Directed by Jacques Audiard Rust and Bone is a French drama. It displays many themes through out but some of the key ones are family, friendship, love, sex and most of all tragedy.
This eye opening film follows two main characters Ali, played by Matthias Schoenaerts and Stephanie whom was played by the outstanding Marion Cotillard. Both actors put in a tremendous performance to make this piece so eye opening.
It starts with Ali travelling down to Canne where his sister lives so that she can help him look after his 5 year old son Sam. On the first scene we see how the two of them are living in poverty, they start by picking up the scraps of food on the train as they do not have enough money to go and buy there own, before Ali enters a shop and steals what looks like a camera again just to afford him feeding him and his son. Once he arrives at his sisters his sister Anna helps him get a job as a security guard at the local club Annex. This is where the film takes a turning point, as during one of Ali's shifts he breaks up a fight which Stephanie is involved in, before he takes her home. This is one of the first moments that each character displays any sort of power. Simon, Stephanie's boyfriend, sees that Ali was in his flat and questioned why but as soon as Ali spoke up Simon backed off showing the dominance Ali portrays. But this did not mean Ali was the most powerful person at that moment. Stephanie asks Ali to leave as she sees there may be a problem between Ali and Simon, but she didn't beg Ali and nor did he argue why.
After this moment the story follows Stephanie for a couple scenes as we watch her at work, where she is a Orca trainer. But something goes wrong. An Orca misunderstood the instruction and wiped out the stage in the pool, which lead to Stephanie having her lower legs amputated due to the injuries she had.
One of the fantastic scenes is when Stephanie is waking up in the hospital, the absence of sound is key as it is yet to be revealed what has happened to her. The long shot shows the simplicity of the room and the dullness of the room indicates something bad may have happened.
Later on when Stephanie is in her new flat which the insurance is paying for we witness how she struggles to cope and that's what prompts her to call Ali. This leads to their friendship growing as he takes her out of the flat and helps her start living again as he takes her to the beach. When Stephanie feels too embarrassed to go and swim Ali asks 'because no bathing suit?' This shows the masculinity with Ali and shows his power as he teaches Stephanie not to care about how others perceive her. Then once she's in the water and you see the jubilation on her face it is heart warming.
Another moment that power is highlighted is when Ali and Stephanie are talking about sex, she felt powerful when she could dance and said 'she liked to turn men on'. This highlighted how sex was a key theme in the film even without the sexual scenes involved, and that a sexual presence shows power over of people who want them or want to be them.
As the film progresses we watch power shift between the two characters. There is one very key scene which establishes not dominance for either character but the respect they gain. This is after Ali wins a fight and the fighter was bigger and stronger than him. So they all went out to celebrate, now because Ali had been having a sexual relationship with Stephanie she is upset when Ali goes home with another girl from the club as he didn't show any decency towards her. When Stephanie approaches him the next day she sets some ground rules in which Ali has to follow in order for them to continue.
Both characters have such power throughout the film but how they show power is completely different. Ali shows his power physically, he shows off his size, for example as a security guard or when he fights for money. The most significant scene of Ali's power was when Sam fell in the lake and was able to punch through the ice in order to save his son. This also showed the love he had for Sam when even his sister Anna questioned how much he cared. Where as Stephanie is more about how she speaks and controls other people, she was able to shut up Ali and to stop sleeping with other women but also on the fighting scene she was able to take bets on Ali when Martial had to leave, and before her Martial believed that the scene wasn't for women.
Rust and Bone was nominated for 2 Golden Globes and various other words well deserved due to the standard this piece was created. The camera work was sublime and some of the frames shown were just eye-catching I really feel they would've struggled to improve any shot. The mise en scene was impeccable in the way they were able to show how each character lived in poverty. One of the most subtle way the film displayed poverty was how Anna took expired food home to eat that her work were throwing away anyway, to save the money she didn't have to spend. The characters didn't make a big statement about it they just used little techniques like this to show how desperate and tight money was.
This film I would never normally watch especially being foreign, usually it doesn't interest me. But I am glad it was introduced to me because it was really good and eye opening. So, my personal opinion of it as you can probably tell is that I rate this film highly.
Below is the trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg7skcyYolU
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