UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM
– Disabled Heroes –
Hero Construction in Visual Narratives
Name: Svea Neumann Student number: 10857923
Assignment: Thesis – rMA Cultural Analysis Supervisor: Dr. Mireille Rosello
In memory of my Mother
With many thanks to
my family that supported me throughout my studies and encouraged me to write this thesis. I want to thank Elinor, Sophie, Hélène and Hannah for sharing thoughts and
coffee breaks.
I am grateful to Matt Cornell for editing my work with enthusiasm and precision, and to Mireille Rosello for providing me with excellent feedback.
And finally, I want to thank Jonathan.
My research is inspired by our many conversations, and I am happy to know you.
Contents
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Disabled Heroes in Meet the Superhumans 8
(A) Disabled athletes on a journey 10
(B) The return of the superhumans 17
(C) High-tech prosthesis as superpower 19
Chapter 2: Disabled Heroes in Intouchables 26
(A) Untouchables on a journey 32
(B) Re-turning touchable 33
(C) Humor as prosthesis 36
Chapter 3: Disabled Heroes in Marwencol 43
(A) Hero on a journey? 45
(B) The queer way to return 49
(C) Healing heels and imagination as superpower 57
Conclusion 61
Introduction
While taking care of my mother who died of brain cancer in the summer of 2013, my family and I faced the difficult situation of coping with the disabling process of a beloved person who gradually loses the ability to walk, speak and remember. During this time, the ways we spoke about my mother’s illness and the resulting disabilities of her body changed almost daily, as we moved between optimism for her recovery, acceptance of her disabled state, guilt, relief and finally grief. In the four years of “ups” and “downs,” we received many supportive letters from friends and family providing encouraging words. These letters often spoke of admiration for my mother and for us, her children and husband, calling us “strong” and “brave,” even though we often felt powerless and weak. After all, despite many small intermediate recoveries, my mother passed away.
Reflecting on this feeling of ambiguity throughout my studies, I started searching for the source of this seemingly undifferentiated optimism and implied pressure towards recovery. In a course on metaphor theory, I was introduced to the essential role of metaphors in human cognition, especially in guiding how we make sense of our experiences.
With their book Metaphors We Live by (1980) George Lakoff and Mark Johnson influenced contemporary metaphor theory, stating that the “essence of
metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another” (5). “Conceptual metaphors” can be described as a relationship between two different (cognitive) concepts that are linked to each other in metaphorical thought. They produce knowledge by drawing lines between each other, a process which is described as “mapping” certain features from one conceptual domain, the source domain, to the other, the target domain. The mapping process replaces “non-graspable”
aspects of the target domain through “known” features of the source domain and thereby produces a (generalized) knowledge or understanding of the target domain that is based on experience with the source domain. In contrast to other metaphor theories, the Conceptual Metaphor Theory maintains that conceptual and
metaphorical thinking is a cognitive mechanism; it describes metaphors not only as a form of rhetoric found in verbal or visual expression, but further links those
metaphorical expressions to structural human cognition.
Newly sensitized to metaphorical thinking, I investigated the
conceptualization of disability as metaphor in popular media, particularly in filmic narratives that dramatize recovery and “overcoming a disability.” Simi Linton states that the “popular phrase ‘overcoming a disability’ is used most often to describe someone with a disability who seems competent and successful in some way” (165). Discussing different interpretations of overcoming, Linton outlines one interpretation in which the individual’s “sheer strength or willpower has brought the person to the point where the disability is no longer a hindrance” (Ibid.). Another implication described by Linton is that “the person has risen above society’s expectation for someone with those characteristics. Because it is physically impossible to overcome a disability, it seems that what is overcome is the social stigma of having a disability” (Ibid.).
These differing interpretations of overcoming a disability and their related recovery metaphors can be found throughout art and media, where they perform the discursively constructed distinctions between “able” and “disabled.” Kim Hall reflects on the overcoming narrative related to disability and athletic performance, saying that
[…] dominant conceptions of disability place world-class athletes and disabled people in different categories, with the “overcoming narrative” the only place where the two overlap in dominant discourse about disability. Commentary during the Olympics is saturated with stories of athletes who have overcome disabling impairments, and various “special” Olympics are held for athletes who are disabled. In the overcoming narrative of disability it is precisely through acts of athletic prowess that a disabled person “overcomes” disability. (Intro 3)1
Referring to Eli Clare’s critique of the “pervasive overcoming narrative,” (Clare 9) Hall claims that this type of narrative “can be internalized and can influence even the most disability-politicized disabled person’s embodied understanding” (Hall 3). Hence, the overcoming narrative of disability can be found both within the field of sports and beyond.
I have found that successful recoveries in such stories are typically narrated in a heroic style.2 To outline the structure of recovery narratives, I have chosen the documentary Man Falling (2015) directed by Anne Regitze Wivel as a model which follows the narratological pattern: from falling, to getting up and finally moving on.3
1 Sport films like the documentary Murderball (2005) directed by Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro, support Hall’s argument, as the film’s short plot summary demonstrates: “Quadriplegics, who play full-contact rugby in wheelchairs, overcome unimaginable
obstacles to compete in the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece.” (IMDb, Web 2005). 2 To name only a few examples that inspired my research: The Danish documentary Man
Falling (2015), the television reportage The Invisible Disability (Web 2013) and the Indian
film Margarita with a Straw (2014) directed by Shonali Bose.
3 Man Falling depicts the recovery of the Danish artist Per Kirkeby living with brain injury after a fall from the stairs. Kirkeby’s physical recovery and return is depicted in his
progressing attempts to walk again and the confrontation in his artistic practice with his anxiety about stairs. Kirkeby’s rediscovery of his artistic abilities is celebrated in his comeback to the art scene.
The overcoming process of the disabled protagonist provides the structure from fall to rise and therefore contains two essential narrative moments in the adventure myth of hero figures described by Joseph Campbell: “the down-going and the up-coming” (28). “The hero normally follows the pattern of the nuclear unit […]: a separation from the world, a penetration to some source of power, and a life-enhancing return.” (35).
Thus, I read in the conceptualization of the hero figure an incarnation of the comeback that is ascribed to the recovery of a disabled person in overcoming narratives. This structural link between overcoming and hero narratives encouraged me to undertake a metaphorical reading of hero as source and disability as target domain, simplified in the formula that a disabled person is a hero when overcoming disability.
In this thesis, I analyze the concept of the disabled hero through three filmic narratives. In the first chapter, I examine how disabled athletes are portrayed as superhuman in the 2012 Paralympic Campaign’s promotional video Meet the Superhumans (Web 2012) and reflect on the role of high-technology prostheses. Analyzing the comedy Intouchables (2011), directed by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano, I focus on the evolving relationship between caregiver and cared-for in the construction of a hero narrative. The tetraplegic aristocrat Philippe and his
caregiver Driss, an ex-convict, are introduced as outcasts and considered to be
metaphorically untouchable. Recalling the invitation to “meet the superhumans,” this movie offers us a chance to touch the untouchables.
