Rust and Bone

Rust and Bone (French: De rouille et d'os) is a 2012 romantic drama film directed by Jacques Audiard, starring Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts, based on Craig Davidson's short story collection Rust and Bone. It tells the story of a nightclub bouncer who falls in love with a woman who trains killer whales and loses her legs in a workplace accident. The film is a co-production between France and Belgium.

The film had its world premiere at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival where it competed for the Palme d'Or. It received positive early reviews and a ten-minute standing ovation at the end of its screening. It was a critical and box office hit in France and was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award, two Golden Globes, two BAFTA Awards, five Lumières Awards, winning two; three Magritte Awards, and nine César Awards, winning four, including Most Promising Actor for Matthias Schoenaerts.

Alain "Ali" van Versch, an unemployed single father in his twenties, arrives in Antibes to look for work to support his young son, Sam. Having no money, he crashes with his sister Anna, a cashier who already has her own share of problems with financial instability and temporary employment.

Ali gets a job as a bouncer in a nightclub, which allows him to continue his passion for kickboxing by training during the day. One evening, Ali meets Stéphanie after she is injured in a club brawl. He escorts her back to her home, where he learns she is an orca trainer at Marineland. Ali offers his phone number to Stéphanie before leaving. He later gets a new job as a security guard, where his co-worker Martial informs him of an illegal fighting racket where he can earn money in bouts.

At Marineland, Stéphanie suffers an accident during a show and wakes up in the hospital to realize that her legs have been amputated. Now in a wheelchair and trying to adjust to life without her legs, Stéphanie is deeply depressed and gives Ali a call. Ali visits her and takes her to a beach, where he persuades her to go swimming; though hesitant at first, Stéphanie eventually forgets her self-consciousness and is liberated by the experience.

Ali and Stéphanie begin to spend more time together, and her self-image improves. After she is outfitted with artificial limbs, she persists in learning to walk again. Stéphanie learns about Ali's involvement in mixed martial arts and has him bring her to watch his fights. After a frank discussion with Stéphanie, Ali offers to have sex with her to help her adjust to her new body. Their friendship evolves to include casual sex, though Stéphanie prevents deeper intimacy by forbidding kissing during their encounters.

On a night out with Ali and friends at the club where Ali formerly worked, Stéphanie feels rejected when Ali dances with another woman and goes home with her. A man at the bar tries to make a pass at Stéphanie, but stops short when he sees her prosthetic legs under her skirt. The man apologizes to her, prompting Stéphanie to fly into a rage and attack him. She is escorted from the club.

The next day, Stéphanie questions Ali about their relationship. She says that if they continue to have casual sex, they have to respect each other's feelings and be more discreet about their other involvements. Their intimacy increases and, one night Stéphanie lets down her guard and kisses Ali. Stéphanie also begins managing Ali's bets for his fighting when Martial leaves town.

Anna is fired from her job when the managers catch her taking home expired food products. Her co-workers tell her that Ali was found installing surveillance cameras at her job, at the behest of the management so they could spy on employees' activities. Anna has a tense fight with her brother Ali, culminating in a standoff between him and her partner Richard, who demands that Ali leave Anna's flat and not come back.

Out of guilt for his offense, Ali leaves town without a word to Stéphanie. He leaves Sam with Anna in order to attend a combat sports training facility near Strasbourg. Some time later, Richard drops Sam off to visit Ali for a day at the training facility. On their day together, Ali and Sam play in the snow and on a frozen lake. Ali briefly steps off the ice to relieve himself, but while he is occupied, a weak spot on the ice beneath Sam cracks open and he falls into the lake. Ali frantically tries to rescue him, and after desperately punching the ice to break the surface, he is able to pull out the unconscious boy. In the process, Ali fractures almost every bone in his hands.

After carrying Sam to a hospital, Ali stays at the boy's side while he is in a coma. Sam ultimately survives the ordeal. Stéphanie, learning of Sam's accident, phones Ali at the hospital. While talking to Stéphanie, Ali breaks down in tears and confesses his love for her.

As Ali narrates, he explains how broken bones normally heal stronger than before, but he knows the pain will return in his hands.

