''From the Land of the Moon'' (french: Mal de pierres, literally "disease of the stones") is a 2016 French film written and directed by

Nicole Garcia Nicole Garcia (born 22 April 1946) is a French actress, film director and screenwriter. Her film '' Charlie Says'' was entered into the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Her film ''Going Away'' was screened in the Special Presentation section at the 20 ...

and starring

Marion Cotillard Marion Cotillard (; born 30 September 1975) is a French actress, film producer, singer, and environmentalist who is widely known for her roles in independent films and blockbusters in both European and Hollywood productions. She has received ...

. The film is adapted from the 2006 Italian novella by

Milena Agus Milena Agus (born 1959) is an Italian author from Sardinia. She is one of the leading novelists in the so-called Sardinian Literary Spring which began in the 1980s and which includes other international names such as Michela Murgia. Biography Mi ...

. The film competed for the

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

at the

2016 Cannes Film Festival The 69th Cannes Film Festival was held from 11 to 22 May 2016. Australian director George Miller was the President of the Jury for the main competition. French actor Laurent Lafitte was the host for the opening and closing ceremonies. On 15 Marc ...

, and received eight nominations for the

César Awards The César Award is the national film award of France. It is delivered in the ' ceremony and was first awarded in 1976. The nominations are selected by the members of twelve categories of filmmaking professionals and supported by the French Min ...

, including

Best Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...

for Nicole Garcia, and

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress awar ...

for Marion Cotillard.

Plot

At the end of WWII, a woman enters a marriage of convenience to a man who had shown kindness to her family during the war. Sickly from kidney stones, she travels to a fancy clinic for treatment and falls in love with a veteran she meets there. After they part, she considers whether to build a family with the man who loves her or re-kindle the lost bond with the man she loved while briefly away from home.

Cast

as Gabrielle *

Louis Garrel Louis Garrel (born 14 June 1983) is a French actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his starring role in '' The Dreamers'', directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.

as André Sauvage *

Àlex Brendemühl Àlex Brendemühl i Gubern (born 27 November 1972) is a Spanish-German actor. Born in Barcelona to a Spanish mother and a German father, he has appeared in more than 60 films and television shows since 1995. Brendemühl played the lead role of ...

as José * Brigitte Roüan as Adèle * Victoire Du Bois as Jeannine * Aloïse Sauvage as Agostine * Daniel Para as Martin * Jihwan Kim as Blaise * Victor Quilichini as 14-year-old Marc

Release

In May 2015,

StudioCanal StudioCanal S.A.S. (formerly known as Le Studio Canal+, Canal Plus, Canal+ Distribution, Canal+ D.A., Canal+ Production, and Canal+ Image and also known as StudioCanal International) is a French film production and distribution company that owns ...

acquired distribution rights to the film in United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia. In March 2016, Sundance Selects acquired U.S distribution rights to the film.

Reception

Critical response

The film was nominated for several awards at the

and elsewhere in Europe, including for Cotillard's performance and the cinematography by

Christophe Beaucarne Christophe Beaucarne, SBC is a Belgian cinematographer. He is the son of the poet Julos Beaucarne. He is a member of '' Association Française des directeurs de la photographie Cinématographique'' (AFC). He received the Magritte Award for Best C ...

. American critics were less enthusiastic in their response. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has an approval rating of 32% based on reviews from 56 critics, with an average score of 4.73/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "''From the Land of the Moon'' benefits from striking visuals and strong work from Marion Cotillard, but they're both ultimately overcome by a story that drifts into wan melodrama." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

the film has a score of 40 out of 100, based on reviews from 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Alan Zilberman of the ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' said, "Moments of visual beauty only call attention to the stilted dialogue and maudlin plot that otherwise define the film." Sheri Linden of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' said, "Marion Cotillard shines", but director Garcia's "lush period drama equates hyper-romance with both self-realization and delusion, a proposition that proves more muddled than illuminating."

Box office

In France, ''From the Land of the Moon'' was released to 335 screens, where it debuted at number nine at the box office, selling 283,843 tickets. It sold a total of 669,856 tickets and grossed $4,718,885 after 13 weeks in French cinemas. The film grossed a total of $6,547,983 worldwide against a production budget of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

10.5 million.

Accolades

References

External links

* * {{Nicole Garcia 2016 films 2016 drama films French drama films Films based on Italian novels Films set in the 1950s Films directed by Nicole Garcia Films scored by Daniel Pemberton IFC Films films 2010s French films 2010s French-language films