Jubilee of The Intouchables
According to the IMDB website, on September 23, 2011, 10 years ago, at the international film festival in Spanish San Sebastian, the premiere of a French film "Intouchables" directed by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano.
The film "Intouchables" is based on real events, and its main characters have real prototypes. So, Philip Pozzo di Borgo is a real person, born in 1951, the second son of the French Duke Pozzo di Borgo and the Marquise de Vogue. This noble family traces its lineage back to the XVI century. After receiving his education, Philip began working in the production of champagne. At first, he was the manager of the Moët and Chandon champagne factory, then became the director of the Pommery. After a paragliding accident in 1993, he became a paralyzed diabetic and tried to commit suicide.
But the prototype of Driss Bassari was a real person of Algerian origin, Abdel Sellou. In the pictures that preceded the start of work on the film "Intouchables", Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano had a very positive experience of cooperation with Omar Sy and therefore replaced the Algerian with a Senegalese in the script.
The story of the relationship between Philippe Pozzo di Borgo and Abdel Sellou became the basis for the documentary "A la vie, à la mort (Life, death)", released in France in 2002. And this documentary became, in turn, the basis of the script of the film "Intouchables".
Judging by the lack of any information about the prizes received in San Sebastian, the film "Intouchables" took part in an out-of-competition screening of this festival. But very soon, just a month after its premiere, the film by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano was presented at the international film Festival in Tokyo, where it won the highest award - the Grand Prix. In addition, the Best Actor Award was awarded to the acting duo of this film - François Cluzet and Omar Sy.
The next year, 2012, the film "Intouchables" received 4 nominations from the European Film Academy, but did not win any. In the most important of these categories - the Best European film - the victory was awarded to the film by Michael Haneke "Amour". But the Italian Film Academy awarded its David di Donatello Award as the Best European Film to the film "Intouchables". The Spanish Film Academy did the same, awarding this film its Goya Award.
At home, in France, the film by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano received 9 nominations for the French Academy Award César. However, the film was awarded the victory only in one of them - Omar Sy as the Best actor. In the most important categories - Best Film and Best Director - the preference of the French film academies was given to the film "The Artist" and, accordingly, to its director Michel Hazanavicius.
In 2013, the film "Intouchables" was nominated for the American Golden Globe Award in the category Best Foreign Language Film, but again lost the victory to the film by Michael Haneke "Love". Exactly the same situation was repeated in the dispute for the Polish Film Academy Award. But the Japanese Film Academy recognized the film "Intouchables" as the best foreign film. However, there were no films "Amour" and "The Artist" among the competitors for this award. But there were American blockbusters "Argo" by Ben Affleck and "The Dark Knight Rises" by Christopher Nolan.
Among the prestigious film institutes that granted the film by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano "Intouchables" with their awards or nominations, there was no American Film Academy. France nominated this film for inclusion in the list of nominees for the Academy Award. But it was rejected. After a while, it became clear why. The American film business has made the same maneuver that was used in many cases, in particular, in relation to the Gilles Mimouni's film "L'appartement" or the Japanese film "Hachikô monogatari ハチ公物語" by Seijirô Kôyama. In short, a few years later, the American moviegoer was presented with a remake of the film "Intouchables" called "The Upside".
The American film academics' decision was supported by reviews from a number of leading American film critics. American film critic guru Roger Ebert gave the film only 2.5 stars out of 4 and called the film an incredible lulling fantasy. The accusations of implausibility were continued by the Washington Post film columnist Michael O'Sullivan, writing that the lack of realism in the film is still putting it mildly. Well, and so on.
However, how can a gilded statuette compare to the film's overwhelming success among moviegoers. By 2012, Eric Toledano received over 3,000 letters of thanks from wheelchair users around the world. And as of 2013, this film became the most successful film in French of all time in Germany (8.9 million viewers), Spain (2.5 million viewers), Italy (2.5 million viewers), the Netherlands (1.2 million viewers), as well as Switzerland, Austria, Israel, Denmark, Iceland, Estonia, South Korea, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, New Zealand and Norway.
The tremendous success of the film "Intouchables" by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano among moviegoers is evidenced, firstly, by its financial performance. With a budget of $ 9.5 million, the film grossed more than 426 million dollars worldwide, that is, it paid off almost 45 times! And secondly, 86% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave this movie ratings from 8 to 10. Moreover, 40% of users gave the movie 10 points to the movie.
With that said, the rating of the film by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano "Intouchables" according to FilmGourmand was 10,534, thanks to which it took the 24th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
