When Does the Film "A Very Long Engagement" (2004) Take Place?
"Un long dimanche de fiançailles" (released for English-speaking audiences as "A Very Long Engagement") is a historical fiction film written by Jean-Pierre Jeunet with Guillaume Laurant [adapting "Un long dimanche de fiançailles" (1991) by Sébastien Japrisot] and released October 27th, 2004.
It takes place in the year:
We know this because the narrator tells us Mathilde was born on "the 1st of January, 1900. It's easy for calculating her age." along with footage of her newborn at the hospital in 1900 AD and then, soon after, "Today, Mathilde is twenty." Therefore, the present of the narrative is set in 1920 AD. (Furthermore, there are two letters written halfway through the film dated "17th of July, 1920" and "3rd of August, 1920.)
1920 AD
We know this because the narrator tells us Mathilde was born on "the 1st of January, 1900. It's easy for calculating her age." along with footage of her newborn at the hospital in 1900 AD and then, soon after, "Today, Mathilde is twenty." Therefore, the present of the narrative is set in 1920 AD. (Furthermore, there are two letters written halfway through the film dated "17th of July, 1920" and "3rd of August, 1920.)
Additionally, a prologue taking place in the trenches of World War I opens with the narration "Saturday the 6th of January, 1917". So we can pin this prologue to January of 1917 AD. (World War I ended in 1918 AD.) More of this specific day is revealed over the course of the narrative.
The film is awash in various flashbacks to previous points during and before the war. There's a quick flashback to 1910 AD. Mathilde's long introduction includes a quick bit from 1903 AD and 1905 AD. Later, we see a few days from 1909 AD. Others are unplaceable.
