Eight million see Les Intouchables

Feel-good film makes French families forget economic gloom as they laugh along with quadriplegic millionaire and helper

FEEL-GOOD movie Les Intouchables has pulled more than eight million people out of their armchairs and away from the nightly euro crisis on their TV screens since it was released four weeks ago.

The story is of a weathly French toff who is left quadriplegic after a hang-gliding accident and takes on a just-out-of-jail domestic helper to be his arms and legs. The result is a hilarious.

Based on real life, stars François Cluzet and Omar Sy play everything for laughs and exit polls of cinema audiences said that 68% would go to see it again.

Disabled support groups have greeted its success with one saying that "friendship and equality are possible between people who seem utterly divided" during the current economic crisis.

Les Intouchables is now well on its way to beating the 2008 Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis - which was seen by nearly 20.5 million - as the most successful French-made film.