Films involving Deaf

Deaf: Minor Films no photo.

Title	Ridicule (1996)
Alternative/Original Title
Disability	Deaf
Country	France
Length	103
Genre	Costume drama
Rating	4
Director	Patrice Leconte
Cast	Fanny Ardant Jean Rochefort Charles Berling Judith Godreche Bernard Giraudeau Urbain Cancelier Bernard Dheran Carlo Brandt
Notes	Set in period of Louis XVI, around 1783. A young, impoverished, landowner is trying to get backing for his scheme to drain the mosquito breeding swamps which are killing people. At court he discovers the only path to an audience with the King is through wit and sleeping with a court favourite. Of course he's actually in love with, and loved by, the daughter of a Maquis who is being married off to a rich, older and ugly man. The Maquis has a son who is deaf and speaking impaired and is referred to as "a harmless idiot" but who is cherished by his sister. When an offer is made to take him away for schooling it is turned down. But later he is sent away on the whim of an aristocrat he humiliates (by scaring her horse so she falls off). When he returns he is able to communicate using sign language. There is historical basis to this since France was in the forefront of developing sign language. This sign language was imported into America but later put aside under pressure from those who wanted deaf children to speak. Only later did sign language gain ascendancy. Yet we still note how in "Children of a Lesser God" the teacher tries to make his students and his lover speak.

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