After some time passes, Ali is shown celebrating a fight victory in Warsaw as Stéphanie happily watches. After the win, Ali and Stéphanie take Sam by the hand and lead him out through the revolving door of a hotel.

The project was announced by Variety on 7 September 2011. The film was produced by Why Not Productions for €15.4 million. It was co-produced with France 2 Cinéma, Page 114 and the Belgian company Les Films du Fleuve. Filming started on 4 October 2011 and lasted eight weeks. Locations were used in Antibes, Cannes, Belgium, Paris, northern France, Liège and Brussels. To prepare for the role, Cotillard took swimming lessons and spent a week at Marineland to learn how to direct whales. Explaining how the team adjusted to Stéphanie having no legs, Cotillard said: "When we did the first costume fitting, we had to try those pants that were empty of my legs and I had to fold my legs in the wheelchair. That image was so powerful that we kept it throughout the movie. And also we worked with amazing CGI guys."

The special effects were provided by French company Mikros Image. One of the key methods used was to have Cottilard wear green knee length socks. The legs below her knees were erased by computer or replaced with the image of prosthetic lower legs.

The film premiered on 17 May 2012 in competition at the 65th Cannes Film Festival, where it received rave reviews and a ten-minute standing ovation at the end of its screening. It was released in France and Belgium through UGC Distribution the same day. StudioCanal UK acquired the British distribution rights, and the film was released in the UK on 2 November 2012. It opened in the United States through Sony Pictures Classics on 23 November 2012.

The film was screened at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and received early positive critical reactions. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 82% based on 167 reviews, with a weighted average of 7.5/10. The site's critical consensus states, "Surging on strong performances from Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts, Rust and Bone is as vibrant and messily unpredictable as life itself." Metacritic gave the film a rating of 73/100, based on 39 reviews.

HitFix praised Audiard "for the way he takes melodramatic convention and bends it to his own particular sensibility, delivering a powerful tale about the reminders we all carry of the pains that have formed us" and found Cotillard's work "incredible, nuanced and real."

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film a four-star rating out of five, writing Rust and Bone is "a passionate and moving love story which surges out of the screen like a flood tide" and "its candour and force are matched by the commitment and intelligence of its two leading players."

Time's Mary Corliss found that the romance is "sometimes engrossing, sometimes exasperating" and that the cinematography recalls Kings Row and An Affair to Remember." Corliss also wrote, "Schoenaerts exudes masculinity that is both effortless and troubled" while "Cotillard demonstrates again her eerie ability to write complex feelings on her face, as if from the inside, without grandstanding her emotions" and added, "her strong, subtle performance is gloriously winning on its own."

Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune thought Schoenaerts' sensitive-brute instincts recall Marlon Brando and Tom Hardy.

Critic A. O. Scott of The New York Times called the film "a strong, emotionally replete experience, and also a tour de force of directorial button pushing."

Roger Ebert, who did not review the film upon its original release, later gave it four stars in February 2013 and said it was the latest title in his "Great Movies" collection. However, Ebert's illness and subsequent death in April 2013 prevented him from adding the film to the list.

James Kaelan of MovieMaker wrote: "Besides Emmanuelle Riva in Amour and Isidora Simijonovic in Clip, I would argue strongly that no actress gave a better performance in 2012 than Cotillard in Rust and Bone, and it was a travesty she wasn't nominated for an Academy Award."

Cate Blanchett wrote a review for Variety praising Marion Cotillard's performance in the film, describing it as "simply astonishing", stating that "Marion has created a character of nobility and candour, seamlessly melding herself into a world we could not have known without her. Her performance is as unexpected and as unsentimental and raw as the film itself."

In France, Rust and Bone was released to 394 screens, where it debuted at number one at the box office and sold a total of 1,930.536 million tickets. The film grossed a total of $25.8 million worldwide.

• 2012 in film
• Cinema of France
• Cinema of Belgium
• Disability in the arts
• List of mixed martial arts films
• List of films featuring mental disorders

• Official website
• Rust and Bone at IMDb
• Rust and Bone at Rotten Tomatoes
• Rust and Bone at Metacritic
• Rust and Bone at Box Office Mojo