Alain van Versch, an unemployed father in his mid 20s known as Ali, arrives in Antibes, southern France, to look for work to support his young son Sam. Having no money, he crashes with his sister Anna, who already has her own share of problems with money and temporary employment.
Ali gets a job as a bouncer in a nightclub but still keeps his passion burning for fighting. On a typical evening in the night club, Ali meets Stéphanie and escorts her safely to her home after she is injured in a brawl at the club. She works at a local marine tourist park. She suffers an accident during a show and wakes up in the hospital to realize that her legs have been amputated.
Ali meets a guy at work who informs him about a kick boxing fixture he can earn money from. Stéphanie, now in a wheelchair and trying to adjust to her life without legs, is deeply depressed and gives Ali a call. Ali visits her and takes her to a beach where Stéphanie forgets her self-consciousness and feels freedom when Ali carries her out to the ocean to swim.
Over a period of time, Ali and Stéphanie spend a lot of time together, and Stéphanie starts to feel better about herself while in Ali's company. She gets artificial limbs and starts to walk again. Stéphanie accompanies Ali to his mixed martial arts fights and is surprised to learn he has a son.
After a frank discussion, Ali offers to have sex with Stéphanie to help her adjust to her new body. Their friendship evolves to include casual sex, although Stéphanie prevents deeper intimacy by telling Ali that there will be no kissing during their encounters.
Ali, Stéphanie, and some friends visit the same night club where Ali used to work. Ali goes to the dance floor and flirts with a girl as Stéphanie watches curiously. Ali goes away with the girl, leaving a surprised and dejected Stéphanie with other friends. A man at the bar tries to kiss her but she backs away from him, revealing her prosthetic legs. Looking down at her aluminum legs in her skirt, the man apologizes to her and Stéphanie flies into a rage, throwing a glass and attacking the man. She has to be escorted out of the club.
The next day Stéphanie sullenly questions Ali about their relationship status. She tells him 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 Stéphanie, letting down her guard, kisses Ali, igniting true intimacy. Stéphanie also begins managing Ali's bets for his fighting after his manager leaves town.
Anna is fired from her job when the managers realize she has been taking home expired food products. Anna blames Ali for this, as Ali was involved in an odd job where he installed spy cameras in work areas. He does this at the direction of the management to spy on the activities of their employees. This results in a standoff between Ali and Anna's partner, who demands he move out and not come back.
Ali, feeling guilty and rejected, leaves town without a word to Stéphanie. She is hurt to be left behind. Sam stays with Anna while Ali goes to a combat sports training facility near Strasbourg, losing touch with Stéphanie.
Anna's partner, with her permission, drops off Sam to visit for a day with Ali at the training facility. It is winter and Ali and Sam play in the snow on a frozen lake. A weak spot on the frozen lake cracks and Sam falls through the ice, swiftly losing consciousness. He is submerged in the icy waters as Ali turns away momentarily distracted by a call of nature. It takes Ali a while to realize that Sam has fallen through. Once he spots the hole and sees Sam under the ice of the frozen lake, Ali releases a desperate volley of punches to break the surface and is finally able to pull the unconscious boy out. In the process, Ali fractures almost every bone in his hands.
After carrying Sam to the hospital, Ali stays at the boy's bed while he's in a coma. Sam survives, coming out of his coma. Stéphanie, who calls after hearing about Sam's accident, speaks to Ali at the hospital. Ali breaks down while talking to Stéphanie on the phone 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 celebration of 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. [3] The film was produced by Why Not Productions for €15.4 million.[11] 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[12] and Brussels.[5] To prepare for the role, Cotillard took swimming lessons and spent a week at Marineland to learn how to direct whales.[13] Explaining how the team adjusted to Stéphanie having no legs, Cotillard told: "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."[14]
The special effects were provided by the French company Mikros Image.[15] One of the key methods used was to have Cottilard wear green knee length socks. The legs below her knees were then erased by computer or replaced with the image of prosthetic lower legs.[16][17]
Release
Marion Cotillard, Jacques Audiard, and Matthias Schoenaerts at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.
The film premiered on 17 May 2012 in competition at the 65th Cannes Film Festival,[18] where it received rave reviews and a ten-minute standing ovation at the end of its screening.[8][19] It was released in France and Belgium through UGC Distribution the same day.[20]StudioCanal UK acquired the British distribution rights,[5] 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.[21]
Critical reception
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."[22]Metacritic gave the film a rating of 73/100, based on 39 reviews.[23]
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."[24]
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."[25]
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."[26]
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."[28]
Roger Ebert, who did not review the film upon its original release, later added it to his "Great Films" series and gave four stars.[29]
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."[31]
Box office
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.[32]
The film grossed a total of $25.8 million worldwide.[4]
