Film Review: Rust and Bone

The Cast: Marion Cottilard, Matthias Schoenaerts

Director: Jacques Audiard

The Rating: 15

The Venue: The Curzon (Soho), London

After seeing the beauitful Marion Cottilard speaking about her new film Rust and Bone at the BFI as part of the London FIlm Festival, I was absolutely dying to see it. 

My sister and I met, Prosecco in hand, eager to see our favourite frenchy in action and I must say that it completed exceeding expectations and it was simply stunning. 

The Plot: 

Rust and Bone is french film that is a bizarre combination of being a melodrama that isn't melodramatic. In short, it is about an Orca trainer who loses her legs in an accident whilst performing with the killer Whales at Antibes Marineworld, who then begins a relationship with a broke and desperate bare-knuckle-boxing single father who makes ends meet by fighting and deceiving those closest to him. 

Best bits: 

The special effects used to make Cotillard a convincing amputee are extraordinary. This is a gorgeous, sometimes necessarily brutal film filled with tiny moments of power from Cotillard: Stéphanie sitting on her balcony, alone, proudly going through the movements of her killer-whale routine to an invisible audience with a soundtrack to Katy Perry in the background. 

Bad bits: 

I like a good romance in the film and I found the male lead annoying at times. There is no way that I would put up with the way he treats her at times but at the same time, I love how he learns about himself throughout the film and changes....this however, does not happen in real life!

The in-between bits:

In a typically french way, there are ludicrous amounts of sex scenes in this film- some long, some short, some subtle, some graphic! But the use of these intimate scenes make the film wildly raw and add a huge amount of tention between the audiences and their love/hate relationship with Schoenaerts' performance as Ali. 

The acting in this film is nothing short of phenomenal. Both Cottilard and Schoenaerts show astonishing depths of character, conveyed by simply a touch or a look at times. The love story is unconventional and thats what makes it so gripping. It is achingly romantic in a frustrating yet gripping way, so typical of a french film. 

Conclusion:

Brutal yet beautiful and loved every minute- a definite MUST SEE.  

Out of ten: 

A solid 9.5

Catch the trailer here:

Peace,
O x