Love movies often depict passion as something heavenly. The successful French director Jacques Audiard shows in a drama on RBB television that it can also mean pain and hell.
Berlin – opposites attract. But what’s next? The French feature film “The Taste of Rust and Bones” tells how big the difficulties can be with an almost unbelievable, almost physically noticeable force.
The work from 2012 will be shown on Thursday at 11.55 p.m. on RBB television. With his passion for storytelling full of emotions, author and director Jacques Audiard effectively ties in with the style of his success “A Prophet”.
In “The Taste of Rust and Bones” he tells the unusual story of the sensitive, educated and well-off whale trainer Stéphanie (Marion Cotillard) and the coarse, uneducated and not exactly wealthy casual worker and would-be martial artist Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts). Her attempt to overcome social contradictions takes the audience by surprise with a wealth of emotions that are rarely found in contemporary films.
The overwhelming power of this timelessly beautiful ballad about the difficulty of keeping happiness comes from the fact that Stéphanie and Ali find each other through an extraordinary stroke of fate: the young woman suffers an accident with tragic consequences. First of all, the question arises whether the two can cope with all pain. But that’s not all, it is also important to overcome solid social barriers in the idyll on the Côte d’Azur.
Director Jacques Audiard and his co-writer Thomas Bidegain have given the actors ample opportunity for nuanced character portraits. Oscar winner Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts succeed in striking studies of people in extreme physical and psychological situations. You achieve a breathtaking authenticity, especially in the quiet, restrained moments.
The class of the staging and the acting have a striking effect: You feel as if you are actually rushing through the ups and downs of the love story side by side with Stéphanie and Ali. The finale is shocking and beautiful at the same time – it unfolds a unique magic. Even hardened natures should blow their nose in their handkerchiefs. Whether from shock or delight, is not revealed. But certainly with the wild beat of a troubled heart. dpa
