Review: From the Land of the Moon (Mal de pierres)

"Why choose to be unhappy?" That may be the question viewers pose to themselves whilst watching the film adaptation of Milena Agus' novel, From the Land to the Moon (Mal de pierres). Rampantly lethargic and at times just plain silly, the film at least benefits from the presence of Marion Cotillard, who gives a characteristically magnetic performance as the sexually dissatisfied Gabrielle.

Told mostly in flashback, the film posits Gabrielle as a spiritual, more craven sister to Madame Bovary. The daughter of a well-off lavender farmer, she is suffocating in the countryside and, as evidenced by the image of her standing in the river, skirts uplifted to reveal no underwear, positively radioactive with sexual frustration. She nurses a severe crush on the local schoolteacher; his inevitable rejection is a shock to her system, sending her fleeing through the nearby forest. Her behaviour becomes too erratic for her mother (Brigitte Roüan) to bear and Gabrielle is issued an ultimatum: marriage or the madhouse.

Gabrielle chooses marriage to Jose (Alex Brendemühl), a Catalan bricklayer who fled Franco and who agrees to marry her in exchange for a construction firm to be financed by Gabrielle's parents. He's dutiful and kind and is barely ruffled when Gabrielle makes it clear in no uncertain terms that she won't sleep with him and that life with her will be nothing but unhappiness. Whilst Jose finds satisfaction in his Saturday visits to the brothel, Gabrielle remains unfulfilled...that is, until kidney stones (the mal de pierres of the film's French title) sends her to a Swiss mountain spa. There she encounters the floridly named Andre Sauvage (Louis Garrel), with whom she becomes instantly fixated.

Andre is everything she could possibly desire - young, dashing, delicate, served in the army, plays the piano, and is on the verge of death. If anything, his sickliness is some sort of aphrodisiac and she at last realises sexual satisfaction during their brief affair. Yet there is no way her family will allow her to divorce Jose.

If the film is tedious, and it often is, it is certainly no fault of the three leading actors. Brendemühl and Garrel partner well with Cotillard, who is so powerfully focused and undeniably committed that it's almost too painful to watch. Her performance gouges the heart, mind and gut but it's at the service of a melodrama that, whilst picturesque and fairly well-executed, does the bare minimum.

From the Land of the Moon (Mal de pierres)

Directed by: Nicole Garcia

Written by: Nicole Garcia, Jacques Fieschi; based on the novel by Milena Agus

Starring: Marion Cotillard, Louis Garrel, Alex Brendemühl, Brigitte Roüan, Victoire Du Bois, Aloïse Sauvage