Intouchables real. par Olivier Nakache, Éric Toledano (review)

The remainder of this volume is organized mainly by director, some of whom are familiar names, such as Michel Brault, Claude Jutra, Denys Arcand, and Pierre Falardeau, while others will be relatively unknown to all but a few specialists, either because they work mostly in documentary, like Arthur Lamothe and Serge Giguère, or because their best films are from an earlier time, such as Jacques Leduc’s On est loin du soleil (1970), or, lastly, because they are not considered canonical, making their work hard to find or even forgotten, and here we can cite Claude Gagnon’s The Pianist and Claude Fortin’s Le voleur de caméra, both from the early 1990s, which are the subjects of two of Marsolais’s critiques. The organization of the articles by directors, however, does not obscure the fact that the pieces anthologized—and there are sometimes several per director—are presented in a perplexing order. For example, Leduc’s section logically precedes the one on Perrault’s La bête lumineuse (1982), but both directors’ entries appear after Paul Tana, whose films Caffé Italia, Montréal and La Sarrasine came out some years after theirs. This seems particularly odd given that Perrault and Leduc are such important figures in the earlier generation of directors considered here. Moreover , the entries are not always dated, posing a potential problem for serious researchers, and basic data on the films themselves is not always given, an unhelpful inconsistency. Perhaps it is in the nature of such a collection of a career’s worth of writing on a diverse body of films to be somewhat scattershot and at times repetitive, but it does leave an inchoate impression when one reads the book sequentially. Nonetheless, there are individual entries and articles that are worth the price of admission. The long section devoted to Michel Brault reveals a profound knowledge of this central figure in Quebec film history. Interviews with him alone, with him and a young Denis Côté (now of Curling fame), and with Denys Arcand are all fascinating, but even more so is the one with Francis Mankiewicz about his 1972 classic Le temps d’une chasse. Marsolais is at his best when discussing directorial intentions behind specific filming techniques. Although the film review format has its limitations, particularly for those with little knowledge of the context or careers of the filmmakers in question, there are treasures here for the initiated and for those who can appreciate this film critic’s forty years of astute observations on the growth of Quebec’s cinema into a film industry. Georgetown University (DC) Miléna Santoro NAKACHE, OLIVIER, et ÉRIC TOLEDANO, réal. Intouchables. Int. François Cluzet, Omar Sy, Anne Le Ny, Clotilde Mollet. Quad, 2011. Après Nos jours heureux (2006) et Tellement proches (2009), deux comédies plutôt bien réussies, le duo Nakache-Toledano réalise le plus gros succès de 2011 en s’inspirant de l’histoire vraie d’un riche handicapé, Philippe Pozzo di Borgo, et de son aide à domicile Abdel Sellou, un ex-taulard. Si Intouchables s’est rapidement transformé en phénomène de société, c’est parce qu’il s’adresse à tous et apporte à chacun des messages d’amitié, de solidarité et d’humanité. Ce film, qui aborde courageusement des sujets souvent tabous, fait passer le spectateur du rire aux larmes, tout en lui procurant de vives émotions en utilisant des clichés à contre-emploi. C’est d’ailleurs en banalisant le handicap (physique ou social) et 172 FRENCH REVIEW 86.1 en montrant le rapprochement entre les contraires que le film réussit à séduire un public en pleine démoralisation économique et sociale. Philippe (François Cluzet), riche aristocrate devenu tétraplégique à la suite d’un accident de parapente, fait passer un entretien d’embauche pour recruter un auxiliaire de vie. L’un de ces candidats, Driss (Omar Sy—César 2012 du meilleur acteur), est un jeune chômeur de banlieue tout juste sorti de prison dont la seule préoccupation est de continuer à toucher ses Assedic. Voyant en Driss un “assisté”, Philippe refuse de signer son attestation de recherche d...