The Stone Council (2006)
"Le concile de pierre" (original title)

In France, the single translator Diane Siprien adopts an Asian baby named Liu-San in a foundation directed by Sybille Weber. Years later, a weird mark appears on the boy's chest and Diane ... See full summary »

Director:

Guillaume Nicloux

Writers:

Stéphane Cabel, Jean-Christophe Grangé (novel),

Stars:

Monica Bellucci, Catherine Deneuve, Moritz Bleibtreu

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Monica Bellucci	...	Laura Siprien
Catherine Deneuve	...	Sybille Weber
Moritz Bleibtreu	...	Serguei Makov
Sami Bouajila	...	Lucas
Elsa Zylberstein	...	Clarisse
Nicolas Thau	...	Liu-San
Lorenzo Balducci	...	L'inspecteur Frank Neves
Nicolas Jouhet	...	L'inspecteur Langlois
Peter Bonke	...	Le docteur Vonkel
Tubtchine Bayaertu	...	Barsak Thalik
Laurent Grévill	...	Daguerre
Jerzy Rogulski	...	Le professeur Bruner
Yoshi Oida	...	Kamal
Nikolai Boldaev	...	Ayrag (as Nicolaï Boldaev)
Simona Maicanescu	...	La directrice de l'orphelinat

Storyline

In France, the single translator Diane Siprien adopts an Asian baby named Liu-San in a foundation directed by Sybille Weber. Years later, a weird mark appears on the boy's chest and Diane and Liu share their dreadful nightmares. Diane is assigned for a three-day job in German and she leaves Liu with her friend Sybille. However, while going to the airport, Diane finds Liu hidden in the backseat and startles with an eagle flying toward the windshield, crashing her car. Liu falls into a coma and his digital recorder records the boy speaking in an unknown dialect. When Diane searches the translation and the origins of Liu, she is surrounded by mysterious murders. She discovers that the dialect is from the mystic Mongolian Tseven tribe and that Liu is a powerful Observer; further, he is in danger, threatened by sorcerers that need the boy for their Council of the Stone.

---

Plot Keywords:

boy | mongolia | scientist | murder | adopted son | 

---

Genres:

Adventure | Crime | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Thriller

---

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [France]

Country:

France Italy Germany

Language:

French English

Release Date:

15 November 2006 (France)

Also Known As:

A sziklatanács titka

Filming Locations:

Galerie De Paléontologie Et D'Anatomie Comparée Du Muséum National D'Histoire Naturelle - 2 Rue Buffon, Paris 5, Paris, France

Box Office

Budget:

€22,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

UGC YM, Integral Film, Rai Cinema

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Soundtracks

"Let Me Go Lover"
Written by Fred Wise, Kay Twomey, Jenny Lou Carson (as Jenny Carson) and Benjamin Wiseman
Performed by Dean Martin
©1954 Unichappell Music Inc.
Courtesy of EMI Music France and Warner Chappell Music France

User Reviews

Wicker Mon

The Stone Council (as it was titled here in Oz) adds further weight to the theory that, though French filmmakers love tearing American film culture a new one at the drop of a hat, they can't help stealing the Yanks penchant for a loopy, spooky premise should the urge take them.

This Monica Bellucci starrer bottles the winsome beauty and captivating on screen presence of the Italian glamour as well as any movie I've seen her in. And as the frantic mother trying to find and rescue her kidnapped son from the clutches of an increasingly menacing (and kinda silly) secret society, her performance commits to all the emotional tics and B-movie nuances this type of potboiler demands. All credit to her for keeping the emotional core of her character strong as the plot becomes wildly unwieldy.

Shot beautifully with an eye for detail rarely seen in this type of supernatural hooey, the composition of the frame - from its moody lighting to the shadowy, vast set design - provides the film a further grounding in reality and certainly allayed a mounting sense that the film, despite all its fine elements, was asking of its audience a little too much leeway plotwise.

With a central characters journey into a bizarre, ritualized society reminiscent of the cult favourite The Wicker Man, and a wildly fantastical but eerily engrossing story that would have served it well as an episode of Le x-Files, The Stone Council is an above-average white-knuckler thats well worth a look.