经济学人57:最强拍档 Friends united

 　　Books and Arts;New French film；Friends united；An unlikely comic hit；

　　文艺；法国新片；最强拍档；独特的喜剧冲击；
　　French film-makers are good at turning out silly comedies that foreigners find unwatchable. They have a better export record with highbrow, low-plot movies, set in chic 1 apartments with parquet 2 floors, that feel moodily 3 French. Just occasionally, however, they come up with a comic gem 4. “Intouchables”, directed by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, is one of those cleverly pitched, well-scripted, feel-good comic films typically crafted in Hollywood; it is a delight to see that the French can sometimes pull them off too. With more than 4m tickets sold since it opened earlier this month, the film is set to be a boxoffice smash.
　　法国电影制作人擅长导演让外国观众看不下去的无厘头喜剧。电影的口碑也多为孤芳自赏和缺乏情节，多以别致的公寓，干净的木地板为背景，让人能感觉到沉闷的法国风格。然而偶尔，他们也会有好的喜剧作品。由奥利维·那卡和艾力克·托兰达导演电影《不可触碰》就是一例。该电影制作精良，剧本精心推敲，倒像是典型出自好莱坞的喜剧片，很高兴看到法兰西人能时不时突破自己。影片自11月初首映以来就已突破400万张票房业绩，这部电影势必会成为一部轰动票房之作。
　　Based on a true story, it follows the improbable relationship between Philippe, a quadriplegic aristocrat 5 (Francois Cluzet), and Driss (Omar Sy), a gregarious 6 Senegal-born youth from the banlieues, the grim housing estates that ring Paris. On his release from prison, Driss is hired by Philippe in a moment of recklessness as a live-in help at his Paris mansion 7. Philippe is warned that banlieue youths have “no pity”. No pity, replies the wheelchair-bound former paraglider wryly 8, is just what I want.
　　电影根据真实故事改编，讲述的是菲利普，一个四肢瘫痪的贵族（弗朗索瓦·克鲁塞饰演）和Driss（奥玛·赛饰演）一位来自巴黎郊区破房子里的塞内加尔裔青年之间建立的一段几乎不可能的主仆友情。Driss刑满出狱后，菲利普没有经过考察便立刻雇佣了他，让他负责照顾自己在巴黎豪宅里的生活起居。当别人警告菲利普说这位郊区青年毫无“怜悯之心”时，没有怜悯之心？坐在轮椅上的这位曾经的跳伞健将冷冷的回到：这正是我要找的。
　　Less deftly 9 handled, the treatment of such a subject could have fallen into a number of traps. Instead, the film's light touch finds comedy in both men's handicaps: the one physical, the other social. Each, in his own unsentimental way, understands the other better than do those around them. This unlikely chemistry is captured in the opening sequence, when Driss roars through the streets of night-time Paris, funk music at full blast and Philippe in the passenger seat, giving his employer the thrill of the Maserati he owns but cannot drive.
　　如果没有巧妙的处理的话，这类题材的电影可能会落入俗套。然而，这部电影的喜剧亮点放在了两个男人各自的缺陷上，一个是身体残疾，另一个是社交障碍。但彼此都没有感情冲动，都比周围其他人能更好的读懂对方。这种独特的味道在影片开场就有所展现。菲利普坐在副驾驶上，让Driss激动的开着自己拥有却无法驾驶的玛莎拉蒂，在夜晚的巴黎街头驰骋的时，车里充斥着劲爆的音乐。
　　French critics have been thoroughly 10 charmed. Le Figaronewspaper called the film “faultless”. Paris-Match described it as “the best scripted, best acted, funniest and most moving that we have seen in a long time”. It has surely launched Mr Sy, a black comedian 11 best-known for a short nightly sketch 12 on Canal Plus, a television channel, on the way to stardom. Bob and Harvey Weinstein, two Hollywood producers, have acquired the rights for America and Britain. Here's hoping that English-language audiences will get to see the original French version, and not just a remake.
　　法国评论家已经被这部电影给彻底迷住了。《费加罗报》称电影“无可挑剔”。《巴黎竞赛》这样形容：我们已经很长一段时间内都没有看到像这样一部集“最佳剧本，最佳表演，最有趣，最感人”于一身的力作了。当然这部电影也使赛先生-这位法国有线电视每夜小品的黑人喜剧演员走上了星光大道。两位好莱坞制作人，鲍勃和哈维.维恩斯坦，也为美国和英国的观众拿到了版权，英语为母语的观众也有希望看到这部原味法国片，而不仅仅是部翻拍片了。