Paulo and his father have robbed a jeweler and are on the run from the police. The two crooks hide in a coach that is taking a group of young people with disabilities to a summer camp. The tour group’s supervisors mistakenly believe Paulo to be the missing participant Sylvain, and his father, nicknamed “La Fraise”, the strawberry, to be his companion: the beginning of numerous problems and unusual friendships.
After “Intouchables” and “Welcome to the Sticks”, “What is Normal?” is France’s new film phenomenon. With more than ten million viewers, the comedy is the most successful film in ten years and ranks among the fifteen top box office hits in French cinema. With around a million visitors in less than a week, it also had the best start for a French film since “Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom” on May 1st.
Lovable characters
French humorist Artus has made a film about people with disabilities and situations in which they are laughed at, rather than at them. Paulo is quickly unmasked by them, even though he tries his best to make faces and change his behavior. The likeable crook, played by Artus himself, asks them not to tell on him to the carers Alice (Alice Belaïdi), Céline (Céline Groussard) and Marc (Marc Riso). A real community soon emerges.
What makes the film particularly strong are the lovable characters of the actors with disabilities. There is Boris, who refuses to take off his costume – sometimes that of Supergirl, sometimes that of a ketchup bottle. Alexandre, who imitates France’s ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy for hours, Ludovic, who likes to throw swear words around, Marie, who constantly has objects thrown at her head, and the football-loving Baptiste, an absolute fan of Cristiano Ronaldo.
People with disabilities play their own roles
All the actors, who also have a disability in real life, play their own roles. He didn’t invent anything, they are really like that, Artus told the television station “BFMTV”. He wanted to stay as close as possible to who they are. If he had invented them, he would have been told that he was exaggerating, explained Artus, whose real name is Victor-Artus Solaro.
Not all of the gags are original, like the horrible food that is thrown onto their plates with a ladle, but they work. The humor is not always subtle, but never out of place. The film is able to make you smile, but it is not always the loud laughter that makes you laugh. It also gets serious at times, especially when it comes to the relationship between the disabled and their parents or that between Paulo and his father (Clovis Cornillac).
A film at eye level
“What is normal?” (original title: “Un p’tit truc en plus”) impresses with its honest approach to human relationships. The pace is balanced and offers a harmonious mix of laughter, smiles and emotions. With fun, joie de vivre and on an equal level, the film conveys the message of tolerance and acceptance.
The theme of encounters between people without disabilities and people with physical or mental disabilities has already been a great success in France in the past. “Intouchables” attracted more than 19 million viewers, “Everything Except Ordinary” over 2 million.
For Artus, the resounding success of his first feature film at the age of 37 was almost like a miracle. What was happening to him was completely crazy, he said. In these somewhat disturbing times, his comedy was simply good, he explained in “Le Parisien” the rush to the cinema. It made it possible to discover parts of the population that one did not often see in public.
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