Mal de pierres (From the Land of the Moon)
01/03/18 Filed in: Amazon Prime
Back to French films after the excitement of Black Panther. And this time it is a drama set in 1950s Provence, starring Marion Cotillard as a troubled young woman, Gabrielle, seeking more from life than her humble existence on a lavender farm is offering. The film actually starts years later with Gabrielle, her husband, José, and son, Marc, going to a music competition, where Marc is to play. On the way their taxi is held up by a double-parked lorry in Lyon, and as Gabrielle gazes out of the car window she spots a street name that has a great significance for her, but at this point we don't know why that is.
We then cut to her as a much younger woman, standing in a stream with the water seemingly stimulating sexually her as it rushes between her legs while she wears no underwear. From there, she goes to a school, where the teacher is alone as she sits down at the back of the room. When she does approach him it becomes clear that she has a serious sexual crush on him, feelings that he in no way reciprocates. Back at home, her mother in particular is very disturbed by Gabrielles behaviour, matters coming to a head when Gabrielle, having once again not managed to gain the teacher's attention, assaults him at the post-harvest party. After this she runs off into the countryside, resulting in the need for a search party, that finds her collapsed with exhaustion on an embankment.
Among those looking for Gabrielle is José, a farm worker. Gabrielle's mother notices that José has been looking attentively at her daughter. Desperate to stabilise Gabrielle's behaviour, she approaches José with regard to him taking Gabrielle as a wife. If he is unsure, Gabrielle is completely hostile to the idea. But in the end the match is made, although Gabrielle informs José that she will not love him or have sex with him. She is, in fact, a very mean young woman, contrasting with José's gentle and extremely tolerant disposition. When she learns that José visits prostitutes in the town, she dresses herself as one and offers herself to him, subject to the usual payment! She continues to humiliate him but by and large he takes it calmly and doesn't react.
Gabrielle has long suffered abdominal pains and José agrees to pay for her to go to a spa in the Swiss mountains for treatment (filmed in Davos). While there, she catches sight of an army lieutenant, André, who has returned from the Indochina war suffering kidney problems. She befriends him and rapidly develops the same longing for him that she had for the teacher back home. Their friendship develops until one day when she sees him being taken out of the building to a military ambulance. She unsuccessfully chases after it and ends up collapsing. André unexpectedly returns, but after a brief liaison, Gabrielle's treatment is over and she must leave, heartbroken. But all is not what it seems.
After she is discharged from the spa she returns home with José, where she believes herself to be pregnant with André's child, and tells José that she has found somebody else. She writes heart-felt letters to André but none is answered, and when all the letters are ultimately returned to her unopened in a bundle, she must reluctantly accept that she will never see André again. She has her child and settles into her role as a wife and mother at home. Eventually we end up back where we began, with her seeking out the address of André in Lyon while her husband and son make their way to the competition. But this is where I must stop, because the ending of this film will, I'm sure, at first confuse you and then leave you thinking about what it all means.
This short summary belies the fact that at two hours this is quite a long film. As usual there is a fine performance from Marion Cotillard, who certainly doesn't mind taking on challenging roles.
Finally, I'm always fascinated by the difference between the French and English titles, and in this case I struggled to interpret either. Some research revealed that the French title, which is also the title of the original novella (Mal di Pietra in Sardinian), refers to the fact that Gabrielle's abdominal pains were from kidney stones, translating as 'stone pain' or 'stone ache'. The English title arises from the fact that Gabrielle had been told her whole life that she was like someone from 'The Land of the Moon'.
Gabrielle has long suffered abdominal pains and José agrees to pay for her to go to a spa in the Swiss mountains for treatment (filmed in Davos). While there, she catches sight of an army lieutenant, André, who has returned from the Indochina war suffering kidney problems. She befriends him and rapidly develops the same longing for him that she had for the teacher back home. Their friendship develops until one day when she sees him being taken out of the building to a military ambulance. She unsuccessfully chases after it and ends up collapsing. André unexpectedly returns, but after a brief liaison, Gabrielle's treatment is over and she must leave, heartbroken. But all is not what it seems.
After she is discharged from the spa she returns home with José, where she believes herself to be pregnant with André's child, and tells José that she has found somebody else. She writes heart-felt letters to André but none is answered, and when all the letters are ultimately returned to her unopened in a bundle, she must reluctantly accept that she will never see André again. She has her child and settles into her role as a wife and mother at home. Eventually we end up back where we began, with her seeking out the address of André in Lyon while her husband and son make their way to the competition. But this is where I must stop, because the ending of this film will, I'm sure, at first confuse you and then leave you thinking about what it all means.
This short summary belies the fact that at two hours this is quite a long film. As usual there is a fine performance from Marion Cotillard, who certainly doesn't mind taking on challenging roles.
Finally, I'm always fascinated by the difference between the French and English titles, and in this case I struggled to interpret either. Some research revealed that the French title, which is also the title of the original novella (Mal di Pietra in Sardinian), refers to the fact that Gabrielle's abdominal pains were from kidney stones, translating as 'stone pain' or 'stone ache'. The English title arises from the fact that Gabrielle had been told her whole life that she was like someone from 'The Land of the Moon'.