One of the most anticipated films (and perhaps the most anticipated) of the 2012 Cannes Film Festival is Jacques Audiard‘s Rust & Bone starring Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts (Bullhead).
Audiard’s A Prophet won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Festival and I declared it my #1 film of that year. I also enjoyed his 2005 feature The Beat That My Heart Skipped and simply can’t wait to see what he does with this film.
Over the last month or so several images and even a French language trailer and synopsis have arrived and today I have for you the official English language version of the synopsis, an English subtitled version of the previously released trailer and three subtitled clips from the film. First… the synopsis:
It all begins in the North of France. Ali (Schoenaerts) suddenly finds himself with a five year-old child on his hands. Sam is his son, but he hardly knows him. Homeless, penniless and friendless, Ali takes refuge with his sister in Antibes. There things improve immediately. She puts them up in her garage, she takes the child under her wing and the weather is glorious.
Ali first runs into Stephanie (Cotillard) during a night club brawl. He drives her home and leaves her his phone number. He is poor, she is beautiful and self-assured, a princess: his complete opposite.
Stephanie trains killer whales at Marineland. When a performance ends in tragedy, a call in the night again brings them together. When Ali sees her next, his princess is confined to a wheel chair: she has lost her legs and quite a few illusions. He simply helps her, with no compassion or pity. And she comes alive again.
The clips below essentially reinforce what you just read, including the scene at the club and so forth, but what I noticed most was the way Audiard has chosen to shoot the film with cinematographer Stephane Fontane. The first clip in the club is pretty much traditional, straight-forward narrative, but the following two have clearly taken on Stephanie’s view of the world, frequently shooting over her shoulder or blatantly showing the back of her head. Should prove for an interesting perspective.
I’ve included the three clips and the trailer below and if you would like to browse my gallery of six images from the film you can do so right here.
Rust & Bone screens on Thursday, May 17 at the Cannes Film Festival after which I will have a review for you as soon as I can get it written.
