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

Based on a true story, it follows the improbable relationship between Philippe, a quadriplegic aristocrat (Fran?ois Cluzet), and Driss (Omar Sy), a gregarious 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. Philippe is warned that banlieue youths have “no pity”. No pity, replies the wheelchair-bound former paraglider wryly, is just what I want.

Less deftly 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.

French critics have been thoroughly charmed. Le Figaro newspaper 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 best-known for a short nightly sketch 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.