Rust And Bone

Synopsis: Stephanie (Marian Cotillard) is a trainer at a marine park by day and keen night-clubber after hours. When she is attacked outside a club she is helped by bouncer Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts), a struggling single father who comes from a world of violence. Sometime later she loses her legs in a ghastly accident, and, having been left by her live-in lover, she phones Ali for assistance. So begins an unlikely alliance, in which each is called upon to examine their inner reserves of courage and the true meaning of love.

This fascinating film navigates many different thematic threads and wanders into quite unexpected areas. Director Audiard has spoken of wishing to employ “a brutal and contrasting aesthetic” and generally he succeeds, beginning with the glitz of the nightclub and the tacky touristic appeal of the marine park. At the other end of the spectrum there is the down-and-out way of life of Ali and his young son Sam (Armand Verdure). In many ways Steph and Ali seem planets apart but both their worlds are crumbling around them and together a new reality is created for each. As Ali comes to Steph’s rescue we see how his world of stark physicality is a great strength and inspiration for a woman needing support, resilience and purpose.

Sex plays a critical role in this film. Ali is initially seen as a man just out for whatever stumbles his way screwing his casual pick-ups with a detached aggression. The relationship between him and Steph begins platonically but starts to elicit unexpected tenderness from Ali. As he wheels her to the beach then carries her in and out of the water, the undercurrent of sexual tension builds. The scenes involving Steph engaged in sex are fairly confronting, as we seldom get to see on screen such explicitness of a legless person in flagrante delicto.

Excellent CGI is employed to create the look of an amputee, but full credit goes to Cotillard for making us feel that this truly is a woman without her lower legs. Huge amounts of mental training as well as physical study have no doubt gone into her performance, no surprise, given her tour de force performance as Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose. It’s also remarkable that with such a disability her character still exudes a blistering sexuality and erotic magnetism.

Equally physically demanding is Schoenaerts’ physical training for the fight scenes (the squeamish may find the brutality of some scenes a bit much to see).  The murky world of the fighter is markedly at odds with Steph’s bourgeois background and yet the meeting of these two worlds never feels forced, so well do we understand the two characters’ motivations.

The film is crisply and beautifully shot with some fine underwater photography, impressive use of slow-motion and well-choreographed fight scenes.  At times there is a dream-like quality to its look and feel, a welcome contrast to some of the in-your-face scenes.

Following on from The Sessions, The Intouchables and last year’s very successful The Other Film Festival it is good to see the momentum being maintained in screen depictions of characters who manage rise above almost overwhelming odds. With the exception of a somewhat contrived philosophical pondering near the film’s end on the importance of a fighter’s hands, Rust And Bone is a powerful addition to the collection.

 

 

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