DHEEPAN. (2015) REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS.

JACQUES AUDIARD'S 'A PROPHET.' 2009. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS.

A Prophet Set For A Hollywood Remake As Sony Buy Rights

Sony Pictures have acquired the right's to Jacques Audiard's A Prophet to make an English language version for Hollywood. The 2010 Award winning Oscar nominated French prison drama tells the tale of a petty criminal who is sent to prison and in order to survive he is forced to climb the ranks of syndicate.

Fast& Furious producer Neal H Moritz has been confirmed to produce the acclaimed film's remake and this will surprise not just fans of the original but mainstream film fans too. As Moritz's credentials lie in big popcorn no brainer tentpole films does this suggest Sony will go for a mainstream route or will they take that same route they did for Fincher's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo which is another favorite within Arthouse genre.

The question people will be asking do we really need an A Prophet  remake? It's hard to really say what route Sony want to take until they announce a director but what ever route they take we do hope the psychological tension will still be there in the new version as it was one of the key elements that made this film  so good! Check out the official press release below...

Press ReleaseCULVER CITY, Calif., June 5, 2013 – Sony Pictures Entertainment has optioned the rights to remake A Prophet, the French hit released in the US in 2010, into an English language film to be produced by Neal H. Moritz and Toby Jaffe through the Original Film banner, it was announced today by Doug Belgrad, president of Columbia Pictures, and Hannah Minghella, president of Production for the studio.
Directed by Jacques Audiard, the film tells the story of a young man’s rise to power in a criminal syndicate after he is mentored by a crime boss. A Prophet was nominated for the Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film in 2010 and was honored with the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and nine César Awards (French Oscar), including Best Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actor.
Commenting on the announcement, Moritz said, “This is an epic crime saga with compelling characters and original storytelling. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to make an English language version of the film and I am grateful to have the trust of Jacques Audiard and his producers, as well as the writers Thomas Bidegain, Nicolas Peufaillit, and Abdel Raouf Dafri.”
Commenting on the announcement, Minghella said, “We think A Prophet will translate perfectly for English-speaking audiences. Obviously, we love working with Neal and he has a great track record with this kind of film – we’re confident that our film will excite audiences in the same way that the original material did.”

source: Collider

Rust And Bone DVD Review

Jacques Audiard has fast become one of Europe’s most prominent filmmakers with his previous two features: The Beat That My Heart Skipped and A Prophet. His latest film, Rust and Bone, will surely further boost his reputation and gain the director a wider audience with its crowd pleasing love story starring Academy Award winning actress Marion Cotillard.

The film opens in a style reminiscent of a Dardenne social drama when we’re introduced to Ali, an unemployed ex-boxer, with his five-year-old son in tow, fleeing Belgium for the French Riviera, where he moves in with a sister he hasn’t seen for years. After finding employment as a bouncer at a local nightclub, he has a chance encounter with Stephanie, a whale trainer. After this brief encounter Stephanie loses her legs in a horrific accident at work and the film turns away from its gritty social drama beginnings and becomes a fey and ridiculous love story hinged on the relationship between the two leading characters.

After the accident Ali and Stephanie strike up an unlikely relationship. This is where my problem with the film lies. Rust and Bone becomes forced and overly sentimental in its depiction of the opposing nature of the characters sensibilities. Ali is predictably brutish and Stephanie is predictably frail and it is these characteristics that bring them together. The film is about damaged humans and the animalistic nature of human behaviour but is too predictable and simplistic in its execution to be convincing.

Besides the gimmicky and rather conventional telling of its story, Rust and Bone boasts some beautiful cinematography and outstanding special effects. The scene where Cotillard’s Stephanie swims for the first time after becoming an amputee is a breathtaking example of both the beauty of the films cinematography and its seamless use of special effects. Unfortunately, the visual beauty of the film isn’t enough to elevate the film above its conventional and predictable storyline. By the end the film just feels too fey and insubstantial.

