There are some who staked out the position last year that French director Jacques Audiard's crime pic, A Prophet, wasn't just one of the best foreign language films but arguably the best of the year. Period. I loved it, but wasn't prepared to go quite that far. It did convince me to seek out Audiard's 2005 film, The Beat That Skipped My Heart, and found it to be superior in a lot of ways. Whatever the case, Audiard is firmly on my radar, and have been anxiously awaiting whatever he does next. That film is called Rust and Bone, and one of my favorite actresses in Marion Cotillard is set to star.
Based on the collection of short stories by Canadian author Craig Davidson, it's described as being a mix of suspense and love, with Davidson's work often being compared to that of Chuck Palahniuk(Fight Club). Audiard andThomas Bidegain, who helped co-write A Prophet, will tag team the script. Matthias Schoenarts, Celine Sallette, and Bouli Lanners are set to co-star.
I love this mix of smaller foreign films(Little White Lies, for instance) and big Hollywood stuff that Cotillad has found. Already this year we've seen her in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, and she'll be one of the featured cast in Steven Soderbergh's Contagion. And of course there's that little film from Christopher Nolan called The Dark Knight Rises you might've heard about.
Shooting begins in September, so she'll jump right from the Batverse and into this project.