Untouchable.

 

Untouchable is a French film directed by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, it’s a comedy/drama showing the life of a wealthy man who becomes quadriplegic after a paragliding accident who hires a young man from the ghetto to be his caretaker.

The story line of the film is the kind of masterpiece that not a lot films can achieve and films like this only come every so often. The story shows an aspiring friendship story that has started off as a simple job.
Philippe is an extremely rich man who after paragliding accident has become quadriplegic. Philippe employs Driss who is a poor, unemployed man with a criminal background. Driss had no intentions of being hired when he went to for the job interview; he was just there to get his paper signed which says he attended the job interview, simply to be eligible for unemployment benefit. The two form a really unlikely friendship as their relationship develops through Driss’ work as Philippe’s carer. Their friendship is very unusual and unlikely because they are both extremely different from each other. Philippe is a rich wealthy man who lives in a mansion, and Driss is a poor man who lives on a council estate, and has a criminal record as he was in prison for 6 months for robbery. Poverty is shown through Driss as we are shown where his aunt lives, we find out that they haven’t got a lot of money at the scene where Driss is taking a bath, we are shown Driss in the bath and 4-5 other children in the bathroom, it looks crowded and uncomfortable.  The film beautifully contrasts the rich and poor, when Driss is with Philippe living the rich life, the editing makes the scenes look warm, and nice whereas when Driss is back to his own life, colder colours are used, the scenes look cold and more bluish instead of warm and orange/red.

 

A scene where we are shown the true friendship of Philippe and Driss is where they both go paragliding, it’s a really meaningful scene because Driss is the person in Philippe’s life who managed to make him overcome his fears and go back to doing what he loves doing. This wasn’t easy for Philippe because paragliding is the reason he is disabled and can’t move, so he needed a good friend to support him. At that scene we are shown a whole different side of Philippe, we see the true inner self coming out, his true colours, we can see that he’s happy and relieved again, which he hasn’t been for a very long time. The camera work is also done fantastically because we are shown Driss complaining saying that he’s not going to do paragliding and then the shot cuts and the next shot we are shown in Driss in the air paragliding. This also shows that at that moment it’s Philippe that has the power between the two of them, which is unusual since it’s usually Driss that has more power because of Philippe’s disability. The change of power is done in a non-aggressive but more of a magnificent way.    

The opening scene of the film show us Driss and Philippe driving in town and making a bet about losing the police, at that point we don’t know anything about the characters in the film, we don’t know that Philippe is disabled and we don’t know that Driss is his carer, we are just shown two friends. Then the shot cuts and throughout the whole film the characters develop and we find out about both of them, their past and their stories.  By the end of film we are shown how Driss and Philippe got into the car chase with the police, and at that point we now understand why they were in the car, and now us as watchers have stronger connections with the characters.

 

There is also conflict shown in the film there is conflict shown in Philippe’s life, with her daughter, Elisa, they have conflict because there’s too much money, and Elisa became spoilt which caused arguments between the people working for Philippe and the daughter, for example Driss and Elisa had an argument because she was being rude to him and treating him like she’s better than him. This shows that having too much money can cause conflict and arguments in a family. On the other hand, there is conflict in Driss’ life as well, but for the opposite reason, which is poverty. Poverty is causing conflict in Driss’ life because him and his family don’t have enough money therefore he gets kicked out from home as his aunt can’t afford to look after him since she’s got many other kids to look out for, for that reason Driss and his aunt have an argument. Poverty also puts Driss in a situation where he has to commit crimes to get by, and we find out in the film that he was in prison for 6 months for robbery. The film beautifully contrasts the rich and poor, and shows that money is the main reason for conflict, either having too much money or not having enough of it.