Third, I examine the documentary Marwencol (2010) directed by Jeff Malmberg. The film depicts the story of Mark Hogancamp who created a fantasy world populated by dolls, as part of his recovery from an assault that left him with
brain damage, trauma and memory loss. Focusing on the relationship between the “imagined” and the “real” world, I explore how the film challenges the concept of the disabled hero visualizing an invisible disability and the search for identity.
Leo Tolstoy opens his novel on the modern heroine Anna Karenina with the words: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” (1). The tragic and dysfunctional is individual and thus worthy of its own story. David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder investigate the representation of disability in literature, noting how the “use” of disability as form of deviation in characters draws attention, in contrast to narratives of normality.
The normal, routine, average, and familiar (by definition) fail to mobilize the storytelling effort because they fall short of the litmus test of exceptionality. The anonymity of normalcy is no story at all. Deviance serves as the basis and common denominator of all narrative. (209)
In Different Bodies, Marja E. Mogk stresses disability’s narrative function beyond literature. Studying film as a medium that visually constructs bodies, she finds that “disability […] shapes storylines on a range of topics, facilitates genre and metaphor, reflects deeply held social beliefs and values, and constructs difference across a range of matrices” (Intro 1). Returning to metaphor theory, audio-visual construction allows a more complex interpretation of conceptual metaphors, which are pre-established in other genres and entrenched in everyday life. As a visual medium, film promotes visibility and invisibility, an aspect that will become evident in my last chapter, which focuses on invisible disability.
My comparative analysis of disabled heroes draws on three theoretical constructs which provide structure for each chapter: (A) the conceptual metaphor “Life is a Journey,” (B) return moments in hero narratives and (C) disability as
“narrative prosthesis.”
First, I analyze filmic narratives using the conceptual metaphor “Life is a Journey” developed by Mark Johnson. In “The Narrative Context of Self and Action” Johnson describes how human beings conceptualize their lives “as if” they were stories and undertake actions to match a predetermined narrative structure (153). “Living by stories and narratives” is closely related to a sense-making process, which (re-)organizes experiences, facilitates understanding and structures them chronically within a narrative structure (154). Referring to Aristotle and the basic components of narrative, Johnson translates the “beginning-middle-end” structure of stories to a “source-path-goal” schema, inherent to the conceptual metaphor “Life is a Journey” (166).
Next, I want to draw on Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1968/1949) to study return moments in journey narratives outlined as crucial to hero construction. Campbell shaped an understanding of hero narratives by identifying the central aspects of hero constructions in Greek myths and fairy tales. Film scholars in contemporary media studies have drawn on his conclusion that undertaking journeys and returning successfully are essential to the construction of hero figures (Charles Forceville 242). I assume that the narratological relationship between journey, quest, and hero can be translated into the context of recovery as a return after disruptive life events. In this metaphor, bodily impairment adds disability as quest to the journey. Returning successfully depends on the ability to overcome disability with the aid of a literal or metaphorical prosthesis.
Finally, I will discuss Mitchell and Snyder’s concept of “narrative prosthesis” which describes how the external body mirrors a person’s inner character in certain narratives. Mitchell and Snyder draw attention to the critical usage of disability as
“materiality of metaphor” becoming a “primary object of literary representation” (205) and the associated establishment of disability as “narrative prosthesis.” The (visibly) disabled, deformed, abnormal body, acting as a “narrative prosthesis,” gives the reader insight into the fictional character: the (outside) disability stands for the (inside) character. Thus, disability helps to develop narratives in which the disabled body serves as a (symbolic) hurdle that needs to be “overcome” in order to grow personally.
In my thesis, I want to analyze the conceptualization of disabled heroes in three audio-visual narratives, belonging to different genres. I will compare and contrast how these narratives construct disabled heroes through three different aspects: journey, return and prosthesis. The following questions guide my analysis: How can disabled characters turn into heroes within visual narratives? How is the metaphoric relation disabled as hero constructed within the narratives of these three different films? Are there similarities and dissimilarities in the ways they are using disability as a “narrative prosthesis?”
By deconstructing the narratives developed around disabled characters, I take a critical perspective consonant with Critical Disability Studies discourses which question the use of disability as an “inspirational source” in overcoming narratives (Vivian Sobchack; Mitchell and Snyder). Through this comparative analysis, I want to discover the ways in which disabled bodies are metamorphosed in popular culture. Further, I want to study how the conceptualization of the disabled hero shapes both a new understanding of disability as a concept and the construction of heroic characters in film.
Chapter 1: Disabled Heroes in Meet the Superhumans Introduction
Vivian Sobchack critiques the instrumentalization of prosthesis as
“inspirational source” and contrasts it with her lived experience with a prosthetic left leg. Sobchack concludes her article with the following:
I tend to locate my difference and variety elsewhere than my legs and just want to get on with things both mundane and extraordinary. Indeed, I
remember long ago attending that first meeting of the support group at which my prosthetist proudly showed a video of amputees […] racing in the Special Olympics. As I sat there, I watched the people around me – and knew that all they wanted, as I did, was to be able to walk at work, to the store, and maybe on a treadmill at the gym. In sum, I’ve no desire for the “latest” in either literal or figural body parts. All I want is a leg to stand on, a limb I can go out on – so I can get about my world with a minimum of prosthetic thought. (38)
Sobchack critiques the metaphorical use of prostheses which tends to promote
unrealistic and misleading ideas about disabled, prosthetic bodies performing beyond the limits of human strength, for instance when described as prefiguring a post-human cyborg (19). Following this thought of prosthetics and disability as “inspirational sources,” I want to investigate how narratives visualize disability and draw on literal as well as metaphorical prosthesis.
In “Celebrating Imperfection,” David Howe and Andrew Parker analyze media constructions of disabled athletes in TV and film, comparing them to the production of celebrities. They critically comment on the corporative decisions made
by the International Paralympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee, “to repackage, re-market, refresh, modernise and essentially commodify the
Paralympics. […] The Paralympic Games need to be quicker, slicker, shorter, with fewer events, fewer but higher-profile champions, and more established stars” (274).
Channel 4’s advertising campaign for its broadcast of the 2012 Paralympics in London was promoted with the bold slogan “Meet the Superhumans” (Web 2012). The video was the core element of a massive marketing campaign launched in July 2012. On a website that awards excellence in advertising, the campaign’s video is described as presenting “[…] a number of Paralympians in 'do or die' training mode with reference to background stories and a climax depicting the intensity of elite sport competition set to a rousing musical soundtrack. Showing Paralympians as powerful warriors rather than people to pity was a striking break with convention” (D&AD, Web 2013).
