Film #96 of The December Project

I've watched a lot of amazing films in 2012, but none have rendered me completely helpless by the sheer force of its brilliance like Rust and Bone. At times, this film is viscerally violent and in your face, at others it is gently detached. It's a testament to this film's power that it can bring out the strongest of emotions with a single human gesture. There is a great story worth telling here, but…

At this point I should just give up guessing at what Jacques Audiard may be up to with his films. Whatever my expectations are, he's almost certainly going to subvert them. I went into A Prophet anticipating a hard-boiled prison/gangster movie, and what I got was a poetic mishmash of violence and spirituality concerning the Darwinian struggle of the French immigrant class (oh, and I also got one of my favorite movies of the last several years). With his new…

Rust and Bone comes with lofty expectations, expectations the film struggles to match. Directed by Jacques Audiard, the man responsible for the mesmerising A Prophet, and backed by near unanimous critical praise, I had high hopes for the film yet it is a piece of work that feels in constant conflict with itself. The story revolves around two damaged people, one a poor single father who competes in brutal illegal street fights, and the other an orca trainer who loses…

All this time we spend telling stories about, and hoping to be, heroes, and it’s easy to lose sight of how powerful we are just being alive. How the bravest are not always knights, how often they don’t know who they are.

How sometimes, they’re an unemployed father with more testosterone than paternal instincts, or an intoxicated girl in a club teasing men for validation. They’re Ali and Stéphanie, and they’re not perfect. Sometimes, they're not even good. Sometimes, Ali…

Jacques Audiard is a master of the craft of filmmaking. Period.

His movies use music in a riveting and unexpected way. His plots make unexpected turns, and offer typical points in a new way. There is a true magic at play. If there are "acts" to his films, it is almost impossible to sense them because scene after scene seems like a natural flow from before. His use of the camera, and understanding of film grammar, is the mark of…

Film 1 of TIFF 2012

I'm having a really hard time reviewing this film, and I don't think I will succeed until I've seen it again. In the meantime I can only give some impressions I had while viewing it.

I'm fairly certain that Rust and Bone will turn out to be one of my favourite films, but that was not obvious at all while watching it. It is a very slow-paced story about multiple characters and it isn't always…

Iron Man is oxidised to rust and get's a bone for a lady who's lost some calcium based bones in place of possible aluminum prosthetics? It's all about chemistry. His magnetism towards his family is weakened but it's strengthened towards our lass, who looks like a prettier Gollum with better hair. OK, it's about physics too.

Rust Man put's his lit splint in to Marion's hydrogen filled test tube and makes her do a squeaky pop. Chemistry. Marion Cotillard's coil…

I was a huge fan of A Prophet, so was very much looking forward to this one and while I liked it a fair amount, it may have been hurt a bit by my lofty expectations.

Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts (great to see him again after that excellent performance in Bullhead) are both very good, but there was something about the construction of the film that left me wanting. It was almost too detached, so I never felt all…

Incredible performances by Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts are a solid foundation for Jacques Audiard's latest about a street fighter named Ali who takes his young son out of Belgium and moves to France to live with his sister. The main focus of the film is about Ali and Stephanie's relationship as she faces the adversity of having to overcome a tragedy.

Audiard has a keen eye for beautiful photography in his films and Rust and Bone might just be…