The Albany Gazette - The disability comedy besting blockbusters in France

"A Little Something Extra" has sold 5.8 million tickets as the latest box office numbers were released on Wednesday.

It is the latest example of a film to become a massive hit outside Paris, where snobbier cinephiles tend to ignore broad comedies in favour of arthouse chin-strokers.

But five weeks after its release, even Parisians are now flocking to see the light-hearted tale about a bank robber who pretends to be disabled to hide out in a holiday camp.

Each week it has easily bested new Hollywood releases, including "The Fall Guy" and "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes" with budgets many times its own 6.2 million euros.

Experts say "A Little Something Extra", starring and directed by stand-up comedian Artus (who goes by a single name) has struck a chord at a time when the country is embroiled in a bitter European election campaign.

"We're in a moment in France where the political atmosphere is highly charged and people are looking for something to bring them back together," Eric Marti, of box office analysts Comscore, told AFP.

Describing it as a "societal phenomenon", he said the film, which features several actors with disabilities, was inclusive without the increasingly unpopular left-wing rhetoric about representation.

"It has a notion of inclusion -- but for real. It's not a lecture. It's simple, funny, moving and respectful," said Marti.

Some of the biggest successes of recent years in France have featured disability.

"La Famille Belier" was about a deaf family -- remade into the Oscar-winning "Coda" -- and remains the biggest such hit of the last decade, for now.

Even bigger was 2011's "The Intouchables" about a quadriplegic aristocrat and his live-in carer (played by "Lupin" star Omar Sy) that sold some 19.5 million tickets.

"A Little Something Extra" has benefitted from long-term investment in France's cinema, said Marti.

"But in all countries where cinemas have recovered from the pandemic... it's places where local films have worked well," he said.

"France maybe has a few more than most. It shows we aren't dependent on the latest American blockbuster."

(R.White--TAG)