Channel 4’s aim to portray the athletes’ power, speed and physicality required dynamic visual strategies: “Pace was essential – each shot had to be high energy, with nothing slow or moody” (Ibid.). With its multimodal composition of Paralympic athletes displaying “superhuman” strength, the campaign’s video is “short,” “slick” and “quick” fulfilling the criteria identified by Howe and Parker.
In one and a half minutes, the short video creates an assemblage of athletic bodies, prosthetics, limbs and movements in various sport settings. The
well-composed rush of images is driven by Public Enemy’s hip-hop song Harder than you think (2007). Meanwhile, the ad generates emotional intensity by drawing on the athletes’ struggles with and recovery from the disruptive life events that caused their impairment, for instance a car accident or military combat. In this way, the
commercial creates a dynamic interplay between the vulnerability and invulnerability of visibly impaired, but prosthetically-enhanced bodies.
How do visual narratives such as this advertisement transform disabled characters into heroes? I argue that the emphasis on the superhuman shapes the understanding and perception of disability in the ad and constructs a metaphorical relation between disabled athletes and superhumans, producing disabled heroes. In order to analyze the concept of disabled heroes in Meet the Superhumans, I draw on the three theoretical aspects that I explained in my introduction: The conceptual metaphor “Life is a Journey,” return moments in hero-narratives and disability as “narrative prosthesis.”
(A) Disabled athletes on a journey
Two years before the London 2012 Paralympics, Channel 4 broadcasted a documentary called Inside Incredible Athletes and a marketing campaign titled Freaks of Nature4, which was “designed to challenge perceptions of disability in sport and encourage viewers to question their own prejudices. […] The intention was to change people's attitudes and to do that we [the producers of the campaign] needed to take them on a journey.” (D&AD, Web 2013). As I explained in the introduction of my thesis, the stated aim of “taking the audience on a journey” is closely related to narrative expectations which viewers have in relation to stories. In the following, I will examine how a physical movement (a literal journey) can represent a
metaphorical, non-physical movement (a quest), thereby depicting a questing journey. The starting points of the journey in Meet the Superhumans are the various preparatory training spaces of the Paralympian athletes, for instance an indoor
4 “'Freaks of Nature' was intended to challenge by turning the meaning of the phrase on its head. The idea was that if great athletes are considered exceptional and different, why not apply the same standard to Paralympians?" (D&AD, Web 2013).
swimming pool, a running track and a basketball court. These spaces are shown empty since the athletes have left them to travel to the main Paralympic venue: the Olympic stadium in London. The literal journey from the training rooms to the stadium is not shown explicitly in the video. However, the A-to-B journey is suggested through an early shot of the stadium viewed at a distance from a train window and a closing shot at the entrance of the stadium.
The video starts with the depiction of empty spaces, and proceeds to show athletes from different disciplines in training for the games: a silhouette walking towards the camera through a hall of lockers, a circle of wheelchair basketball players with their trainer, a weightlifter sitting backstage concentrating and a female swimmer with one arm showering.
Figure 1. Film Still Meet the Superhumans. 00.01.18. Close-up shot of Ellie Simmonds.
The accelerated pace of the song combines with a rapid series of close-up shots to show the athletes in action, striving for their goals. The images vary in perspective, depicting the athletes from different angles. This montage of physical movement –walking, rolling (moving in wheelchairs), running, racing, cycling, jumping, swimming– visually depicts their progress over time, and thus their journey
towards the stadium. The physical movement also conveys the mobility of the athletes and signals their ability to ‘move on’ in life.
In the video, the journey of the athletes is divided into two parts: before and after the disabling incident. The disruption demands the will to get up and move on or come back. The literal journey and comeback demonstrate the metaphorical, non-physical movement –the quest of overcoming a traumatic experience. This creates a narrative parallel between winning a competition and overcoming a disability.
Douglas Kleiber and Susan Hutchinson describe the link between the hope for successful comeback and overcoming disability that finds its representation in
restitution narratives. Further, Brett Smith and Andrew Sparks observe how the restitution narrative shapes an understanding of self after disruptive events, creating a belief that “winning is being cured of disability” (617). In one of their interviews of people who live with Spinal Cord Injury caused by sporting accidents, one former athlete states: “Winning is walking again” (Ibid.). Rosemarie Garland-Thomson reflects on the ”ideology of cure” –rather than adjustment or accommodation– directed at disabled people (26-7). In her analysis she points to representations of “curing disability” in charity campaigns, discussing a March of Dimes poster ad from 1949 on “fighting infantile paralysis,” which depicts a young girl stepping out of her wheelchair under the slogan “Look, I can walk again!” (27).
In contrast to these examples, Meet the Superhumans does not envision a cure for disability; instead disability is transcended with the aid of high-tech prostheses. The narrative uses movement and journey as tropes to depict the inner progress of the athletes; the outer journey represents the inner journey. Following this idea,
immobility comes to signify refusal or denial of recovery; inaction becomes a sign of weakness, indicating the stagnation of a disabled person’s inner development. This
leads to a paradoxical idea: the more disabled you are, the more you must move to prove your superhuman strength. Celebrating disabled athletes as exceptional makes disabled non-athletes seem like failures.
Thus, two quest levels related to moving forward become the driving forces of Meet the Superhumans. On one hand, we are shown the quest of athletes trying to become the best in their respective disciplines, in order to win the competition. Sports footage, emphasizing goals and victories make this quest visible. On the other hand, flashbacks add a second quest, by alluding to the disruptive events in the athletes’ lives which rendered them disabled, requiring them to move on.
Meet the Superhumans includes supplementary materials which expand on these narrative ideas, including short film portrayals, which portray each individual British athlete’s journey. Therefore Meet the Superhumans is only a brief introduction (or trailer) to the larger story of the British team. Through dynamic montage of the eight athletes’ bodies and histories, the individual stories merge into one narrative, drawing on the disabled athletes’ shared challenge to overcome disability and compete in the Paralympics.
Superhuman: Traveling between vulnerability and invulnerability
The two quest levels (athletic goal and overcoming disability) create a double meaning for superhuman in relation to the disabled athletes in the ad. The textual fragments “Forget everything you thought you knew about strength” (00.56, Fig. 2) and “Forget everything you knew about humans,” (01.02) promise a
re-conceptualization of strength and human-ness that will be tested in battle.
Chris Bovill, one of the judges of the D&AD Black Pencil competition, argues that the campaign’s video is so compelling because it shows that Paralympians are “like us,” representing the vulnerabilities and struggles of every able-bodied human
being. At the same time, Bovill claims, that the Paralympians are much stronger than “us” because “they’ve got an extra journey they had to go through” (Web 2013).
