‘Amelie’ director takes on a novel

Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the French director who made “The City of Lost Children” and “Amelie,” says that his latest, “A Very Long Engagement” comes from the only book he ever wanted to adapt, by Sebastien Japrisot.

“I love this book,” he says. Jeunet was also fascinated with World War I (the book’s setting) for much of his life. There was also, he says, a sense of urgency about doing such a movie now because so few survivors of the so-called Great War remain. Jeunet estimates there are fewer than 25 still living in France.

“The war is going to disappear, this month, this year,” he says.

There were other contributing factors to his desire to make this film, including the $57 million budget (a hefty figure for a European production) that Warner Bros.’ Independent Pictures gave him to make it. He wanted to change everyone’s connotation of the war as a collection of comically sped-up, grainy silent films. He wanted to re-create Paris at the turn of the 20th century. And he says, the novel was “very close to the spirit of ‘Amelie.’ “

Plus Audrey Tautou, the star of “Amelie,” agreed to play the leading role of Mathilde, a young Frenchwoman determined to find her lover, last seen being herded into the front at the Battle of the Somme. The movie also brings back some actors familiar to Jeunet film-watchers, particularly Daniel Pinon, the rubbery-faced actor who has been in every Jeunet film and was also a crucial presence in the French movie “Diva.” He plays Mathilde’s eccentric Uncle Sylvain.

“I can’t avoid him,” Jeunet jokes. “I love him. He surprises me every time. … I love this acting family of strange faces — faces like we used to have in French films of the 1940s. There are very few of them around, but I love to have them in my films.”

Yes, he admits, the book and the film are complex, in terms of many plots and subplots, but he felt compelled to honor them all. This led in test screenings to some viewer confusion, so he modified the film to help explain things. But there is as much danger in oversimplifying as in adding too much detail. The director is convinced he found the perfect balance. And he was hellbound to preserve the book’s ambiguous ending.

“It drives you crazy,” he admits of the novel’s conclusion. “But I loved it.”