“A Little Something Extra”, the Artus comedy with resounding success in the cinema, offers a rather realistic and human vision of mental disability, a welcome little “stone” to try to “improve the situation” of the people concerned , according to the associations.
“When there is a film about disability, we always have some negative preconceptions,” admits Arnaud de Broca, president of Collectif handicaps.
But “the feedback is rather positive, because of the way it is filmed, the fact that it is disabled actors playing disabled people”, “a plus” to raise awareness, he told AFP.
“A little thing in addition” tells the story of two small-time burglars who, to escape the police, board a bus of young disabled people going to summer camp – played by amateur actors with mental disabilities.
Starting from a script basis, Artus moved forward with the writing after the casting, taking into account the personalities of the actors, to be “on the mark”. “It’s with (people with disabilities) that I wanted to make a film. Not about them,” emphasizes the comedian.
And the public agrees: the comedy is a hit at the box office with more than a million admissions in less than a week.
“So much the better if it allows (…) to change our perspective a little, to de-dramatize or understand certain behaviors, even if they are sometimes shown excessively in the film, like the insults,” notes Arnaud de Broca.
– “Poorly viewed” –
“Mental disability is particularly discriminated against and frowned upon. Any stone to raise awareness and improve the situation is welcome,” according to him.
Same satisfaction from Unapei, a large association in the sector.
“The possibility of identifying yourself, feeling empathy for people who sometimes make you uncomfortable, sometimes scare you, allows you to realize that sharing is possible,” confirms Catherine Morhange, president of the Culture Relax association, which promotes access to culture for people with complex disabilities, for example via “ordinary” cinema screenings where their possible reactions are explained in advance to other spectators.
According to his feedback, “we laugh a lot, but we laugh with, we don’t laugh at, which is vital”.
For her, the film is part of the evolution observed since the 1990s, when “the representation of disability in cinema became more realistic, very often through comedy”.
For a long time, she recalls, disability was represented either by monsters, as in “Elephant Man” (1980), or by heroes or geniuses, as in “Rainman” (1988).
– Question of financing –
The “shift” comes with “The Eighth Day”, released in 1996, two years after “Forrest Gump”: “it’s the first film where we see a disabled person in a daily newspaper”, underlines Ms. Morhange.
“Le Huitième Jour”, which tells how the life of an overworked executive is transformed by his meeting with a person with Down syndrome, was “a gamble”, remembers Philippe Godeau, founder of the Pan-European company, which distributes “The Eighth Day”. A little something extra”, 28 years after producing Jaco Van Dormael’s film.
Like Artus, who struggled to find a producer, “Le Huitième jour” had not been an easy project to carry out, but Mr. Godeau is delighted that France can allow “films like that to be made”.
Since “Intouchables” (2011), about the relationship between a quadriplegic and his home help, “La famille Bélier” (2014), a story of emancipation of a young girl whose parents are deaf ( whose release is accompanied by criticism on the fact that these are interpreted by hearing people, Karin Viard and François Damiens), “Patients” (2016), inspired by the life of the singer Grand corps Mala or “Hors norms” ( 2019), on young autistic people.
However, “we must not exaggerate the impact of a film”, notes Mr. de Broca, because even today “many children with mental disabilities are excluded from school”.
