving, the most heartbreaking, the most emblematic of wartime love.
After a series of investigations, Mathilde believes Elodie can provide information
regarding the whereabouts of Manech. She finds Elodie and extends a photograph in her hand. “Never seen him,” says Elodie, stiffly, and walks away. Mathilde catches up and
demands, “Why did Bastoche and Biscuit argue? Was it over you?”
Elodie persists, “I have nothing to say!” She moves away to another corner, and Mathilde follows her, breathlessly reciting a series of facts she hopes will change Elodie’s mind. “They last met at Bingo Crépuscule. My
fiancé was also there. With Bastoche. In that shithole of a trench! I want to understand. I want to understand!” By now, Mathilde’s voice has reached a pitch that can no longer be ignored. Elodie retraces her steps, back to Mathilde, and assures her, “I can’t talk about it. Give me your address... I’ll explain it all in a letter. I promise.”
And as promised, Elodie explains everything in a letter. “Miss, I beg you to keep my secret to yourself. When I met my husband [Benjamin ‘Biscuit’ Gordes (Jean-Pierre Darroussin)], he already had four children. None was his. Out of kindness, he’d married a widow with TB. She was Polish, like me. He adopted her children before her death. I was also an unmarried mother. He then found himself the father of five, though he couldn’t have any of his own.”
“We had four years of tenderness... Then the war came. I thought Bastoche would take care of him... But during his leave, in
September, 1915, just after the battle of
Artois, I knew nothing would ever be the same.” Biscuit comes home. He’s had enough. “If I desert, the gendarmes will come and get me. My only way out is to have a sixth child. If you have six children, they send you home.” And as he’s impotent, he tells Elodie, “It’s not betrayal if I’m asking you. Especially if it’s with Bastoche.”
She relents. Kléber ‘Bastoche’ Bouquet (Jérôme Kircher) arrives and makes love to his best friend’s wife. The explicitness of the lovemaking leaves us in little doubt that,
literally and figuratively, Bastoche has penetrated Elodie in ways her husband never could and never did. And that changes everything. Under the warmth of his sexual
ardour, Elodie blossoms as never before.
Eventually, he leaves her. He has to go back to fight. And as Mathilde continues to read, Elodie reveals, “I didn’t even get pregnant! But soon, fear no longer tormented my
husband. It was jealousy. “Where? When? Often? Which positions? Did you enjoy it?” It became a living hell for both of us. Now, Bastoche is dead, as you know, and my
husband was killed in a hospital bombing.”
The letter ends, and we think of poor
Elodie Gordes. She finally found love, only to have it destroy her marriage. And eventually, she lost both lover and husband. Is it surprising, then, that Elodie was, at first, so reluctant to talk to Mathilde about her past? Why would she want to remember a time her life was filled with sunshine when all that surrounds her now is a wintry bleakness?