Rust and Bone (2012)
Certified: 16
Duration: 123 minutes
Director: Jacques Audiard
Starring: Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Armand Verdure, Corinne Masiero, Céline Sallette, Bouli Lanners, Mourad Frarema, Jean-Michel Correia, Yannick Choirat
KRS release
Rust and Bone is a Franco-Belgian production that competed for the 2012 Palme d’Or at the Venice film festival and has notched up quite an armful of trophies, including four Césars, a BFI and a Golden Reel, apart from a long list of nominations.
Jaques Audiard’s adaptation of Canadian Craig Davidson’s short story collection is a work of intense passion and emotion, that shows the frailties and strengths of human nature.
The film is dominated by the two central performances of Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts. They are the anchor of the film, which focuses on their actions, reactions and behaviours.
Rust and Bone is not really about storytelling, it’s more about how the two protagonists gel together or create friction.
Schoenaerts is Ali, a single father of Sam (Armand Verdure), who is five years old. He is a man of strength and currently training to be a professional fighter. He is about to visit his sister Anna (Corinne Masiero).
Meanwhile, he starts working as a bouncer at a nightclub, where he meets Stephanie (Marion Cotillard), who works as a killer whale trainer. The two hit it off but they leave their relationship open.
After some time, the two reconnect but this time round, Stephanie is a changed woman. She has lost her legs in an accident and is now looking at the world through different eyes.
They start a new step in their relationship, with sex becoming an important ingredient, but they keep their relationship an open one.
Meanwhile, Ali seems to be trying to sort out his troubled soul and the fighting may be just an excuse.
Cotillard is helped along by having her legs eliminated from the picture through digital effects. However, she will surprise the audience by the edgy rawness she delivers. She seems to have accepted her fate, but still exudes sexuality and palpable tension. This will lead to unusual, yet at the same time, realistic love scenes.
The film never loses its capacity to hold our interest, kick us into attention and lure us into submission. This is a film that rides and holds its way on its capacity to deliver an emotional knockout without being overtly emotional.
Rust and Bone will manage to touch a nerve or two, to say the least.