The French Flock to a Feel-Good Movie "Untouchables"

The New York Times ^ | December 10 2011 | MAÏA DE LA BAUME

[Cincinna]

 When it was released last month, “Intouchables” seemed an unremarkable, lowbrow French comedy, a small-budget film with actors little known outside France hamming it up in a story about a stodgy, disabled aristocrat and the good-humored ex-con whom he hires as his aide. 

But only four weeks after its release the movie has attracted 11 million viewers, almost 17 percent of the French population.

“Intouchables,” is based on the true story of Philippe PozzodiBorgo, a wealthy businessman who was left a quadriplegic after an accident, and his aide, an unemployed, Algerian-born resident of a lower-class banlieue. (The film recreates the aide as a young black man from the housing projects.)

The script is centered on the bond that grows between the two.(sn)

  For different reasons the characters are lost and lonely, and they end up helping to enrich each other’s lives.

“This epic of the tall black and the little white guy is tenderly funny and a true achievement,” said a recent editorial in Le Monde. Some commentators even compared the buoyant humor of “Intouchables” to Frank Capra’s movies.

“It’s well written and well told,” a sociologist who specializes in cinema and is president of the University of Avignon, said “It tells a lot about the permanent value of living together in harmony”(sn)

  “Intouchables” has also been criticized for its idealistic vision of a world without social gaps, where an aristocrat can befriend an ex-con. The newspaper Libération denounced “the dictatorship of emotion as a camouflage to the total absence of thought,” while Variety pointed at what it called the film’s primitive racism, describing Driss as “a role barely removed from the jolly house slave of yore.”

The movie, Variety’s writer added, “flings about the kind of Uncle Tom racism one hopes has permanently exited American screens.”

[odds]

typo = La Reine & Les Enfants

[HiTech RedNeck]

In the actual Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Uncle Tom was beaten to death, and yet doesn’t seem to have suffered half as much as these miserable liberal malcontents that are ever likening trans-racial comity to said avuncular figure.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Wasn’t the Piano Player one, more like Ne Tirer le Pianiste? (Don’t shoot the pianist?) Which immortalized the modern reproduction of Wild West bar signs, “Don’t Shoot The Piano Player.” (Oddly enough, I’ve had a very hard time trying to locate one today, even on eBay. Could shooting itself be too un-PC a thing to mention anymore, even as an obvious joke?)

[odds]

>>>”more like Ne Tirer le Pianiste? (Don’t shoot the pianist?)” Which immortalized the modern reproduction of Wild West bar signs, “Don’t Shoot The Piano Player.”<<<

The expression in French is “Ne tirez pas sur le Pianiste” (don’t shoot the messenger).

But you can buy “Tirez sur le Pianiste” (shoot the piano player) - (DVD, 1999) on ebay! :) - http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Tirez+Sur+Le+Pianiste

[Yaelle]

When I went to school in France I would get accosted with “oh, you Americains, you are so cruEL to the blacks and the IndiEns!”. I had to hear over and over how racist I was. So I would say, look how you all treat the Arabs. I actually got, a few times, “Mais c’est different! Ils sont ARABES!”. (But that’s different. They’re ARABS!”) The last word said with emphasis and disgust. And this was long before the 9/11 era.

[dfwgator]

Shall we also mention to the French their treatment of the Jews during WWII? It’s not like the Germans had to twist their arms very hard to comply.

[Yaelle]

“driving miss daisy” was still a good film. Several great actors, and until that movie I didn’t understand there was a huge and very old Jewish community in the South. With glorious old synagogues. Fascinating.

[Cicero]

I’ve seen about half of those. We used to go to an art movie theater just over from Harvard Square when I was in college and grad school. They showed a lot of French and European films. Some with subtitles, some without, and as I recall just about all in black and white.

All of the Bergman films, too.

[Cincinna]

I’m sorry I left out “Shoot the Piano Player “ (Tirez Sur Le Pianiste) It is still considered one of the great classics of cinema. It is widely available on eBay & Amazon.
Truffaut was one of the founders of La Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) cinema. This film along with Les Quatrefoil Cent Coups (400 Blows) are his earliest films.
I also like very much “le Dernier Metro” The Last Metro, one of his last successes.
Truffaut left us far too soon. He was only 52.

[dfwgator]

Speaking of French movies, the movie “Hugo” was a nice tribute to the legacy of Georges Meiles.

[TrueKnightGalahad]

Of the films you listed, I’ve seen all but La Reine Margot, and have most of them on DVD. The French film industry is a pipsqueak compared to Hollywood’s massive output; perhaps that’s part of the reason that French cinema seems to me to have a higher percentage of good and great films.

I’d add:

Manon des Sources (can’t mention Jean de Florette wihout Manon!)
La Maman et la Putain (unobtainium on DVD or tape - but oddly enough, the entire film is on YouTube)
Zazie dans le Metro
Le Grand Blond avec Une Chaussure Noire (I think I’ll throw the LD in the player tonight)
La Chevre
Les Comperes
La Vallee
La Règle du Jeu
Z
Le Salaire de la Peur
Le Genou de Claire - heck, anything Rohmer directed
L’Armée des Ombres
Everything Truffaut

...and a ton more. Can you tell I’m a BIG fan of French films? :-)

[odds]

Just my assessment that “racism” is historically specific to a country or nation. Overall, imo, Americans are much less “racist” than Europeans, or non-Europeans such as the Japanese.

[Cincinna]

You are so right. The French are incredibly racist and anti-Semitic; it seems to be almost in their DNA. There us a dessert called "Tête du Nègre" on Café & ice cream parlor menus all over France. A meringue, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top covered in dark chocolate sauce.

The way they dealt with Arab immigrants, by putting them in housing project ghettos in the suburbs (bainlieus) around Paris, creating a circle if bombs ready to explode is disgraceful.

[Cincinna]

Agree. Since American culture us based on individualism, most of us, especially we conservatives, tend to judge people as individuals, not as a group.

FWIW The Japanese are probably the most racist of all. In a monolithic culture, there “superiority” is inbred for centuries. This is a generalization, but my experience with the Japanese they disrespect all non-Japanese.