Shane James

★★1/2☆☆

Rating:15
BD/DVD Release Date:25th February 2013 (UK)
Director:  Jacques Audiard
Cast:  Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Armand Verdure
Buy Rust&Bone: Blu-ray / DVD

Studiocanal announce Rust And Bone UK February Home Release

StudioCanal have informed us the award winning and 2 time BAFTA nominated film, Rust And Bone the follow up film to Jacques Audiard's arthouse classic A Prophet. Rust And Bone stars Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts and will be yours to own this February.

Following a theatrical opening to tremendous national and international acclaim, and a Best Film Award at the London Film Festival in October, Jacques Audiard, acclaimed director of A Prophet and The Beat That My Heart Skipped, returns with this powerful drama about two people from very different worlds, seeking redemption in each other.
Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts - Bullhead) dreams of becoming a professional boxer. When he is suddenly put in charge of his five year old son, he moves in with his sister for support. While at his new job as a nightclub bouncer, he meets the beautiful and confident orca trainer, Stephanie (Academy Award® winner Marion Cotillard - The Dark Knight Rises, La Vie en Rose). He gives her his number, not expecting that she will ever call. However, after becoming the victim of a tragic and life changing accident, Stephanie surprisingly turns to Ali for support. These lost souls discover new meaning in life together when Ali enters the dangerous world of underground boxing.

Winner of several international awards, Rust And Bone is one of the best and most talked about films of 2012. you can read our cinema review here. With 2 BAFTA nominations, Rust And Bone is up for Best Leading Actress (Marion Cotillard) and Best Film not in the English Language.

DVD & Blu-ray Extras:

- Audio Commentary with Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain and Arnaud Calistri

- Making of Rust and Bone

- The Special Effects of Rust and Bone

- Deleted Scenes

- Trailer

DVD & Blu-ray HMV Exclusive Extras:

- Audio Commentary with Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain and Arnaud Calistri

- Making of Rust and Bone

- The Special Effects of Rust and Bone

- Deleted Scenes

- Trailer

- Exclusive UK Interviews with Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Jacques Audiard and Thomas Bidegain

- Exclusive BAFTA Q&A with Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts and Jacques Audiard

Pre-order Rust And Bone: DVD / Blu-ray

Rust And Bone Review

Rust and bone - the very name conjures up rough and ready imagery typical of a Jacques Audiard film. The French auteur’s star has seldom shone so bright following the release of the widely lauded A Prophet forcing the anticipation for this, his follow up, to rocket, only to intensify after early screenings at festivals confirmed its worth. Somewhat of a departure, it’s an incredibly human film, with all our flaws, hopes and problems on show. Above all however, it is our relationships – connections with other humans with their own dreams, worries and needs that take centre stage, flanked by two staggering performances from leads Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts.

Relocated from its American-border setting in the short story source material of the same name, Audiard places us on the south coast of France and the allure of the Cote d’Azour, home to Stephanie (Cotillard); an Orca whale trainer at a local sea life centre whose life is changed irreversibly by two events of vastly varying severity. The first is her chance encounter with the physically imposing Alain (Schoenaerts); a new resident and single father looking to tie down regular employment in a mixture of security jobs trying his hand as a bouncer when his doorman duties collide with the partying Stephanie at local nightclub The Annex. The pair begin a quasi-relationship which only begins in earnest after the horrific accident that befalls Stephanie while working at Marineland, an event that invariably forces a change in lifestyle.

Without becoming reliant on Ali, Stephanie finds in him a companion whose candid approach to life and sex enables her to re-evaluate her own life and values and gently encourages her to start living once again. Eschewing the air-punching, life-affirming delight of other works like the recently released Untouchables, Rust and Bone’s success comes from its tone steeped in almost Dardennes levels of realism and, as you’d expect from an Audiard film, there is little room for sentimentality. At no point are we asked to pity either lead despite their various and very real challenges. Alain’s single father is light-years apart from a Will and Jaden Smith venture, his gruff barks to son Sam coming from frustration and anger as much as love and affection and there’s little sympathy (offered or given) when he struggles to control this anger. It’s an unforgiving role and one newcomer Schoenaerts takes in his stride turning in a wonderfully controlled performance both menacingly fierce and endearingly gentle in equal measure. Not to be outdone, Cotillard turns what had the potential to be a restricted, self-pitying role into one unlike any other. She has the ability to tell whole stories with the smallest gesture or look, conveying a self-conscious vulnerability alongside stubborn desire and seamlessly flicking between the two.

