The pitch for "A Very Long Engagement," Jean-Pierre Jeunet's long-awaited follow-up to "Amelie" triumph, could hardly be simpler: "Amelie" meets Stanley Kubrick's "Paths of Glory." In the inferno of the Great War of 1914-1918, five French soldiers, convicted of self-mutilation, are sent to the front, where they are thrown into no-man's-land and almost certain death. Based on a novel by Sebastien Japrisot, "Un long dimanche de fiancailles," as it is called in France, sold more than 1.6 million tickets in its first week of exhibition, underlining audience anticipation surrounding Jeunet's re-teaming with Tautou.

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