If this 94th Oscars ceremony turned out to be somewhat eventful (the kiss to Chris Rock ), the evening also saw the advent for the first time in the history of a film produced for a streaming platform. As it happens, Apple TV's CODA , adapted from the cult French film La Famille Bélier , just won the Academy Award for Best Picture , the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Troy Kotsur (deaf from birth) and Best Adapted Screenplay for Siân Heder . And that's good: you can already watch it.
An ultra-bankable adaptation
We were inevitably moved to tears by the fate of the Bélier family, made up of two deaf parents ( Karin Viard and François Damiens ) and their daughter driven by a vocation as a singer, embodied by the young Louane who then won the César for Best Female Hope .
Supported by the same producer as the original film aka Philippe Rousselet , the American screenwriter and director Siân Heder signs with CODA (for " Child of deaf adult ", " child of deaf parents " in VF) the perfect adaptation of this cardboard French, whose good feelings and notes of schoolboy humor are cut out for the American public.
It must be said that his rights were highly coveted after his success at the indie festival Sundance , where he was awarded no less than four awards. It's a real investment that has been fiercely negotiated by Apple TV , which bought for 25 million dollars the rights to this low-budget film for the United States, which only cost 15 million to produce.
A monument of emotions
La Paula de Louane becomes Ruby (played by Emilia Jones , herself seen in the Netflix series Locke & Key ), a high school student who feels bad about herself and is lynched by her classmates because of her parents' disability .
A full-time interpreter for her family (her brother is also hard of hearing), she nevertheless offers herself the possibility of professionalizing her passion for singing, supported by a colorful teacher camped by the truculent Eugenio Derbez – definitely more “ American style ” than our national Eric Elmosnino .
Another change: deaf parents are no longer farmers (in Mayenne ) but fishermen (in Massachusetts ), which replaces a difficult social context that sticks to current events. With, always, this message on inclusion and accessibility thus brought back to the forefront of the world stage.
CODA, already available on Apple TV.
Also discover the new series with Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway and our review of the second season of The Bridgerton Chronicle .
