Thursday, November 17, 2011

Intouchables – not Sarkozy – provides the narrative France needs...

The spectacular success at the French box office of Intouchables, having attracted 2.5 million people in just 10 days, is the latest episode in a phenomenon that started just a few months after Nicolas Sarkozy came to power in May 2007.

We are not talking masterpiece or dazzling mise-en-scene – this is not the point. Intouchables tells the story of a quadriplegic aristocrat who hires a black ex-convict from the banlieues as his new minder. You will have guessed: it is the tale of an unlikely friendship between two men from opposite milieu. François Cluzet and Omar Sy may give tremendous performances, but the public hasn't flocked en masse for the film's artistic prowess. What they run to go and see is a story of class transcendence and national unity.

Intouchables is the latest in a series of very successful films which, in the last four years, have all shared this common theme. The first was Welcome to the Sticks, in which people from the south of France reconcile with people from the north by overcoming mutual prejudices. Full story...

Don't miss:
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  2. French lambast Strauss-Kahn's "insincere" and "public relations" apology...
  3. French teacher sets herself on fire in school's playground...
  4. France has a travel machine!!!
  5. Two Frenchwomen live in a cave to escape wireless electro-magnetic rays...

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