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Rust and Bone
Premiered at the Cannes Film Festival May 17, 2012
Plot (Spoiler Alert)An unemployed father, Alain van Versch, moves to Antibes, southern France, to look for work. He and his son, Sam, stay with his sister, Anna, at her apartment. Alain gets a job in a nightclub as a bouncer. One evening someone is causing trouble by nearly beating up a woman. Alain gets rid of him and helps the woman Stephanie up. Alain drives her home and once they get there, Alain asks if he could get ice for his hand. After that he gives Stephanie a card with his number just in case she needs any help. Stephanie is a whale trainer and shortly after she loses her legs after an accident while she was putting on a show with killer whales. She feels her life will never be the same again. Months pass and she recalls Alain gave her a card in case she needs any help. Alain shows up at her apartment and Stephanie looks filthy and in a wheel chair. She hasn’t been out of the apartment since she left the hospital. Alain takes her to the beach. As she feels the sun shine on her face, Stephanie feels the need to swim. Alain carries her into the water and she takes her top off. She feels really good and discovers that she is not completely useless. Alain’s new job is working as a security guard, but his passion is kickboxing. Alain used to be a boxer until his coach died. A co-worker of Ali’s sees he's watching a boxing video. Martial asks Alain if he wants to make money out of fighting. He knows a guy who organizes these fights for guys to bet on. Alain and Stephanie have been spending a lot of time with each other and he tells her about the fight and she wants to participate in watching him. Martial drives Ali and Stephanie to the place. Stephanie watches Ali fight from the car and he wins. Ali picks up a toy for his son. Stephanie never knew that Ali has a son. Stephanie now has artificial limbs and can walk. As they have lunch together at Stephanie’s place, she asks Alain if he is seeng anyone. Alain has had a few moments where he has had a quick F****** with a woman. As the clean up the table, Ali asks Stephanie if she wants to get some with him. Stephanie is not sure. She goes into her bedroom, takes off her limbs and clothes and tells Ali to come in. Before they start, Stephanie makes a rule that they don’t kiss and Ali is ok with that. Ali does it gently on her and she enjoys it. Ali lets Stephanie know when she is up for it again she can let him know when he is free. Stephanie visits the marine tourist park where she worked to say hi to her friends. Shortly after she goes to Ali and they do another quickie. Ali then introduces Stephanie to his sister, Anna and son, Sam. Ali has another fight and he is almost defeated, but Stephanie gets out of the car and watches him and then for some reason he has the strength to beat the other guy. That night, Ali, Stephanie and some friends hang out at the night club Ali used to work at. Stephanie looks at the other women on the dance floor and she feels a sense of longing for the woman she used to be. Ali dances and then leaves with one of them. The next morning, Stephanie asks what she is to Ali, a friend or just a fuck buddy? She wants them to have a proper relationship and for him to show her the consideration that he had before. Martial has to go on business for a while and he puts Stephanie in charge of Ali’s fighting while he’s gone because she is trustworthy. Ali keeps continuing to win fights. As time goes on Stephanie realizes she really likes Ali and kisses him on the lips. They have now turned their relationship into a romantic one. Anna gets fired from her job after Ali was caught on tape taking the expired food from her store. Anna is upset with Ali and kicks him out of her home. Ali leaves Sam behind while he goes to a combat sports training facility. Months laters, Ali’s brother in law shows up to drop off Sam. Ali plays with Sam on the ice. Ali stops to take a piss. Sam steps on a weak spot on the ice and sinks. Ali turns around and notices Sam is gone and there is hole in the ice. Ali rushes over to the spot, punches through the ice, pulls Sam out and then rushes him to the hospital. Sam has been in a coma for three hours and Ali has been worried sick. Stephanie calls Ali to ask how Sam is doing. Ali informs her Sam is ok and he cries and tells Stephanie he loves her. Ali injured his hand while saving Sam, but he is healing good. In the end Ali, Sam and Stephanie are together. 
Blaine: One of the things I love about “Rust and Bone” is the relationship between the characters, Stephanie and Alain. You hardly see them argue and that doesn’t give me anything to worry about even though they’re not officially a couple until after the first hour and thirty five minutes. It’s nice to see a movie where there is not too much be concerned about. And I love how they spend their time with each other and how they enjoy it and can agree on a lot of things. Stephanie is someone who doesn't have to be mature and doesn’t get offended easily except if anyone acts weird with her having no legs. At first she feels her life is over after she looses her legs, but then after she takes a swim, she feels there is things in life worth living for. Marion Cotillard said the sex scenes were very important and usually she hates doing something like that, but this was different for her because Marion was happy for her character, Stephanie. And it was moving for Marion that she would have this experience in the state Stephanie is in. Marion had to explore the character because she didn’t quite understand her the first time she read the script. Marion would practice what it would be like to move without having calves and what poses she would be in. When they weren’t shooting, Marion Cotillard would go to Mainland to learn how to train with killer whales. Director, Jacques Audiard, wanted the film to produce strong images, like these unfair movies. He said in other words, they wanted something, as they call it from the beginning, something that would be expressionist. They didn’t want to do something impressionistic something made of little spots. They had to hit hard each time with the killer whales, Stephanie loosing her legs and fighting school. Each time they added heavy stuff. And without spending much time on it. They deal with the accident, the legs, the sun. It produced crazy images. The difficult thing was to keep the images from falling flat. In the film there is some close up shots of killer whales underwater and how that worked was the Mainland team fixed a camera on the whale for filming. The leg stump effects are so amazing and life like. What they did was put make-up effects on Marion Cotillard’s knees and she would wear green screen socks over her calves. Some of the time Marion would sit on her legs, which can be a little painful, and then other times like when she was laying down on the hospital bed there would be holes where Marion would hide the calves. Scenes like when Matthias Schoenaerts would carry Marion Cotillard in the water they would take shots of just the background so they’re able to restore the background that would be behind the parts of the legs that are taken out. Then the visual effects department would erase the green socks on a computer. An even more difficult digital effect was when they had to show her entire leg and foot and then replace it with the prosthetic leg and shoe. My rating on “Rust and Bone” is five out of five stars. Director, Jacques Audiard, Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts at the Cannes Film Festival 2012 
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