Figure 2. Film Still Meet the Superhumans. 00.00.56. Close-up shot of swimmer exposing his
amputee stumps.
Drawing on this double meaning of Paralympians as superhuman, the ad figures the disabled body as both vulnerable and invulnerable. First, the disabled body is depicted as the embodiment of the human body, being ‘too human’ in that it
epitomizes human vulnerability. Margrit Shildrick describes how disability has come to represent the vulnerability of the human body: “In signifying disease, trauma and decay, the anomalous body is an uncomfortable reminder that the normative,
‘healthy’, body, despite its appearance of successful self-determination, is highly vulnerable to disruption and breakdown” (“The Disabled Body” 757). The ad exposes limbs and amputee stumps, depicts traumatic flashbacks and moments of struggle to recover. In this way, it portrays the vulnerability of the human body. There are also scenes which foreground team spirit and empathy, underscoring the athletes’ dependency on others in the recovery process. Two competing swimmers shake hands; a trainer talks to his wheelchair athlete. This social aspect of recovery emphasizes the human side of the disabled body’s construction.
The narrative also presents bodies that transcend disability and perform
exceptionally in sports. In doing so, it depicts the Paralympic athlete as ‘other than’ or ‘more than’ human; the disabled body becomes superior to the human body. The Paralympians’ success signifies their superiority to (and difference from) other humans, as well their superiority to able-bodied Olympic athletes. The campaign for Meet the Superhumans emphasizes this latter point, by addressing the Olympic athletes with the slogan “Thanks for the Warm-up” (Web 2012) implying that the Olympics are only a precursor to the rigorous athleticism of the Paralympics. Furthermore, the Paralympic athletes are depicted as stronger than machines. In one scene, an athlete is shown next to the car from the accident which disabled him. While the car has been completely destroyed, the athlete has survived and returned as a wheelchair basketball player.
Invulnerability is found in the strength to get up after the disruption, to return to the field and compete in sports at an elite level without fear or self-pity. In one scene, two wheelchair basketball players literally crash into each other as they grasp for the ball. Their expressions are decisive and eager; there is no fear of being re-injured, or concern for hurting the other player.
This image of fearless, brave warriors is punctuated in the final few seconds of the video. After the textual fragment “Meet the superhumans,” we see a wheelchair basketball player taking his shot. A flurry of images begins as the ball hits the basket; nine different shots rush by within two seconds, accompanied by an audio mix which sounds like objects colliding. The smash cut of images ends with a close-up of the Olympic stadium in London, accompanied by the sound of a cheering crowd, suggesting the athletes’ arrival. The camera travels to the basement of the Olympic
Stadium, settling on a final shot of the eight British athletes5 standing side-by-side in the concrete hall, waiting for the battle to begin.
The film depicts the athletes in different modes, creating a double meaning of the term superhuman switching between ‘too human’ (representing vulnerability) and ‘superior to human’ (invulnerability). Thus, the narrated journey of Meet the
Superhumans charts a transformation of the athletes’ humanness, from ‘only human’ before the disabling event, to ‘too human’ defined through high vulnerability and the transformation to ‘superhuman’ by overcoming disability and competing athletically at a world-class level.
The expectation to get up and overcome disability also draws on a narrative attached to able-bodied athletes who are expected to have both the mental will and the physical strength to attain an exceptional body and performance. In sports discourses, world-class athletes are often presented as superior to the average human. For
instance, the BBC’s broadcast campaign video for the 2012 Olympics depicted the athletes as animated figures with steel bodies in a natural environment (Olmypics 2012 BBC, Web 2012). In this way, the athletes were figured as role models of self-discipline and self-control, with exceptional mental and bodily strength.
Labeling the Paralympic athletes as superhuman even before they have competed underestimates their athletic abilities, shifting emphasis to their individual life stories and exceptional disabled bodies. This reminds me of Howe and Parker’s observation that disabled athletes are increasingly presented as celebrities, with less attention to their athletic success and more focus on their background and life
5 Claire Cashmore (swimming), Steve Brown (WC rugby), Jon-Allan Butterworth (cycling), Jonnie Peacock (athletics), Simon Munn (WC basketball), Dave Clarke (5-a-side-football), Hannah Cockroft (athletics), Jody Cundy (cycling) and Ellie Simmonds (swimming).
struggles, designed to take audiences on a narrative journey.6 Meet the Superhumans invites the able-bodied audience to recognize themselves in the athletes, because their own lives can be read as journeys marked by physical hurdles. Further, the ad likens all disabled people to athletes, because physical hurdles mark their “life as a journey.”
Critical Disability Studies has drawn attention to the problematic nature of narratives which use disability as an inspirational metaphor for overcoming obstacles. Vivian Sobchack, for whom disability is not simply a metaphor, writes: “Not only do I see myself as fully human (if hardly singular or glamorous), but I also know
intimately my prosthetic leg’s essential inertia and lack of motivation volition” (2). Echoing Sobchack’s complaint, Smith and Sparkes note the “oppression and stigmatization of disabled people in Western cultures” which is perpetuated by the metaphorical uses of disability in media (614). Similarly, Susan Wendell (1996) argues that the metaphorical uses of disability in sports narratives could result in disabled peoples’ alienation from their own bodies. The narrative convention which expects disabled people to move on with life, risks stigmatizing those bodies which fail to overcome disability as subordinate to the human body.
(B) The return of the superhumans
In Meet the Superhumans, moments of return facilitate the transition of the disabled body from ‘too human’ to superhuman. At the halfway point, a smash cut of flashback moments interrupts the storyline and the commercial’s atmosphere of getting started. These images refer to disruptive events in the athletes’ lives, by showing us the possible causes of bodily impairment. First, we see a soldier sitting in the back of a car, as a bomb explodes nearby (Fig. 3).
6 The journey-narrative continues with the upcoming Paralympic Games in 2016 that will be broadcasted on Channel 4 under the campaign’s title The Superhumans Return (Web 2015).
Figure 3. Film Still Meet the Superhumans. 00.00.42. Flashback moment of military combat.
Then, we are shown a pregnant woman undergoing an ultrasound, as the doctor exclaims, “It is a shock.” Next, we see a serious car accident on a highway, followed by an image of the wheelchair athlete posed next to a reconstructed version of his damaged car. The montage concludes with a shot of an athlete walking slowly on a treadmill, while guided by a physiotherapist. These references to the athletes’ journeys, struggles and recoveries, create the basis for their later moments of return to the sporting arena. Returning to the arena also implies the metaphorical return to the track of life.
