Men and women trapped in real life, we wear make-up to present a social image; we dress to conform to social status; we talk to represent social class, and so we succeed, we cheer, we gasp, our egos are missing?!
When I first saw Jacques Audiard’s Rust and Bone, I had just started university and, because of my French background, I was of course probably expecting a bit more from the film’s title. Now that I have revisited the film, the director’s expectation of the two main characters, the symbolism he lays on them, makes the film for me now neither a mere romance nor a far cry from the average inspirational film. The film addresses a topic that we often avoid in real life… Do the things we blindly pursue separate our mind from our body? It is only by ensuring that the body and soul are always in harmony that we can achieve human integrity.
First of all, look at the general environment in which the story takes place. On the sunny Mediterranean coast, everyone on the beach seems to have shed the burdens of life, lazily lying naked on the beach, enjoying the warm sun and gentle breeze.
On the surface, Ali and Stephanie’s state of life seems so out of place in French society that they are like fishermen who have suddenly entered the paradise. On the one hand, they are jealous of this life, and on the other hand, because of their own selfishness and the unavailability of this life, they are even more desperate to gather more people to expose and even criticise this life. The film seems to show more of the negative aspects of Ali and Stephanie’s lives, but the truth is far from what we expect.
In the film, Ali runs around the sunny shore, a symbol of happiness and beauty, day after day, but this running is perhaps not a kind of open-mindedness and openness to tomorrow, as Ali’s face appears again and again in silhouette, bouncing up and down with the rhythm of running. We worry about what changes and sacrifices Ali should make in order to slowly get out of his predicament, but the director uses the rich language of the camera to tell us that it’s better not to ask about the future, just to keep walking on the road.
Stephanie’s sullen blue eyes reveal her melancholy, the indelible trauma of her past injuries, and her complete lack of integration into the happy atmosphere of the beach scene. While Ali runs around the beach in circles eager to find a way out for herself, Stephanie is pushed more to the upper part of the beach away from the shore, where we can see her sitting calmly in the sun, dazed and as if time around her has frozen, her eyes no longer the proud, elegant, beautiful goddess she was when she was performing her orca training at the oceanarium just a short time ago, but more the image of She may have finally decided to stand up after the harsh reality hit her, shake the dust off her body and start thinking about her new life ahead, so the changes in her life and the difficulty of restarting it prevented her from easily fitting into the “illusion” of the beach.
Yes, how can this illusion make the two people, who have decided to face their hearts, yearn for it? The beach is a temporary shelter from the storm for outsiders, but one day the realities of life will have to be answered by each of us, so is it the decay and bleakness of Ali and Stephanie that tarnishes us, or are we the ones who violate Ali and Stephanie’s lives? The answer is conceivable; underneath the skin, it is time for everyone to let their inner selves break out of the envelope of their external image of self, to get some air and blow off steam.
In the case of Ari and Stephanie, how do they unite their souls and bodies? The relationship between Ali and his son is completely reversed, with the son having to tease his immature father from time to time with his little innocence and pranks. But it is this fragile, tender body that really makes Ali realise the strength he has and the responsibility he should bear since he has spent some time with Stephanie, so we see Ali’s fist slamming into the ice with vigour, and it is then that he truly appreciates the bond between this little one and his own blood, and he becomes a man who is present in body and soul.
Unlike Ali, who has always been weary of life and passive, Stephanie used to have a noble and decent job that was admired by all, but who knew that tragedy would strike this kind and upwardly mobile girl when her legs were taken away by her own kin, the orca. What had seemed destined to happen can be turned to dust in an instant, and so we see the distance between her boyfriend and the oceanarium. But after a period of careful care by Ali, she realises that she cannot be cheapened so easily, and that even though she has lost her legs, the openness and light of her soul should not be arbitrarily obscured by dark clouds. Ali also needs to leave the weight of her body behind herself to help open the skylight of her mind.
