Rust And Bone

Anna's partner, with her permission, drops off Sam to visit for a day with Ali at the training facility. It is winter and Ali and Sam play in the snow on a frozen lake. A weak spot on the frozen lake cracks and Sam falls through the ice, swiftly losing consciousness. He is submerged in the icy waters as Ali turns away momentarily distracted by a call of nature. It takes Ali a while to realize that Sam has fallen through. Once he spots the hole and sees Sam under the ice of the frozen lake, Ali releases a desperate volley of punches to break the surface and is finally able to pull the unconscious boy out. In the process, Ali fractures almost every bone in his hands.

Rust and Bone

Ali's direct, unpitying physicality becomes Stephanie's lifeline, but Ali too is transformed by Stephanie's tough resilience.And Stephanie comes alive again. As their stories intersect and diverge, they navigate a world where strength, beauty, youth and blood are commodities-but where trust, truth, loyalty and love cannot be bought and sold, and courage comes in many forms.

As for Stéphanie, like many women she sees Ali for what he is, and she's willing to bargain. She knows Ali is such a mess she wouldn't have settled for him in her prime. She physically conquers her dreadful accident and it's clear her struggle hasn't improved her emptiness. "You're stronger at the broken places," they say. I've been there, and you're not. If they are going to get better they'll have to start by using the fractured parts. "Rust and Bone" is the story of how they are forced to put weight on the load-bearing bones.

Bone FragmentsExtracted from animal carcass. Used as a raw material to make a bone blade, a bone awl, bone meal, or used to make glue.GeneralShortnamebone.fragmentsTypeResourcesStacksize1,000CraftingCraftableNoUsed In

Taking work as a bouncer at a club, where he helps Stephanie out after an altercation, then as a security guard, Ali is ill-equipped to tend to his son. Stifling uncharted depths of rage and frustration, Ali has boxed in the past and is drawn into back-alley anything-goes fights, which quickly bring him some tidy earnings.

It's from the foundation of this painful situation that Jacques Audiard builds one of recent cinema's grimiest love affairs, a melodrama with dirt smeared on its face. It starts with a call from Stéphanie who's alone, filthy with dry sweat and congealed frustration, A sporadic visit becomes a trip to the beach where the tired amputee smiles again and then new feelings blossom. There's the want for sex, which produces a shy smile when offered and reveals a pitiful shame on the part of a woman who before seemed so in control of her sexuality. There's also thirst for violence and for control, for the autonomy the aquatic tragedy took from her. Not that Cotillard ever allows us to pity Stéphanie. She almost roars at the camera, daring us to defy her, daring us to mellow towards this complicated person. 041b061a72