Watch Land Without Stars For Free

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

My good friend Didier is right on the button in his review of this gem. It does date from a magic time when the only things that counted were good, solid screenplays, charismatic actors and directing that was a combination of the workmanlike and the inspired. Try telling that to the New Waveleteers, that small group of intellectual pseuds who contrived to set French Film Making back half a century. Fortunately sanity prevailed and within half a dozen years the French film industry was back in pole position. Georges Lacombe, one of a group of fine French journeyman directors turned to the novel by Paul Very and got him to adapt it for a stunning combination of rom-com and psychological time-travel drama. In only his fourth film Gerard Philipe is ideal casting for the troubled young protagonist with a bad case of deja vu. Roumanian actress Jany Holt provides the love interest and Pierre Brasseur as Philipe's brother completes the triangle. Do your best to catch this one.

Once upon a time there was a land where they made movies in which a good story to tell,beautiful pictures and wonderful actors were the only things that counted.Some day -must be the early sixties I can't remember- a wicked fairy came and said:"Listen to my magic spellListen carefully , listen well You old lousy directorsPrick your fingersAnd sleep for a hundred years!"That was the way many a movie from the late forties and the fifties became sleepers,still waiting for the prince who would wake them....or an IMDb reviewer: "La Foire aux chimères" by Pierre Chenal ,"La Fete à Henriette" by Duvivier ,"la Neige Etait Sale "by Saslavsky and many more.."Le Pays sans Etoiles" is one of these sleepers!To think that many Gerard Philipe fans do not even know that this movie exists.Oddly ,and although he plays the main character ,his name does not appear at the top of the credits ,because he was relatively unknown in the world of cinema whereas he was already famous on stage.Gerard Philippe is perfectly cast as the romantic young lead of a movie which is crying to be seen.The director ,George Lacombe,is not considered an "auteur" in France ,but he did give an excellent thriller ("Le Dernier Des Six" which owed a lot to Clouzot's screenplay though)and two interesting works :"Martin Roumagnac" and "Les Musiciens du Ciel" ."Le Pays Sans Etoiles" is easily Lacombe's peak;like "Dernier Des Six" ,it 's got a brilliant screenplay by Pierre Very.Very was excellent when it came to introducing a sense of mystery in a detective story: one remembers "L'Assassinat Du Père Noel " and "Les Disparus De Saint-Agil" both classics by Christian-Jaque."Le Pays Sans Etoiles" (what a beautiful title!"starless land")features an unusually inventive screenplay ,brillantly blending present and past . Here,Lacombe 's directing is almost in the same league as the best of Jacques Tourneur when he conjures up fear and mystery in the places he depicts :the train ,the "cliff" ,the old mansion,the cemeteryThe hero coming to the village of Tournepique has a deja vu sensation.It seems to him he was here in ancient times ,he feels something threatening over him.He meets a schoolteacher (Jany Holt)who, in the village, has a bad reputation cause she used to play around with the first to come .She hates her mother (the always reliable Madame Sylvie)and her mother treats her like dirt.Simon falls in love with her and discovers there's something strange about her too:doesn't she resemble the woman of a painting of the last century? Up comes Simon's brother (Pierre Brasseur,at his most cynical).This woman of long ago used to write a diary :Aurelia was some kind of Cinderella ,divested of her inheritance by her wicked uncle and her vicious cousin.The two stories are told in parallel and finally become one in the last scenes.It's difficult to summarize such a movie ,but just one word:if you are interested in the French cinema ,you should watch this.Like this?try these......"Portrait of Jennie" (Dieterle,1949)"The French lieutenant's woman" (Reisz,1981)"Dead Again " (Branagh,1991)