Rust
and Bone
Director
Jacques Audiard (A Prophet) displays a bit of film noir in his latest outing
"Rust and Bone", based on a short story collection by Craig Davidson.
The
eerily engaging actor Matthias Schoenaerts shines once again as Alain, a
hustler of sorts and a small time boxer with a rage problem. Some may remember
Schoenaerts from the excellent "Bullhead" where he played a steroid
injected slaughterhouse worker, a hybrid between man and beast and he is just
as intimidating here.
Alain
is up against it from the get-go forced to steal to feed his young son. He
drifts from town to town, finally crashing with his surly sister Anne (Corinne
Masiero). One night at a disco, he meets the mysterious and no-nonsense
Stephanie (Marion Cotillard) who is being hit by a man. Alain intercepts and
strikes the man with savagery. And he is some smooth talker. On the way home,
he calls Stephanie a whore. Somehow, she asks him inside to ice his hand. Alain
discovers that Stephanie is an orca trainer.After
a hostile introduction by a boyfriend, Alain leaves in a bluster.
Meanwhile
we are shown scenes of Stephanie at work as she conducts the killer whales like
an orchestra at a kind of Sea World. These vignettes are quite tense as the
huge bodies of these wondrous creatures, all but dwarf the voluptuous curves of
Stephanie. For all her love of control, she is a mere minion.
Alain
gets a job as a security guard moonlighting as a mixed martial arts boxer,
while Stephanie becomes a victim of a whale attack, horribly losing her legs.
During
a chance call, Alain communicates with Stephanie again and the film merges into
a noir study of power and control where
the raw shark like animalism of Alain---who is a human Orca---is balanced with
the dominatrix-like behavior of Stephanie.
As
Stephanie begins sexual relations with Alain, she becomes hardened with solid
block lettered tattoos on each hip spelling out DROITE (right) and GAUCHE
(left) in harsh graphics. She also takes control of the boxing racket, seeing
herself as a kind of Madame of Pain. Jacques Audiard echoes Charles Laughton's
classic "The Night of the Hunter". Instead of Robert Mitchum's fearful
knuckle-valentine inscriptions of love and hate, we have Marion Cotillard. Both
graphic designs on the body are equally intimidating. But here, there is also a
nod to David Cronenberg in the use of gleaming metal prosthetics to inspire and
repel sex. The metal of Stephanie's legs are paired with Alain's indispensable
but battered hands. Poetically, Stephanie can be seen as a lost mermaid domme
who is at home in the water, while Alain is a mercenary urban guerrilla,
wishing for a consort but not wanting to work all that much too find her.
There
are many striking episodes in the film, particularly when Stephanie returns to
the Orca tank to confront a whale. As she directs the aquatic homunculus with
her hands, the whale becomes both a lapping puppy and a rotund instrument of
movement, ink and submission. There is also the mere physicality of Alain and
Stephanie as their bodies mix and merge, the pale amputated flesh of Stephanie
blending with the hardness of Alain's muscle, creating an odd kill machine,
perfectly suited for acts of taking and selfishness.
These
interludes by themselves make "Rust and Bone" a compelling must-see,
no matter that the film's ending gets a little sewn up, all too pat.
There
is enough punchy desperation here to keep you ducking and the carnivorous yet
strangely antic gestures of Matthias Schoenaerts, like that of a clown
pigmented with anger, are endlessly watchable.
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