Audiard’s body of work from Read My Lips through The Beat that My Heart Skipped and A Prophet shows a film maker adept in telling crime stories about tough men in tough situations which allows the more personable approach in Rust and Bone to be brought to the fore while avoiding anything remotely Mills and Boon or TV-movie about a story that in lesser hands could have easily turned that way. On more familiar territory he shows flashes of his nuanced approach to violence; the fighting scenes are simultaneously beautiful and barbaric, taking in slow motion visceral beatings and culminating in a solitary tooth, bloodied and spinning on gravel.

That he so effortlessly marries the tender with the terrifying is testament to a director at the very top of his game, elevating the film to more than the some of it’s parts. It becomes neither an out and out romance nor a stripped down brutally macho piece but instead, much like life itself, a mixture of all different aspects that affect these characters and their relationships. An incredibly powerful yet restrained film.
Matthew Walsh

★★★★★

Rating: 15
Release Date: 2nd November 2012 (UK)
Directed By: Jacques Audiard
Cast: Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Armand Verdure

Liff 2012:New Rust And Bone Clip Is All 'For Fun'

Jacques Audiard's Rust and Bone starring Oscar award winning actress Marion Cotillard which has been win critic and fans praise at every festival it's played at since this years Cannes Film Festival. The film is due to play at the London Film Festival before it's limited release in UK&Ireland next month and Studiocanal have sent us a new clip from the film entitled 'For Fun', check it out below.

Jacques Audiard, acclaimed director of A Prophet and The Beat That My Heart Skipped, returns with this powerful, tender romantic drama about two people from very different worlds seeking redemption in each other. Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose, Inception) stars as Stephanie, a killer whale trainer who late one night meets Alain (Matthias Schoenaerts, Bullhead) in a fracas at the nightclub where he works as a bouncer. Put in charge of his young son, Alain has come from Belgium to Antibes to live with his sister and her husband as a family. Alain’s bond with Stephanie grows deeper after she suffers a horrible accident, bringing the two together once more.

Audiard has been making big marks on the French and World Cinema the past few years with his last film A Prophet especially which won Grand Prix at Cannes and nomination for Best Foreign film at 2009 Oscars. Expect Rust And Bone to win plenty nominations in the awards season  with Marion Cotillard challenging for best female category.

Rust and Bone is released in cinemas on 2nd November 2012.

 

Watch The UK Trailer For Rust&Bone (De rouille et d'os)

Studiocanal have released the stunning new UK trailer for Rust & Bone. A new romantic drama from the director of A Prophet Jacques Audiard and starring Oscar award winning actress Marion Cotillard(The Dark Knight Rises).The film also stars Matthias Schoenaerts and tells the story of an unlikely relationship between a couple whose relationship blossom thanks to an unlikely accident.

Jacques Audiard, acclaimed director of A Prophet and The Beat That My Heart Skipped, returns with this powerful, tender romantic drama about two people from very different worlds seeking redemption in each other. Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose, Inception) stars as Stephanie, a killer whale trainer who late one night meets Alain (Matthias Schoenaerts, Bullhead) in a fracas at the nightclub where he works as a bouncer. Put in charge of his young son, Alain has come from Belgium to Antibes to live with his sister and her husband as a family. Alain’s bond with Stephanie grows deeper after she suffers a horrible accident, bringing the two together once more.

Since winning her Oscar for La Vie en Rose, Marion Cotillard has certainly excelled herself in Hollywood with some fantastic and at times challenging roles.So it's always refreshing to see and actor return to their homeland and act in their native tongue, Rust & Bone looks potentially another strong film which could see her possibly challenge for Oscar glory once more.Since  Rust & Bone opened away back at Cannes(Audiard missing out on Michael Haneke for the Palme d'Or) it has been lapping up critical praise where ever the film has been been shown and this trailer highlights the beautiful cinematography, heartfelt powerful performances from it's lead pair. If there's one reason to finally check out foreign language films for first time, Rust & Bone may just be that film when it arrives in UK&Ireland November 2nd.

source: MSN