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De Rouille et d'Os
Rust and Bone
Der Geschmack von Rost und Knochen
France/Belgium 2012
produced by
Jacques Audiard, Martine Cassinelli, Pascal Caucheteux for Page 114, Why Not Productions, France 2, Les Films du Fleuve, RTBF, Lumière, Lunanime, Canal+
directed by Jacques Audiard
starring Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Armand Verdure, Céline Sallette, Corinne Masiero, Bouli Lanners, Jean-Michel Correia, Mourad Frarema, Yannick Choirat, Fred Menut, Duncan Versteegh, Katia Chaperon, Catherine Fa, Andès Lopez Jabois, Océane Cartia, Francoise Michaud, Irina Coito, David Billaud, Fabien L'Allain, Fabien Baiardi, Laetitia Malbranque, Soulyane Rajraji, Pascal Rozand, Hedi Touihri, Nathalie Millar, Anne-Marie Tomat
screenplay by Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain, based on the story by Craig Davidson, music by Alexandre Desplat, special effects by Mikros Image
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts) never wanted to be a dad, in fact he never
wanted to have any responsibility at all, just live into the day, do a bit
of sports (he's an accomplished fighter - boxing and martial arts -
actually), and see what the future may bring ... and then he's suddenly
left stranded with a five year old son, Sam (Armand Verdure), from a
one-night stand. So he travels from Belgium to Nice, to live with his
sister Anna (Corinne Masiero) to give his life some stability. He soon
gets a job as a bouncer at a club, and one night he saves Stéphanie from
being brutally beaten up, and he drives her home out of compassion.
There's something about her that moves him more than other women do, and
he has many, so he leaves his phonenumber with her. Stéphanie is a
killer whale trainer - and during a show she does with "her"
whales, she loses both legs - and pretty much also her will to live. In
her desperation, she remembers Ali, the man who has shown her compassion
once, and she gives him a call. The two of them are quick to form a
friendship, partly based on Ali's naivity and his lack of pity for her,
which makes this a refreshing experience for Stéphanie, who simply can't
take people staring at her missing legs and later her prosthetics anymore.
So when Ali starts taking part in illegal streetfighting competitions for
money, she's always by his side, and it seems like she's his lucky charm.
It's not long before Ali and Stéphanie start having sex as well, even if
Ali sees this as recreational rather than trying to make her his
girlfriend. So he has no second thoughts about picking up other girls
right before her very eyes - and she thus blows up eventually ... which
does take their relationship to the next level - not only on the romantic
side, she also becomes his streetfighting manager (so to speak). Then
though, Ali's sister Anna is fired from her job at the supermarket, and
she finds out that it's due to the surveillance cameras Ali helped to
install to spy on the employees (there's a major plothole there, why
hasn't Ali told Anna - he knew what the cameras were for and it's in his
nature to spill the beans about a secret like this). She throws him out of
cours, and for a time, he seems to disappear from the face of the earth. Flash
forward a few months: Ali is now at a training camp to train to be a
championship boxer (no explanation given how he got there) when he
receives a visit from his son Sam. The two of them finally form a bond
playing on a frozen lake, but then in an unwatched moment, Sam breaks in,
and Ali destroys his fists manually breaking a hole into the ice to fish
Sam out again and save his life. Inexplicably though, it all ends
happily, with Ali becoming a championship boxer after all, and traveling
around the world with Sam and Stéphanie, his newfound little family, from
one fight to the next. A brilliantly played and brilliantly
filmed movie that is alternatively touching and slightly amusing at all
the right moments, this is not a film without flaws: Basically, the film
is anything but clichée-free, to a point where major plottwists seem to
give themselves away miles before they actually happen, and the film is
also at points disappointingly blunt about making its point. And while
there are some major plotholes in the film's story, other plotpoints could
have taken quite a bit of tightening or might have even been dropped to
make the story flow more smoothly - in fact, the film could have done with
a good half hour less running time. That's said, Rust and Bone is
still a pretty worthwhile movie, as mentioned above, it just falls several
foot short of being great, too.
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amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
find Rust and Bone at adultvideouniverse.com
