The Intouchables

plays in Celestial Cinema Friday

plays with Tribute to Mark Magidson

(France, 2012, 112 mins)

Associate Producers: Arnaud Bertrand, Dominique Boutonnat, Hubert Caillard
Producers: Nicolas Duval-Adassovsky, Laurent Zeitoun, Yann Zenou
Music: Ludovico Einaudi
Cinematographer: Mathieu Vadepied
Editor: Dorian Rigal-Ansous
Cast: François Cluzet, Omar Sy

Rated: R

Within just two months of its release this emotionally rousing drama-comedy became the second most successful French film of all time. In France, a majority of voters chose it as the cultural event of 2011. Now here it comes.

The dramatic premise is as simple and sharp as a guillotine: Philippe, a wealthy widower (in an amazing performance by François Cluzet) has been utterly disabled by a paragliding accident and needs a live-in caretaker to deal with the reality that he is now (as the French title suggests) "untouchable." Against the good advice of his friends, he rejects all qualified applicants in favor of a Senegalese street tough named Driss (Omar Sy), who has neither skills nor interest for the work. But because both men are at the ends of their respectives ropes, the deal is struck. Worlds collide, and both lives are profoundly changed. Shortly into the gig Driss shouts, "This is not just a job anymore!"

Some of their shared misadventures include a high-speed police chase in Philippe's Maserati Quattroporte, a hang-gliding adventure off the face of Mont Blanc, and (most frightening of all) a bid on Philippe's part to find a new female partner in his life.

Both the film and the actors took top awards in Tokyo, and Sy is now the first person of African descent to win a Best Actor César Award.

- PW

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