Intouchables Film Analysis

5. To what extent do the characters in Intouchables conform to and/or depart from stereotypes of their respective gender, race and social class? Do they evolve at all in the course of the film?

Intouchables is a French mbookovie made in 2011, directed by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano. It is often said that Intouchables is one of those movies that present viewer actual situation in nowadays society.
Movie itself is full of stereotypes. The main one is that poor know how to have fun and know how to live, while rich are trapped in their fancy world without knowing what life is really about. Film follows two men lives. One is Driss, played by Omar Sy, ex-convict, healthy, poor African male, who knows how to get by during difficult situations

But for everyone’s surprise Driss gets the job as caregiver because he is exactly what Philippe needs, someone who does not pity him. As narrative follows friendship evolves between them, despite their differences of raise and social class. In this essay
I am going to talk about how main characters depart from stereotypical society groups that they represent. To begin with, movie Intouchables is clearly rising racism issue. First of all, as it was during slavery years in United States, black people worked for white men, they there their slaves and seemed that that’s how it should be. In this movie Driss, African male, starts working for Philippe, white man. Why not the other way around? Maybe because then viewers all over the world would not be touched so deeply as main characters start caring for each other and forge an improbable friendship. Or maybe because of stereotype that white man will always be better than black one, not the other way around. It can be clearly seen in the scene where Philippe is approached by his long term friend, who tells him about
Driss’s past and time in jail. Furthermore, according to Jay Weissberg (Variety writer): ‘Driss [the

We can say that
Philippe is clearly better that Driss in nowadays society, considering stereotype that wealthy and intelligent people are better than those who are pretty much living on the street. However, in
Intouchables this does not stop main characters of starting a friendship. Driss is the one Philippe needs.
He wants changes and with Driss as his caregiver, he can feel that everything would get a new meaning.
However, we can clearly see social class differences in scenes where black boy from the street teaches the aristocrat white man how to smoke weed or enjoy prostitutes. “This film dates to the 1930s, when it was thought the black man has no culture and spends his time laughing at everything,” philosopher
Jean-Jacques Delfour said after reviewing the film for the French daily Liberation. The scene in opera, where all rich people are siting with their serious faces on, and then there is Driss, man who cannot understand how can anyone look seriously at someone who dresses up as a tree and sings in front of the audience. What is more, when Yvonne, Philippe’s aide, finds knives and other equipment that