Untouchable (2011) Analysis

The story of Untouchable is based on a true story of a quadriplegic aristocrat who hires a young man from the projects to be his carer. The film then follows as  relationship grows stronger and each introduces each other into their world whist also highlighting many issues facing a range of different people in France in the 21st century.

The film highlights the representation of race, ethnicity, disability, class and issues. 

The film starts with a scene from nearer the end of the plot with a fast car scene with Driss and Phillipe being chased by the police. This is an exciting way of engaging the audience with the action and also creates intrigue as we don not yet know who these characters are, what their relationship is, and why they need to be driving so fast. Also by having the first scene in the car the camera is very close to the characters making the audience more aware of the characters emotions, creating a more personal relationship between them.

The film's representation of disability is largely a positive one, demonstrating how people with severe disabilities are really no different from any abled body person, who is highlighted through Phillipe's desire not to be pitied. It then goes on to demonstrate this equality through Driss and Phillipe sharing activities such as paragliding, visiting art galleries, and smoking joints together. The use if the paragliding is also a good use of parallels to show change in the characters as it was in a paragliding accident in which Phillipe lost his ability to move, so by showing him, now with Driss, enjoying himself in the same activity again suggests to the audience that the addition of Driss has given Phillipe a new lease of life which in turn suggests what the support of a good care worker can do.

 

Continuing on from the previous point, Untouchable also highlights the issue of insufficient healthcare staff especially those to support heavily disabled people such as Phillipe. An example of this in the film would be at the beginning when Driss initially interviews for the position among the other applicants. In the quick moving clips of the interview applicants they all were shown to be very well educated and with various degrees and qualifications but showed no real interest in Phillipe and also lacked basic human attributes- they came across as very robot-like/trained clones of one another. This could be a comment on the healthcare system, saying how care-workers and education in health and social care is too academic giving students no experience with real patients in real life situations. A specific example of this would be when Driss leaves and is replaced by the carer who insists on asking Phillipe's opinion on everything, showing no real initiative to think for themselves.