Nicole Garcias is one of the French directors who excels at bringing female and feminist themes to the attention of viewers, while offering the opportunity for consistent leading roles to the actresses who appear in her films. In fact, she is a prolific and talented actress herself. 'Mal de pierres', her 2016 film, proposes such a character and the performance is entrusted to Marion Cotillard, an actress who has not disappointed me in any of the films I have seen her in the last 10-15 years. The book is an adaptation of a novel by the Italian writer Milena Agus, the title being in fact the name used in the middle of the last century for the painful condition that causes kidney stones. In English, by the way, the name sounds even more poetic - 'From the Land of the Moon', a quote from the novel to characterize the behavior of the heroine, providing one of the keys to understanding this film.

What disease does the heroine of the film suffer from? The film begins with a scene that triggers a feedback two decades back, when Gabrielle, the daughter of wealthy farmers in the last grade of high school, falls in love with her literature teacher. Her life seems to be influenced by readings from novels by Emily Brontë and Flaubert, and when her advances are rejected by her teacher (who is married, by the way), her reaction is violent. Is it a mental illness, or a reaction to the stifling environment in the still rather puritanical atmosphere of 1950s France, a few years before political, cultural and sexual revolutions broke out? The forced marriage to Jose, a poor but hard-working and enterprising Catalan imigrant, is imposed on her as an alternative to being admitted to a mental institution. The marriage is unhappy, Jose loves her, but Gabrielle tells him from the start that she will never love him. Arrived at a sanatorium to treat her kidney disease, Gabrielle meets Andre, a severely wounded officer, physically hurt and morally traumatised in the Indochina War. The love story between the two gives the woman an opportunity to recover, maybe even to reach moments of happiness, but it has no chance of ending well.

I won't tell too much about what follows, because the story includes an unexpected turn, which completely changes the viewers' perspective on what they saw on screen. I will only say that the role of Jose played by Alex Brendemühl, an actor with over 100 roles in movies, but about whom I did not know about until now, is much more interesting and consistent than it seems at first glance and that the Catalan actor does a fine job. Marion Cotillard deserves all praises she received for her performance in this film, she is one of the leading actresses in France today, and this complex and interesting role fits her perfectly. Louis Garrel, on the other hand, gets too thin a role - that of the wounded officer Gabrielle falls in love with in the rest house - and fails to be more than an adequate physical presence. It is worth mentioning the excellent cinematogrphy of Christophe Beaucarne, with a special sense of integrating story and characters in nature (the countryside where the story begins, the mountains surrounding the sanatorium, the sea at the shore where Jose builds the house where he hopes to win Gabriella's affection) .

The key to this movie is in my opinion that fact the main character appears in all the scenes, including the flashback scenes. There is no off-screen voice (thanks!), But there is no need either. It is a narrative exposed from the point of view of the woman, of what she sees or what she believe to see, of what she feels in spite of the judgments of those around her. Gabrielle is a woman who claims her right to love at a time and in a place where such aspirations were repressed and severely judged by society. However, love can be found sometimes where we least expect it. Very close to us.

Gabrielle, played by Marion Cotillard, wants to fall in love. She wants to love and be loved so strongly, that she does goofy stuff and her parents are worried. Her mother is smart enough to marry her with an inferior (economically) but decent and hard-working man. Gabrielle objects the wedding but there is nothing she can do. So the point is: Is there something wrong with Gabrielle's mind? Does she leave in the actual world or is she leaving in a world of her own where fantastic lovers approach her and make love to her? She is lucky her mother was right about the man she choose to marry her. He stands by her and helps her recover from the fantasies that torment her. Marion Cotillard is a wonderful actress and she manages to portray brilliantly the persona of a semi-mad woman. OK, it's a bit slow and depressing but the twist at the end, makes it a worth watching film. So that's a 6 plus 1 extra point for Marion...

I was waiting for this movie after I have watched "Youth" of Paolo Sorentino. The reason is quite simple from the first glance and extremely marvelous from my point of view. First time in my life, I am still with Youth, I realized what is the pure beauty of the nature….

Thus, what I found out that in the same location "Mal de pierres" was shout I was expecting to indulge once again into fascinating scenery of nature. And of course, I was expecting the other background - provided by the movie and the plot.

I would divide movie into three parts: part 1 - boring & typical, part 2 - natural eye opening and part 3: reasonable

The plot is exactly what is said about the movie on any poster: she does not love, he (looks like) loves, she is becoming crazy and mad in the naive searches of love from the book. And this is basically the first part of mine.

My second part starts with the trip to Schatzalp in Davos. At the end of the first part an idea stroke my mind - what if the movie is not about she and her sufferings of loving not the right people?.....My second part is the most beautiful - breathtaking views of Swiss Alps, love story of the main she male character - an affair with young lieutenant (by the way perfectly chosen youth + war - for sure must be inspired by Thomas Mann's "Der Zauberberg").

My third part - leaving Alps and coming back to humdrum reality and again waiting for a love. Same stupid, naive love from the novels… Beautifully playing actors, beautiful need and the search for the real love and even after realizing that this love can be nearby - may be not even love but "near & dear". Maybe we can call it to to grow up & become a woman ...finally.

But in my opinion, the main idea as well as the main character is not Gabriel. What if the key to decipher the movie lays in undistinguished Jose? Do you remember his sight at the beginning of the movie? I guess this is the sight of the man willing to die for his love…

In my opinion, the movie is about Jose and his love, about the man who sacrificed his life and was withstanding all the "whims" and finally received hope for love. I would call it "the silent fight" for the love.

Coming back to the movie, the film is nice and beautiful, but in some moments a bit boring and lacks some expression and deepness. But for sure, I personally received what I was expecting and definitely it is one of the best recent movies so far.