Engar hendur, ekkert súkkulaði : kyngervi, hörundslitur, fötlun og stétt í kvikmyndinni Intouchables

Abstract

Samhengi menningar og fötlunar er áhugavert viðfangsefni og með því að skoðamismunandi menningarafurðir er hægt að fá vísbendingar um gildi og viðmiðsamfélaga. Leiknar kvikmyndir eru dæmi um slíka menningarafurð, geta gefið vísbendingarum tíðarandann og haft áhrif á viðhorf almennings. Í greininni verðurrýnt í frönsku kvikmyndina Intouchables sem var frumsýnd árið 2011, sló mörg að-sóknarmet og var tilnefnd til fjölda verðlauna. Myndin fjallar um fatlaðan auðkýfingog aðstoðarmann hans, sem er „ómenntaður“ innflytjandi frá Senegal og hefurenga faglega þekkingu á því hvernig aðstoða eigi fatlað fólk í daglegu lífi. Birtingarmyndirfatlaðs fólks í kvikmyndum byggja oft og tíðum á staðalímyndum um hið„afbrigðilega“ en slíkar staðalímyndir má einnig finna um aðra minnihlutahópa. Íkvikmyndinni er aðalsögupersónunum stillt upp sem andstæðupörum — fátækurog ríkur, ófatlaður og fatlaður, svartur og hvítur — og með því að beita kenningumum samtvinnun er í þessari grein leitast við að lýsa því hvernig þessar hugsmíðartvinnast saman og gefa vísbendingar um ríkjandi kynjamisrétti, kynþáttafordóma,hæfishroka og stéttahroka. Þó að kvikmyndin kunni á yfirborðinu að virðast einföldsaga tveggja ólíkra manna, má greina í henna flókin samfélagsmynstur mismununarog forréttinda þegar betur er að gáð. Í greininni eru færð rök fyrir því hvernigmyndin hvort tveggja ýtir undir og grefur undan ríkjandi hugmyndafræði, allt eftirþví frá hvaða sjónarhorni á hana er horft.

Background: The interplay of culture and disability is an interesting topic to explore,and by focusing on different cultural productions it is possible to understandsocieties’ values at different times in history. Films can be categorized ascultural productions that express values in time and space, and can potentiallyinfluence public opinion. This article is about the French film Intouchables,which premiered in 2011 and was well received and nominated for severalawards. The film is based on a true story about a Parisian aristocrat, Philippe,who is a quadriplegic millionaire, and Driss, his personal assistant, an immigrantfrom Senegal who has no formal training or knowledge of how disabledpeople should be assisted and supported in their daily lives. The film wasdirected by Oliver Nakache and Éric Toledano, and although the film was very popular in Europe, including Iceland, it received mixed reviews from film critics.It was critiqued for underestimating the seriousness of living with quadriplegiaand for being borderline racist (O‘Sullivan, 2012). However, disability is acommon theme in film and TV, and in fact the disability studies scholar TobinSieber (2008) claims that there is a strong link between playing the role of adisabled character and receiving Oscar nominations. Common representationsof disability in film and media are characters who are violent, dependent onothers or incompetent, and it is possible that audiences transfer these ideas todisabled people living in their community (Saffran, 2000). Films and mediacommonly use disability stereotypes portraying disabled people in negativeways, and similar practices can be found in relation to other minority groups.Tolenado and Nakache (2012) announced publicly that their main goal was tomake a feel-good, buddy film, but they also wanted to stay true to the originalstory. Since the film became so widely popular in Iceland, and since disabilityin film has received little attention in the Icelandic research literature, this filmis an interesting topic to explore in the Icelandic context.Purpose and methods: The aim of this article is to explore the representationof gender, disability, race and class in the French film Intouchables. There isno one method to study or analyze film, and beside the field of film studiesthe topic of film or cinema has been popular in many different academic fields,such as folkloristics, disability studies, and philosophy. In this article we categorizefilm as a cultural production rather than analysing the genre or basingour analysis on auteur theory. The film was analyzed by employing a historicalanalysis of discourse (Foucault, 1972; Jóhannesson, 2006), which has thepotential to identify the interplay of contradicting ideas at a certain time andplace (Jóhannesson, 2006). By employing historical analysis of discourse weexamined how ideas of gender, race, class and disability are represented. Wealso used the feminist theory of intersectionality, which is an interdisciplinarymethod to analyse the multiple dimensions of social relations in the oppressionof subordinate groups in society.Results: On the surface, Intouchables is a simple buddy film, but by employinghistorical analysis of discourse and theories of intersectionality it is possible toidentify social issues of inequality and privilege. The findings suggest that thefilm portrays the intersection of class, race, and disability. Classism was thecenter of many of the film’s carnevalesque jokes, although it was often difficultto determine if lower class or upper class should be interpreted as “better”,“worse”, “upper” or “lower”. Class and disability, for example, were found tointersect in the theme of disabled or unemployed pensioners, considered lazyand possibly cheating the welfare system. Such negative ideas about disabledand unemployed people as burdens on society have even been linked to hatediscourse and hate crime.Ableism is a form of social prejudice against disabled people, where it is impliedthat it is “normal” and always better to be non-disabled. The ableism inthe film is interconnected with sexism and racism. Ableist, sexist and racistperspectives are iterated with stereotypes, such as the dependent and asexualdisabled man and the black, hyper-sexual non-disabled man. The film is filledwith contradictions, including how the men can simultaneously experience inequalityand privilege based on what categories of oppression we focus on.We do not intend to evaluate the quality of the film but instead focus on how itsimultaneously reinforces and weakens social hegemony depending on theanalytical lenses applied by the audience.