De Rouille et D'os (Rust and Bone) is a new French film directed by Jacques Audiard, who previously directed the intense prison mafia movie
Un prophete (A Prophet). If you haven't seen or heard of
Rust and Bone, it's because it has been flying low under the radar. It played at the Pittsburgh Three Rivers Film Festival last month; when I saw it it was playing in San Diego in just one theater. Not only is it foreign, but it also lacks a commercial appeal, which is not to say that it should be dismissed.
Rust and Bone takes place in Antibes in southern France, where Ali (played by Matthias Schoenaerts) and his young son have moved in with his sister in search of work. Ali is a very muscular guy and equally self-centered and dim, though sincere. He finds work as a bouncer at a club, but his dream job is to be a professional mixed martial arts fighter. One evening at the club he meets Stephanie (played by Marion Cottilard) who looks like a party girl but turns out to be, of all things, an orca trainer at the French version of Sea World. She suffers a life-altering accident on the job, and later seeks some sort of companionship in Ali. What proceeds is a relationship that would certainly be defined as "it's complicated" on Facebook, as Ali enters a dangerous underworld of MMA fighting and Stephanie joins along for the ride.
Merriam-Webster's online dictionary defines "melodrama" as "a work of extravagant theatricality."
Rust and Bone I think is definitely melodramatic, with quite exaggerated events. But both Cottilard and Schoenaerts give very powerful performances which makes the movie quite engaging, even if you are tortured by Ali's dumb ass or Stephanie's foolish choice to be with him. Visually the movie is very beautiful, with lots of sun flares, glistening waves and leaping killer whales. Of course the French show their mastery of romantic scenes in this movie.
Overall,
Rust and Bone is like
foie gras, complex and challenging but ultimately gratifying and it stays with you for a while. However, you may prefer pizza, and since it is the end of the year, I've posted below my
Top 5 Surprisingly Good Lowbrow Movies of 2012.
1)
21 Jump Street: OMG! LMFAO! Funniest movie I saw this year. Completely ridiculous.
2)
End of Watch: The badass movie of the year (though I haven't seen
Zero Dark Thirty yet.) Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña are both awesome, playing brave yet down-to-earth LAPD cops in South LA. The suspenseful action scenes will seriously raise your blood pressure. The found-footage format tries to offer a realistic perspective and it sort of works, but it's Gyllenhaal and Peña's relationship that really brings the movie to life.
3)
Seven Psychopaths: The latest dark comedy from director Martin McDonagh, who previously made
In Bruges. Great script about a struggling writer, his dognapping friends and an assortment of psycopaths. Very witty dialogue. All-star cast including Colin Ferrel, Woody Harrelson, Christopher Walken and the (hopefully no longer) underrated Sam Rockwell.
4)
The Cabin in the Woods: Definitely the biggest surprise of the year. This movie was not anything at all what I thought it would be. Unfortunately I can't say anything about it, except that if you hate horror movies you might actually especially enjoy this one. Also, the opening title sequence was maybe the best ever done.
5)
Chronicle: If you were a teenager with newly discovered superhuman telekinetic powers, would you use it to fight crime, or prank people and record it all on digital video? Probably the later. The movie portrays superhero powers in a real world environment using the increasingly popular found-footage format, and is thus refreshingly different from the huge assortment of comic book superhero movies. The learning-to-fly scene was every kid's dream.