This “returning to” trope is crucial as it equates the disabled person to the figure of the hero and the disabled person’s story to the conventions of the heroic narrative. Joseph Campbell shows that the undertaking of journeys and successful returns is essential in the construction of heroic figures (193-243). In the context of disability, this narratological relationship between journey, quest and hero manifests itself as a return after traumatic life-events. The athletes’ bodily impairments add disability as quest to their journeys as athletes; returning successfully thus requires the ability to survive both the disruptive life event and the disability it caused. The
disabled athletes’ effort to survive, recover and return to the track of life marks them as heroes even before they have performed in the athletic arena. Transcending disability in Meet the Superhumans signals the superhuman ability to overcome struggle and become invulnerable. In the following section, I want to analyze how the ad visualizes the successful return of the athletes. Reflecting on high-technological prostheses as a source for superpowers in the athletes’ construction as heroes, I discuss the concept of “narrative prosthesis” and aspects of narrating a new body-self after disruptive life events.
(C) High-tech prosthesis as superpower
Figure 4. Poster of Channel 4’s advertising the broadcast of the Paralympics in London 2012
with the campaign slogan “Meet the Superhumans” (C4Paralympics, Web 2013).
The ad’s dynamic, stylized close-ups portray the athletes’ bodies as strong yet vulnerable. Throughout, the video brings us close to their bodies, faces, prosthetics and limbs, offering an intimate image of the athletes. These fragmented, close-up perspectives are abandoned in the final moments which begin with a smash cut montage of the athletes reaching the goal and end with the eight British athletes shot from a frontal perspective, an image that became the campaign’s poster ad. Here, the
athletes are shown looking straight into the camera awaiting their triumphant return to the sports arena (Fig. 4).
They are presented as determined, fearless and provocative; this is emphasized by their self-confident body language, determined facial expressions and direct eye contact, which seems to confront the viewer. In contrast to Shildrick’s
conceptualization of the disabled body as an “uncomfortable reminder of
vulnerability” (“The Disabled Body” 757), this image depicts the athletes as strong, powerful, self-confident and in control. Here, at the end of the journey, the battle begins and these eight individuals will compete as an assemblage of superhuman power.
Even though real-life athletes are portrayed, it seems as if they have been transported to the fictional scene of a Hollywood movie.7 They are shown standing in the empty, concrete hall of the Olympic Stadium. Cold neon light shining from the ceiling combines with frontal floodlight to put emphasis on their faces and bodies. The dark and foggy setting creates a mysterious atmosphere, evoking a science fiction or fantasy scene. In this image, the athletes seem to gather magical superhuman powers; they appear as heroes alienated from the human body, marked as other by their prosthetic enhancements. These alienated, prosthetic bodies are abject: both ‘too human’ (vulnerable) and ‘not human enough’ (invulnerable).
Their sportswear shows a British flag and the corporate Adidas logo, identifying them as members of the same team. In this team of superhumans, each contributes with her or his distinct superpower, symbolized by bodily impairment, high-tech wheelchairs and prosthesis. The literal prosthesis becomes an identifying
7 The American film X-Men (2000) directed by Bryan Singer provides an example: The film adaption of the same-named Marvel Comics develops a scenario in which a few people are excluded from human society because of their superhuman power characterizing them as mutants. The superhero team of mutants called X-Men fights for the acceptance of mutant-kind in society.
characteristic for each athlete and crucial in envisioning his or her quest. Thus, the visual construction of prostheses combines aesthetic value with practical function: The literal prosthesis enables movement and furthermore characterizes the heroes’ individuality and unique superpower. As a replacement for failed or missing body parts, the high-tech prosthesis is crucial for the metaphorical construction of a disabled hero because it enables his or her return.
I link this notion of the successful return through prosthesis to the concept of “narrative prosthesis” developed by Mitchell and Snyder. They examine how disabled and “marked” bodies help to develop narratives in which disability is instrumentalized as a symbolic hurdle that needs to be overcome on the path to personal growth.
Following this thought, I see a link between the external overcoming by prosthesis to the athletes’ internal overcoming through personal growth, discipline and strength. In this narrative, the external prosthesis is a magical prop which helps the disabled hero to overcome adversity and return from the dark place to life. Therefore the function of prosthesis is not simply to transcend disability via the technological replacement or augmentation of missing body parts, but also to assist in the creation of a newer (better?) body-self.
In their analysis of Gay Becker’s book on Disrupted Lives (1997), Smith and Sparks observe that “journey metaphors are key cultural resources that people may draw upon as mediators of disruption as they can provide a transforming bridge between images of the old and new life” (624). Meet the Superhumans shows us an able-bodied “old life” and a disabled “new life” that are separated by a disruptive incident. The demand to come back from or overcome these traumas is underscored by the song’s refrain, “Get up. It’s hard… just like that” (Public Enemy). Through this
combination of sound and image, the disabled athletes are figured as heroes; their stories become journeys, culminating in successful and heroic returns.
The depiction of people with high-tech and individually specialized prosthesis influences the metaphorical concepts attached to disabled athletes. Due to the
technological sophistication of prosthesis and wheelchairs, these devices not only restore bodies to normative ability but also create new abilities and improved strength that goes beyond that of the able-bodied human. The prosthesis makes it possible to return to the “old life” with a human body while opening up new possibilities,
including the development of superhuman strength. It does not simply compensate for the failures of the body but enhances the body, expanding the limits of the human. This technology puts the super in superhuman.
New technologies and scientific breakthroughs create new metaphorical expressions (Daniel Strack 20) advancing the perception of disabled athletes as superhuman; this suggests a different category of human adjacent to the concept of the post-human. Cary Wolfe defines posthumanism as a theoretical approach that comes “before and after humanism” and which challenges the taken-for-grantedness of human experience and consciousness (Intro xxv). In “‘Why Should Our Bodies End at the Skin?’” Shildrick investigates scholarship which rethinks embodiment, by theorizing the prosthetic body as an example of the post-human. She creates a
dialogue between Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological approach, the “assemblage” described by Deleuze and Guattari, Derrida’s analysis of the
supplement and Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto. Combing these approaches, Shildrick expands on the concept of assemblage (as body without organs) and analyzes “not just technological aspects such as prostheses but an array of materials, locations, and spaces that might all be called technics” (“Why Should Our Bodies
End” 17-8). Here, the “[i]ssues of bodies, boundaries and technologies challenge […] the very understanding of what counts as human” (14). So the disabled body is “figuring difference in a nonbinary sense” (Ibid.). Crucial to Shildrick’s analysis is the observation that the lived experience of disability “generates its own specific possibilities that both limit and extend the performativity of the embodied self” (Ibid.). Thus, the central link between post-human theory and Disability Studies is the idea that we must rethink embodiment by drawing on the lived experience of disabled people, whose bodies include nonhuman and technological components.
