From The Land of the Moon
classified 15 SPlease note: This was screened in June 2017
A sweeping tale exploring the very depths of female desire, Marion Cotillard and Louis Garrel star in this intoxicating melodrama that will ignite yearning in even the coldest of hearts.
Gabrielle (Cotillard) resides in a small village in southern France, at a time when her dreams of true love are considered scandalous, even insane. Against her will, Gabrielle’s parents marry her to José (Alex Brendemühl), an honest and loving Spanish farmer who they think will make a respectable woman of her. But when Gabrielle is sent away to the Alps for treatment for her kidney stones she meets André (Louis Garrel), a dashing, yet injured, veteran of the Indochina war and a passion buried deep inside her is powerfully rekindled. With her body and mind erupted with the feelings she has so long craved, Gabrielle yearns to run away with André, freeing herself from the marriage which seems to imprison her. And this time, she’s determined to preserve her feelings at any cost.
An elegantly restrained, handsomely crafted adaptation of the novel by Milena Agus, this is unashamedly one for the incurable romantics. All the ingredients of an old-fashioned melodrama are here and given class and conviction by director Nicole Garcia. Prepare yourself to surrender to its gloriously melodramatic allure.
Our Cinema Curator Mark Cosgrove says…
“From the Land of the Moon, along with Pedro Almodovar’s Julietta, see’s something of a return to the transgressive spirit of the classic melodramas of the 1950s which were at the time dismissed as ‘women’s films’ or ‘weepies. Films - like Douglas Sirk’s All that Heaven Allows - went through a critical re-appraisal in the 1970s & 80s where their progressive approach to female representation and critique of societal “norms” were celebrated and championed. I would argue that From the Land of the Moon should be seen through this progressive prism as a modern updating of the melodrama genre.”