French director Jacques Audiard has already won Best Foreign Language film at the 82nd Academy Awards, the Grand Prix at Cannes; and was the winner 9 out of 13 Cesar Awards nominations for A Prophet. Can he top off “A Prophet?” This is the question that might arise before seeing the most recent feature of Jacques Audiard “Rust and Bone”.

Jacques Audiard is one of the most prominent French Directors and one of the most exciting filmmakers in Europe. After his masterpiece “A Prophet” sometimes it happens that such filmmakers become mute, paralyzed, or would have spent the rest of their life with a speech disorder. Not Jacques Audiard.

Inspired by a collection of short stories by the Canadian writer Craig Davidson, Jacques Audiard captures men and women on the brink of desolation with broken bodies and souls in “Rust And Bone”. Rust and Bone was a special presentation at TIFF 2012.

Audiard‘s previous films have been intensely male, but this one gives a powerful role to Marion Cotillard an orca trainer who is also a double amputee having lost both legs in a freaky accident at a water park. She delivers an outstanding performance as Stephanie. The moment that she realizes she has lost her legs her performance is heart breaking and incredibly real.

The revelation of the film is relative newcomer Matthias Schoenaerts (Bullhead, Foreign Language Oscar Nominee 2012). MyETVmedia met Matthias Schoenaerts at the Oscars. His performance in Bullhead, the Oscar Nominated Foreign film from Belgium by director Michael Roskam was riveting. Matthias Schoenaerts won Best Actor at the Palm Spring International Film Festival 2012for that performance.

Alain (Matthias Schoenaerts) is a man built like a tank, who has difficulty communicating except with his fists. However people are not always as they seem. They are not condemned to have one life. Will Ali and Stephanie seize the opportunity offered to them to transform their miserable lives?

Jacques Audiard’s film is passionate, full of brutal realism and extreme violence tempered with romanticism. Not surprisingly, we find the themes of his previous films: the father-son relationship (The Beat My Heart Skipped), the balance of power (A Prophet), learning of life (See How They Fall) the quest for redemption through a woman and social background (Read My Lips). But the result is infinitely more complex.