Meet the Superhumans engages with this idea of the post-human as “before and after the human”; it depicts both the likeness and otherness of disabled and non-disabled bodies, combining highly vulnerable and superhumanly invulnerable characteristics in one assemblage of bodies, prostheses and movements. By using prosthesis not only to depict a return to the former life but also as source of
superhuman strength, the ad figures the augmented disabled body as an exceptional role model of a future body or cyborg.8
The return from the unknown, dark place symbolizes a transformation of the human to superhuman, capable of special abilities. By returning successfully from trauma, the disabled athletes not only overcome disability to reclaim their old lives, but also use their disabilities and prosthetics as superpowers which grant them athletic excellence, beyond normal human capacities. Taking this “extra-journey,” as Bovill calls it, is what gives them the superhuman experience to develop both bodily and personal strength. Mitchell and Snyder criticize the idea that disability is an
8 Similarly, Nirmala Erevelles observes in reference to Cristina Masters how cyborg soldiers are seen as superior to human soldiers: “The cyborg soldier is a new post-human subject who is intimately interconnected with modern technologies of war (e.g., the Patriot missile, smart bombs) that are infused with the ability to reason and think without being interrupted by emotions, guilt, or bodily limitations. The body of the human soldier is the weakest link in this new cyborg militarism.” (“The Color of Violence” 124).
opportunity for inner growth, where the interior (subjectivity/identity) and exterior (body) are assumed to mirror each other: “The study of disability must understand the impact of the experience of disability upon subjectivity without simultaneously situating the internal and external body within a strict mirroring relationship to one another” (211).
Conclusion
My analysis reveals how Meet the Superhumans uses prosthesis to create a narrative of successful return while depicting disabled athletes as heroes on a journey. As disabled heroes, the Paralympic athletes embody both the highly vulnerable human as well as the prosthetic ‘superhuman’ body. Travelling between the double meanings of the term superhuman –situated before and after the human–, the ad’s narrative positions disability as a quest-level to the journey. Disabled athletes become heroes by overcoming their disabilities, using high-tech prosthesis to develop
invulnerability and superhuman power. This attribution of superhuman power seems like a compliment to the disabled athletes’ physical superiority in relation to able-bodied humans and athletes. However, the figure of the disabled athlete as
superhuman also carries the risk of rendering the non-super, non-athletic disabled person as abject and subhuman.
In narratives about overcoming the vulnerability of the body, symbolized by disability, the need for some sort of prosthesis is omnipresent. In Meet the
Superhumans I focused on the function of high-tech prosthesis as a tool for the hero to return and only briefly touched upon shots showing the athletes supported by others, for instance a physiotherapist, trainer or other team members. However, in reality, successful return requires not only the usage of high-tech prosthesis, but also social support during the recovery process. This dependency on others in narratives of
overcoming will be discussed in the second chapter of my thesis. By analysing the relationship of a caregiver and his client in the comedy-drama Intouchables, I seek to enrich the concept of disabled heroes.
Chapter 2: Disabled Heroes in Intouchables Introduction
In The Guardian article “How Did a French Comedy about Disability Become a Global Hit?” Dalya Alberge draws a parallel between the Paralympics and the influence of the French film Intouchables (2011) directed by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano.
Just as the Paralympics are changing perceptions about disability, cinema is pushing at the same boundaries with [I]ntouchables, an uplifting comedy about the friendship that develops between a wealthy quadriplegic, Philippe, and his carer, Driss, an ex-convict. (Web 2012)
Where Channel 4 TV invited the audience to “meet the superhumans,” Intouchables offers a chance to touch the untouchables. In the following pages, I analyze the cinematic narrative that is developed around disability in Intouchables. First, I focus on the evolving relationship between the caregiver and cared-for. Then, I widen my perspective to look at the conceptualization of disability in connection with the construction of both characters as hero figures.
Inspired by a true story,9 Intouchables depicts the unusual encounter and
developing friendship between two men who differ fundamentally in character, class and bodily appearance. The ex-convict Driss (Omar Sy) is a young, able-bodied, athletic black man who lives in a Paris banlieue. He is flirtatious, prone to jokes and unfamiliar with high culture. Philippe (Francois Cluzet), on the other hand, is a well-dressed, short-tempered, aging, wealthy white man, who was left paralyzed after a paragliding accident. He spends his time listening to classical music, reading books,
9 The plot of the film is inspired by the true story of Philippe Pozzo di Borgo and his French-Algerian caregiver Abdel Sellou.
appreciating art and writing poetic love letters to a woman who he has never met. Driss takes an interview for a vacant position as Philippe’s main caregiver and is offered the job. Untrained in care, without any condescending pity for Philippe’s situation and with a gentle sense of humor, Driss brings a refreshing change to Philippe’s environment. Driss introduces Philippe to the fun side of life, namely through smoking cannabis, enjoying popular music and re-discovering sexual
pleasure. Meanwhile, Philippe gives Driss insights into his rariefied world, taking him to art exhibitions, opera concerts and classy restaurants.
The title establishes the ground for a metaphoric reading of the film; I suggest that untouchablility invokes the idea of the disabled person as untouchable. Focusing on this metaphoric construction, I aim to analyze the film’s use of disability as
concept –here represented as (un-)touchability– to create hero figures.
What is associated with the term untouchability and how does it add to the depiction of disability in the film? Above all, untouchability’s conceptual ambiguity is elementary for its metaphoric effect in Intouchables. Thus, before turning to the actual metaphoric construction in the film, I will first examine the many senses of the concept itself.
Untouchability as concept
Apart from its literal or metaphorical meanings, un-touch-ability refers to the sensation of physical and emotional touch. It connotes the idea of disability as a lack of bodily sense, encompassing an inability to actively touch and be touched, or to feel and sense the touch of others. In the film Intouchables, paralysis is represented as untouchability, implying that the tetraplegic body feels and senses nothing from the neck down. The literal inability to physically touch or be touched implies the metaphorical inability to be emotionally touched.
The title not only frames emotional connection as a mission impossible – or mission untouchable – but also connects the notion of touch to care-relationships, a linkage explored by many scholars in Disability Studies.10 Additionally, Intouchables invites the audience to get a sense of the untouchables – while promoting it as a touching cinematic experience.
Untouchability is a historically and sociologically fraught term. In Bible stories, those suffering from leprosy were literally untouchable: no one was allowed to touch their bodies (NIV Bible “Leviticus 13,” Web 2013). In these accounts, illness and disability were external markers for contagious states triggered by a (religious) curse or judgment. Shildrick, in dialogue with Henri-Jacques Stiker’s analysis of biblical texts and historical images of disability, calls these “polluted bodies” (“Genealogies” 46). Expanding on Stiker (23-6), Shildrick notes that in biblical description of disability “the disabled body is widely seen as both unclean –a status that may be held at distance– and polluting, which implies the capacity to cross boundaries. In biblical terms, then disability can be positioned as an abomination that is subject to an array of exclusionary and purification procedures” (“Genealogies” 46-7).
