The Intouchables.

The Intouchables.

Key Cast: Omar Sy and Francois Cluzet

Director: Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano

Writer: Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Themes: Friendship, love

Release: September 2012

Budget: 9,500,000 (euro's).

Key Scenes: 

A key scene within this film is when Driss is at Philippe's birthday and Driss starts to play the music that he listens too. This is important as it shows to the audience that Driss is now sharing part of his life with Philippe. This shows the two characters bonding further as they start to embrace the completely different backgrounds each other come from. This also shows to the audience that they have become the most unlikely of friends as they now trust each other to share information about their life. This is the same when Phillippe takes Driss paragliding. They are both experiencing each others life style and connecting with each other when they do this.

A key scene is shown right at the beginning of the film where we see Driss and Phillippe are in the car and they get pulled over by the police. This is important because it entices and attracts the audience to watch the film because they want to know what their story is and why they are in that situation. It also sets up the rest of the film because it this scene shows an event in the characters future then the film continues starting from the beginning of their friendship. 

The main theme of the film is friendship and these two scene clearly show and back it up. The two scenes shows the audience how they bonded and what their friendship was like.

Micro-features: 

An important micro-feature is performance as the point of the film is to show the audience that even though they are completely different they still became really good friends. The performance is important as the audience follow certain stereotypes of the characters within the film just from the first impressions. From the beginning of the film the audience decides what type of person the character is. So the performance is important as over time we see the characters develop and exceed the audiences expectations. Also the film is a comedy so the performance is particularly important because the characters have to make the audience laugh whilst also trying to present a serious message about disability and stereotypes.

Disability is a main theme in this film as the main character, Phillippe is a quadriplegic after a paragliding accident. Disability is shown positively as Philippe doesn't let his disability hold him back. He still goes paragliding and still leads a normal life by finding a love interest. This is important as in the media disabled people are often shown to be reliant on others and unable to live a normal life. This film goes against this by showing the main character, Philippe, living a happy life where he is able to do what everyone else can do.
However,disability is also shown negatively. In the first scene of the movie Philippe and Driss are speeding in a car when they attract the attention of the police. At this point Driss uses Philippe's disability to get out of trouble with the police. This is a negative representation because it shows to the audience that some people treat disabled people differently and that some people use their disability in order to get certain things.

Comparables:

A film that could be compared to 'The Intouchables' is 'Million Dollar Baby' (2004 Clint Eastwood). Although it is not a comedy it still has the main theme of friendship and raises the issues on disability. The similar themes and storyline of this film are similar to The Intouchables as it shows how people come together in order to help someone less fortunate. Both films heavily rely on friendship in order to make the audience  feel sympathy and also connect with the characters.