Rust and Bone

Rust and Bone.

Rust and Bone is a French film written and directed by Jacques Audiard, released November 2012. The Romance Drama has been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the BAFTA's and Golden Globes. The film stars Matthias Schoenaerts and Marion Cotillard (who was nominated for Best Performance by an Actress at the Golden Globes and Best Leading Actress at the BAFTA's). The film follows a start of a relationship between Stephanie and Ali after Stephanie is recovering from a horrible accident and Ali trying to find ways to support his family.

Rust and Bone include themes of femininity and masculinity and focuses on it through out the majority of the film. 

Stephanie is a double leg amputee and tries to 'find' her femininity again by starting a relationship with Ali and by building her confidence. A scene in which this is shown is when she goes back to the club with Ali and she sees all the other women wearing short skirts and high heels. The camera focuses on the lower parts of the women's body because it is an insecurity that Stephanie has. This shows that Stephanie wants her femininity 'back' because she is looking at what she used to have and how she used her body to get attention from other men. Because she has lost her legs, she feels she she is not the same person. However by the end of the film she comes round to owning the fact that she has no legs. She even gets large tattoos on her legs to show the fact that she has accepted what has happened to her. This is significant because it addresses a topic that is not largely spoken about. The film looks at the almost psychological impacts of disabilities and how it does not only affect the physical aspects to living a normal life but the emotional impacts it has. The film looks at disability along side sexuality.

Ali has a son called Sam and does everything he can to look after him even though he is struggling himself. Ali moves in with his sister to help him take care of Sam whilst he finds work. Ali ends up fighting as a way of earning money. Through out the majority of the film, Ali comes across as quite masculine. He doesn't really show emotion and is very blunt when it comes to talking about certain issues that arise in the film. His masculinity is very important to him. However at the end of the film when he is talking to Stephanie, he begins to break down crying. He doesn't lose his masculinity but it shows another side to Ali that the audience hasn't seen. This is important because in a lot of films men are seen as dominant and in charge so it throws off the audience when he begins to cry because Ali has been strong and tough through out the film.

Sound plays an important part in this film as well, as there are a lot of scenes in which the sound cuts out (softly) in order to focus the audience on to what the characters are actually doing. The film doesn't rely so heavily on dialogue so most of what is going on is interpreted through the actors performance. The dips in sound also contrasts with what is happening on screen. For example, in the scene in which Sam falls through the ice, the sound is barely there creating more suspense. The absence of sound contrasts with the dramatic nature of the scene which slows the audience down. Ali doesn't have much time to save his son, so by taking out the sound drags out the scene making it more tense. The sound allows the audience to break from all the action and look at the performance and the emotion Ali is showing. There are other scenes in which the sound dips out and the micro-features sound and performance work together in order to show the emotion of the two protagonists.