Marion Cotillard

Louis Garrel

Àlex Brendemühl

Brigitte Roüan

Victoire du Bois

Aloïse Sauvage

Daniel Para

Jihwan Kim

Victor Quilichini

Ange Black-Bereyziat

Sören Rochefort

Camilo Acosta Mendoza

Francisco Alfonsin

Julio Bollullo Carasco

Folco Jullien

Maurice Chaspoul

Alexandre Dufour

Pierre Alloggia

Arthur Igual

Inès Grunenwald

Jérôme Chappatte

Michael Evans

Rabea Egg

Polydoros Vogiatzis

Elian Planes

Frédéric Bélier-Garcia

Michelle Goddet

Stéphane Roger

Pierre Brichese

Maxime Flourac

Richard Bagno

Santiago Blanco

François dos Santos

Bernardo Guillen

Emilio Martinez Alarcon

Mathilde Dromard

Anne Crestey

Gwendoline Fiquet

Caroline Megglé

Pascal Chauvin

Leonor Greyl

Éric Chevallier

Jean-Pierre Laforce

Françoise Fregonese

Corinne Logiacco

Franck Tassel

Sandrine Jarron

Stéphanie Guillon

Cécile Deleu

Raphaël Mouterde

Richard Rousseau

Nicole Garcia

Alain Attal

Catherine Leterrier

Christophe Beaucarne

Arnaud de Moléron

Milena Agus

Nicolas Mouchet

Jacques Fieschi

Christophe Oliveira

Xavier Amblard

Fernando Victoria de Lecea

Jacques Royer

Tim Martens

Simon Jacquet

Stéphane Batut

Sébastien Matuchet

Daniel Pemberton

Natalie Carter

Drama

Romance

Mal de pierres

Les Productions du Trésor

StudioCanal

Lunanime

France 3 Cinéma

Belgium

France

CinemaSerf

From an early age, "Gabrielle" (Marion Cotillard) has shown a bit of a rebellious spirit. As a girl, she was determined not to obey her parental wish to marry the local "Jose" (a subtly nuanced effort from Alex Brendemühl) - even though he was quite fond of her, and as a result she lived in the semi-seclusion that befitted an unwed girl in rural France. Her "break" comes in the unlikely form of some kidney stones that necessitates a trip to an Alpine hospital. It's here that she encounters the recovering "André" (Louis Garrel) who has just returned from French Indochina shell-shocked and badly wounded. There's a little of a Wildred Owen poem to this drama, I thought. It shows us the results of the horrors of war, the after effects and trauma, but there's also a degree of hope and optimism as their love story takes shape and maybe, just maybe, there's scope for contentment somewhere. Cotillard is on solid form as the rather self-obsessed and just a bit flaky "Gabrielle" and though Garrel doesn't have so much to do, he still comes across convincingly as a soldier conflicted by a reality and a dream - it's that conclusion that is quite a touching affair, and causes us to have a think about just who "Gabrielle" actually is. The film looks good and is well scored by Daniel Pemberton which all gives a certain lustre to Cotillard's portrayal of a woman I don't think I'd have liked very much.