Living principally on a diet of Hollywood cinema, it
would be easy to believe that there’s only one way to tell a story of physical
disability. American movies handle similar material in roughly the same formula
again and again. Even when it’s done competently, it’s not any more interesting
or groundbreaking than the last time it was done well. This year, French cinema
has offered up two examples (at least among films that found American
distribution) of the way the film medium can tell a story of a character with a
severe physical handicap and not make it maudlin, manipulative, and utterly
predictable. The first was The
Intouchables, which, had it opened later in the year, would almost
certainly be a serious awards contender. The second is Rust and Bone, which has recently generated some Oscar buzz. Both
films have been nominated for the Golden Globe for Foreign Language Film, but
Academy rules limit one film per country and France selected the former.
