Rust and Bone
2012 film directed by Jacques Audiard
Rust and Bone (French: De rouille et d'os) is a 2012 romantic drama film directed by Jacques Audiard, starring Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts, based on Craig Davidson's 2005 short story collection Rust and Bone. It tells the story of a nightclub bouncer who falls in love with a woman who trains killer whales and loses her legs in a workplace accident. The film is a co-production between France and Belgium. It had its world premiere at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival where it competed for the Palme d'Or; it received positive early reviews and a ten-minute standing ovation at the end of its screening. The film was released theatrically in France and Belgium on 17 May 2012 through UGC Distribution and Lumière, respectively.
Rust and Bone received generally positive reviews from critics, especially for Cotillard's and Schoenaerts' performances.
It was a critical and box office hit in France where it sold 1.9 million tickets, and was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award, two Golden Globes, two BAFTA Awards, five Lumière Awards, winning two; three Magritte Awards, and nine César Awards, winning four, including Most Promising Actor for Schoenaerts.
Plot
Alain "Ali" van Versch, an unemployed single father in his twenties, arrives in Antibes to look for work to support his young son, Sam. Having no money, he crashes with his sister Anna, a cashier who already has her own share of problems with financial instability and temporary employment.
Ali gets a job as a bouncer in a nightclub, which allows him to continue his passion for kickboxing by training during the day.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q73803. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 4 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2012 and 2005.
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This entry incorporates text from “Rust and Bone” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.