Right away Rust and Bone simply feels like nails of emotions are raining down on you for two hours. It’s all about the feeling of being alive and when I slipped into the freezing cold of Berlin after the film, I was quite relieved to feel my blood pumping through my veins…
Destitute Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts) travels to his sister Anna’s at the Cote d’Azur with his son Sam. The two find shelter with the cashier and her husband, but the relationships in this household are far from loving. Anna doesn’t even hug Ali when he first show up and Ali rubs Sam down with icy water, gives him slaps or forgets him at school. This world is dismal; coined by violence, quick sex and the fight to make a living.
Stéphanies (Marion Cotillard) world is different. She trains wales at an Aquapark and presents her show to curious tourists.
The beauty and the coarse man first meet when Ali works as a security in a club where Stéph gets in a fight. Although or because her boyfriend minds Ali gives Stéph his number. But he only hears back from her months later. In the meantime Stéph has lost both her calves in an accident and is now struggling to leave her post –traumatic depression behind. Ali manages to slowly guide her back into this world and the delicate woman falls in love with the seemingly egotistical guy -who has entered illegal show fighting to make a living.
But this love story is sublte and director Jacques Audiard focuses much more on the different worlds of the two fighters. Stéphanie fights to regain her joy in living and Ali seems suddenly capable of seeing the bright side because of her.
We’re faces with these two devastated characters without any screen. This film is bitter, clear and tough, but because of precisely this honesty in the pictures the ones that show cracks and show love, warmth and softness are all the more irresistible. After his success with A Prophet Jacque Audiard once again showed his strength in detailed observation and impressive portrayal of this reality in Rust and Bones. Oscar winner Marion Cotillard and belgium actor Matthias Schoenaerts play wonderfully honest and „see-through“. The soundtrack delivers on point as well, Bon Iver probably doesn’t leave a dry eye in the end.
Rust and Bones is a celebration of the tumultuous life in which everyone is responsible for their own luck and happiness and this is a feast for the silver screen!
Rust and Bones (D: Jacques Audiard, F 2012)