In Indian society, a caste-system based on religious beliefs, identifies a class of people as “Untouchables” (or “Dalits”), rendering them socially inferior to all other castes. “Dalits” are deprived of rights and consigned to the same social status as outlaws or criminals (CfHR, Web 2007).11
10 Cf. Two texts that address touch in care-relationships and link it to disability: Janet Price and Margrit Shildrick in “Bodies Together: Touch, Ethics and Disability” or Bill Hughes et al. “Loves Labours Lost” (264).
11 The Center for Human Rights published a report that “focuses on the practice of
‘untouchability’ – the imposition of social disabilities on persons by reason of their birth in certain castes. […] The report documents India’s systematic failure to respect, protect, and ensure Dalits’ fundamental human rights. Severe violations persist in access to education,
Contemporary market-based societies pretend to be more advanced but also actively promote segregation through power structures which create untouchable social groups. Those who deviate from socially constructed norms of race, gender, class and ability (among other markers of difference) are pushed to the margins of society, where they are consigned to unemployment or low-wage jobs. As result of geographical segregation, many have lost touch with mainstream society and face diminished access to public spaces. Apparently, the irrational stigmatization of disabled bodies equally applies to stigma against the poor. Human fear of (bodily) vulnerability leads to the dangerous fantasy or even neurosis that both are contagious.
Moreover, untouchability is a product of socially constructed taboos,
delineating which themes and problems may be touched upon within social discourse. One example is the cultural silence about sexuality and disability, which Margrit Shildrick identifies as a “dangerous discourse” in contemporary society (“Sexuality, Subjectivity and Anxiety”). Shildrick notes the denial of sexual subjectivity to disabled people and how this bias manifests in cultural imagery.
Untouchability is an ambiguous term with many potential meanings, which depend on context. It can signify privilege, as in the untouchable status of the rich, healthy and able-bodied. It can also name the lowly social position of the suffering, the poor, the contagious and the disabled. In yet another sense, the capacity to be physically or emotionally unaffected can also be interpreted as invulnerability. In this usage, the untouchable is invincible and capable of superhuman power. For example, in the Greek myth of Achilles, the hero is resilient and can sustain terrible blows without being hurt –except for one vulnerable spot on his body– thanks to some sort health, housing, and property, and freedom of religion, free choice of employment, and equal treatment before the law. The report also documents routine violations of Dalits’ right to life and security of person through state-sponsored or sanctioned acts of violence, including torture.” (CfHR, Web 2007).
of superhuman armour (Anthony Edwards 1985). The untouchable body (like a machine) can be contrasted with vulnerable, weaker human bodies, even transforming the suppressed outcast into a powerful figure capable of dominating others.
Untouchability can also signify legal immunity, for instance in the case of crimes committed by children or the mentally disabled, who are sometimes judged unfit for (and therefore invulnerable to) prosecution.12 On a more positive note, advocates for marginalized social groups, such as the disability rights movement, express another sense of the word untouchable. In these efforts, the marginalized persons’ fundamental rights to human dignity and civic participation are considered invulnerable and untouchable.
The polysemy of untouchability can be traced throughout Intouchables, as the concept travels between notions of vulnerability and invulnerability. This recalls the literal and metaphoric journeys and return moments I discussed in the previous chapter, which suggests a reading of Driss (caregiver) and Philippe (cared-for) as a hero-couple. The following questions guide my analysis: How does the film use the concept of disability –here a form of untouchability– to create hero figures? And how does the multi-layered meaning of (un-)touchability add to the concept of disability in the film?
Untouchables in Intouchables
The characters in Intouchables can be considered untouchable for various reasons. Philippe’s untouchability is located in his refusal to accept love and friendship and in his physical untouchability, which signals his neglected need for sexuality and companionship. Driss is untouchable because of his status as an ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex- ex-
12 I want to note that this form of invulnerability is not really a privilege as mentally disabled people and children also have very few rights and can more easily be deprived of their liberty because they are not deemed fully human. For further reading on the politics of citizenship in relation to disability I want to refer to Nirmala Erevelles’ article “(Im)Material Citizens.”
convict and unemployed immigrant of African descent who lives at the margins of French society.
I focus on the different senses of untouchability that connect these characters beyond the nondisabled/disabled binary. This allows me to analyze the overlapping layers of their untouchability, by taking up an intersectional approach to disability. Michelle Jarman, responding to Deborah Marks, finds parallels between overcoming narratives about race and those about disability. While racial outsiders may be asked ‘Why are you here?’ and ‘When are you going to go home?’ disabled outsiders may be queried ‘How did you get like that?’ and ‘Can you be cured?’ (Jarman 19). With this intersectional approach in mind, I argue that disability is instrumentalized as metaphoric untouchability –not only for drawing on the inner quest of the disabled hero but also for the quest of the able-bodied character. When Driss reveals his real name and migration status, Philippe encourages him to go back to his former life and address his family-related problems. Driss’ background and life struggles have made him tough, untouchable, and therefore out of reach from his family. With his return to the family, Driss faces his problems and gets back in touch with his roots. In this way, the film confronts both characters’ untouchability.
I argue that Intouchables uses the concept of disability (figured as
untouchability) to create a questing journey that frames both characters’ stories as overcoming narratives in different identity categories (class, race and gender). Thus, the film’s conception of untouchability links back to literal and metaphoric journey and return moments that support a reading of Driss (caregiver) and Philippe (cared-for) as a hero-couple.
(A) Untouchables on a journey
Figure 5. Film Still Intouchables, 01.02.47. Speeding with modified wheelchair motor.
Literal journey elements frame the narrative of Intouchables. The opening scene introduces Philippe and Driss in a high-speed car ride that becomes a race with the police. The narrative unfolds as an extended flashback recounting the story of their friendship, from the men’s first encounter leading up to the police chase. At the end of the film, the questing journey is complete as the literal goal of the car ride is revealed. Driss is rushing Philippe to a hotel by the seaside, where he has secretly arranged a (second) first date with Philippe’s beloved Eléonore.
After fleeing from the first date with Eléonore, Philippe discloses to Driss that it is not the wheelchair, but the loss of his wife that he defines as his “true handicap” (00.45.00). His external paralysis represents an emotional paralysis caused by grief; thus the character’s disability functions as a “narrative prosthesis,” a concept I discussed in the previous chapter (Mitchell and Snyder). Philippe’s external body stands for his inner state; his external and visible disability mirrors his fractured interiority. I interpret this bodily paralysis as a visible untouchability that refers to Philippe’s metaphorical inability to feel touched after the loss of his wife. The film’s
emphasis on Philippe’s bodily paralysis promotes this metaphor, by adding disability as quest to the journey in which the body itself becomes a part of the challenge. Philippe’s struggle to rediscover external touch mirrors his inner battle to conquer emotional insensibility.
