It’s not exactly a revelatory first look, but any time I can bring up my excitement for Jacques Audiard‘s upcoming new film I’ll pretty much take that opportunity. Just above is the first official image of Marion Cotillard in Rust & Bone courtesy of Cinemateaser (via CinemaTeaser). Audiard is most recently known as the director of the Oscar-nominated feature A Prophet and his latest feature is set to hit French cinemas on May 17, one day after the Cannes Film Festival kicks off, which has me wondering when or if it will have a Croisette debut, but considering that’s where A Prophet began its run I have a hard time believing Rust & Bone won’t make an appearance.
The film is an adaptation of Craig Davidson’s 2005 collection of short stories said to take place in a savage world populated by fighting dogs, prizefighters, sex addicts and gamblers. The title story involves an afflicted boxer whose hand never properly heals after a bone is broken. The fighter’s career descends to bouts that have less to do with sport than with survival: no referee, no rules, not even gloves.
Rust & Bone was one of my top ten most anticipated films of 2012 and at the time the above plot synopsis was all I had to go on. UGC, however, also offers the first official plot, which I have run through the Google and Bing translators and arrived at the following with a few assumed changes where it really didn’t make much sense at all. However, the final paragraph is still a bit of a garbled mess.
It starts in the north. Ali ends up with his 5-year-old son Sam, whom he barely knows. Homeless, penniless and friendless, Ali finds refuge with his sister in Antibes. There, it’s immediately better, he lives in her garage, she takes care of the little things and it’s nice.
Following a fight in a nightclub, his fate crosses that of Stephanie, a trainer of killer whales at Marineland. He brings her home and gives her his phone number. He is poor and she is beautiful and confident. She is a princess.
It will take the show turns into a nightmare for a phone call in the night’s meet again When Ali is found, the princess is packed in a wheelchair: she lost her legs and a lot of illusions. He will simply help, without compassion, without mercy. She will revive.
Along with Cotillard, Bullhead star Matthias Schoenaerts also has a role and I am going to guess he’ll be playing the film’s lead, Ali, and Cotillard is said to be playing Stephanie. Additional known members of the cast include Bouli Lanners and Celine Sallette.
Rust & Bone has already been picked up for domestic release by Sony Classics and is expected to hit theaters later this year.
