Rust and Bone
Short description
Ali arrives in Antibes with his young son Sam, a boy he barely knows, after leaving Belgium with no home, money or friends. His sister takes them in, and Ali finds work as a nightclub bouncer. After breaking up a fight there, he meets Stéphanie, a killer whale trainer at the Marineland park, and drives her home. The two have little in common, and they go their separate ways. When an accident at the park leaves Stéphanie confined to a wheelchair, she reaches out to Ali precisely because she expects no pity from him. Their relationship develops as he helps her rebuild her life without sentimentality.
Jacques Audiard directed and co-wrote the film with Thomas Bidegain, following A Prophet in his filmography. Marion Cotillard plays Stéphanie and Matthias Schoenaerts plays Ali, with Armand Verdure as Sam and supporting turns from Céline Sallette, Corinne Masiero and Bouli Lanners. The production, mounted for about 15 million USD, returned roughly 26 million USD worldwide.
On IMDb the film holds 7.4/10 from 73,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.2/10 from 1,495 votes, while a critics' score of 7.5/10 from 167 reviews places it slightly above the audience figures. These numbers suggest a film that drew solid approval from both critics and viewers without becoming a broad commercial phenomenon.
What's left behind the scenes
- Initially, director Jacques Audiard did not want a professional actor to play the role of Ali, and he began searching for candidates in gyms and boxing clubs. After an unsuccessful audition of more than 200 people, Audiard watched the film "Bullhead" (2011) and offered the role to Matthias Schoenaerts, who ultimately landed it.
- Marion Cotillard was simultaneously filming "Rust and Bone" (2012) and "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012).
- Marion Cotillard has always maintained that she hates filming sexual scenes, which she considers the worst part of the acting profession, but in this film, she enjoyed them for the first time. She said: "Usually, I tremble, feel very bad, and most of the time I want to cry, that's how much I hate these scenes. But this time it was completely different. I was so immersed in my character that I would have been glad if she could enjoy something like that. This film is about love, about flesh, about rust and bone, heart and sex, so without sexual scenes it would feel like something is missing."
- Filming began in October 2011 and lasted two months in Antibes, Cannes, Belgium, Paris, and northern France.
- To demonstrate the protagonist's amputated legs, Cotillard had to wear special green stockings, which were later processed on a computer.
- Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts first met three weeks before filming began during a script read at Jacques Audiard's house.
- The film is based on the stories "Rust and Bone" and "Rocket Ride" from the collection "Rust and Bone" by Canadian author Craig Davidson. In the book, the man loses his legs after an orca attack, but director Jacques Audiard decided to make the character female because he felt his previous film, "A Prophet" (2009), had enough male characters.
- Marion Cotillard said that during filming, a camera broke down at sea and it took time to repair it. And while she was waiting in the cold water, she was stung by a jellyfish.
- To prepare for her role, Marion Cotillard took swimming lessons and spent a week at Marineland learning to work with killer whales.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