The questing journey also relates to touch as it describes Driss’ process in learning to care for and touch Philippe’s disabled body, for instance his struggles to put on surgical stockings or to administer an enema (symbolized by white gloves that he first refuses and later accepts). However, becoming a hero in this context is
characterized not only by the ability to physically touch (Driss) or be touched (Philippe), but also by transcending internal untouchability through opening up to each other and developing a friendship.
This story of friendship is envisioned as a journey-narrative (framed by the car ride) in which Philippe and Driss create their own definition of a good
care-relationship characterized by unconventional methods of care forged through the contradictory personalities of caregiver and patient.
(B) Re-turning touchable
As the care-relationship turns into a friendship, the untouchable Philippe becomes touchable in Driss’ presence. This process of becoming touchable again is underlined by literal return moments in the heroes’ journey, when Driss helps to reacquaint Philippe with aspects of his former (able-bodied) life, for instance driving in sports cars and paragliding. The journey from untouchable to touchable is also portrayed in the literal touch of Philippe’s ears, that Driss makes possible. Hiring a sex worker to massage Philippe, Driss takes Philippe’s sexual desires seriously (Fig. 6).
Figure 6. Film Still Intouchables. 01.02.57. Cannabis consumption and sexual pleasure
through ear massage.
This touchability develops further as Driss coaxes Philippe to open up for a new relationship with a woman. It is crucial to note that Philippe does not regain the use of his legs nor does he compensate with technological support; instead he faces his fears of being visible as disabled and conquers his disability by not using it as an excuse to avoid dating. Thus, Philippe’s overcoming of disability is not realized in a bodily transformation but rather in a change of attitude towards his disabled state. The overcoming is not depicted as bodily cure but as adjustment to the situation.
Philippe’s disability serves as “narrative prosthesis” only, as it defines the quest metaphorically: re-turning as emotionally touchable requires the acceptance of his physical vulnerability.
Moreover, the characters undergo a change in their corresponding ‘out of reach’ positions throughout the movie: When the two ‘outcasts’ become friends, they develop an untouchable friendship by creating a safe, inviolable space that becomes out of reach for others. The invulnerability of their unusual friendship becomes clear
when Philippe is warned by a relative not to be tricked by Driss due to his criminal past: “Those street guys don’t know pity” (00.34.49). Philippe defends Driss and replies:
That’s it exactly. That’s what I want. No pity. He often hands me the phone because he forgets. True, he isn’t compassionate. But he’s strong, with arms and legs. His brain works, he is healthy. So all the rest, my state, as you call it, his background … I don’t give a shit. (00.34.52-00.36.08)
Driss becomes irreplaceable, as demonstrated by the unsuitability of the caregivers that follow after him. In Driss’ absence, a series of traditionally-educated caregivers takes over, but the misfit between these impersonal yet professional caretakers and Philippe throws him back into depression. This change in mood is depicted when Philippe refuses to be shaved and grows a beard, perhaps signaling a return to
untouchability. His beard becomes a protective shield, a sign of protest, suggesting his refusal of care.
When Driss returns, he says that it is “time for a change of mood,” (00.05.10) and takes Philippe to the seaside. The renewal of Philippe’s touchability becomes obvious as Driss is allowed to touch and finally shave Philippe’s beard. Good-humored Driss uses this opportunity to poke gentle fun at Philippe’s bad mood, shaving his face in different shapes including a Hitler moustache, causing Philippe to laugh again (Fig. 7). In this seemingly harmless scene of shaving, Philippe’s utter powerlessness and the potential risks of touchability become apparent: being touched by others can make you appear as an other. Indeed, Philippe is turned into different figures throughout the film depending on who is in the position to touch him. This
double vulnerability related to un/touchability is often addressed in fairy tales where the touch can either deliver a curse or set one free.13
(C) Humor as prosthesis
Figure 7. Film Still Intouchables. 01.48.00. Shaving beard in different styles.
Following from Philippe’s refusal to be touched by the other caretakers, and the drastic change in his mood when his beloved caretaker returns, I want to take a closer look at Driss’ prosthetic function in conquering untouchability and the use of literal as well as metaphorical prosthesis in the narrative.
As I argued in the previous chapter, in the metaphor of the ‘disabled athlete as superhuman,’ the high-tech prosthesis is imagined as a special weapon or superpower that becomes a unique characteristic, crucial for the athlete’s success. This external, visible prosthesis both signifies the hero’s overcoming of an internal quest and assists
13 In the Grimm Brother’s fairy tale “Briar Rose” touch fulfills a double function, cursing as well as setting one free: When the princess touches the cursed spindle “the fairy’s prophecy was fulfilled; the spindle wounded her, and she fell down lifeless on the ground.” Further, touch is what frees the princess when a prince finds her asleep one hundred years later and gives her a kiss: “[T]he moment he kissed her she opened her eyes and awoke, and smiled upon him; and they went out together.” (David Zinczenko, Web n.D.).
in that goal. What kinds of literal and metaphoric prostheses are deployed in Intouchables to help conquer the characters’ external and internal untouchability?
The most literal prosthesis in Intouchables is the modern wheelchair that symbolizes mobility, replacing Philippe’s legs and giving him the possibility to move on his own. The team of caretakers also function as surrogates for disabled body parts, for example Magalie who performs as Philippe’s hands by writing letters and doing administrative tasks. Magalie and the other staff typify a more traditional relationship between the caregiver (or servant) and the disabled person (served), acting as a kind of living prostheses.14 Meanwhile, Driss’ function within this assemblage of caregivers is less obvious. Lacking professional education as a
caregiver, he is not initially capable of caring for Philippe’s paralyzed body. His lack of knowledge and experience turns the trial period into an experiment for both caregiver and patient.
Throughout the film Driss develops his own unconventional methods to care for Philippe; here I see links to Maurice Hamington’s reflections on “The Will to Care.” He describes the process of overcoming inhibitions, observing that “the absence of care is in part a failure of moral imagination” (680). Hamington notes: “Caring is challenging, but not abstract, nor does it require moral exceptionalism. The will to recognize our own vulnerability and to imagine our own power to assist others is what is needed” (691). He further connects care to the concept of performance: “Caring is actualized through performance. Caregivers must ‘do’ something for others” (679). Instead of becoming a smooth replacement for body parts, Driss haphazardly performs care, often forgetting about Philippe’s inability to move. At
14 Arguably, this can be attributed to Philippe's class status: most disabled people cannot afford this kind of care, just as most cannot afford an expensive prosthesis.
