From the moment the opening credits roll on this short film, the scene is set for seduction. Candles are lit, champagne is poured, strawberries are on offer.
Natascha is hoping to get lucky with Mike (Jean-Marc Mineo). And Mike? He's wishing it wasn't a case of two's company but three's a crowd on his sofa.
"And you thought blind dating was edgy - try deaf dating!" The film's playful tagline all but tells us that Natascha is deaf. But when the very feminine Natascha signs to Mike while kissing him, we're still very surprised when it's a male voice that crashes in and says, "I like you". It's as jarring to us as it is to her would-be lover. And that's when - thanks to Lewis-Martin Soucy's brilliant direction - you realize that Fred, her sign language interpreter, has been there all along.
Voyeur, interloper, nerdy perve, Fred (Eric Berger) sits silent and unnoticed on a chair behind the sofa until Natascha signs. Then his voice is all we can hear.
Natascha gets turned on and begins to talk dirty, but all Mike can focus on is his growing discomfort with the three-way access situation, and the deep brown voice of her interpretor.
OK, so you have to suspend your disbelief a little - in a real life situation, Mike would have shown Fred the door. She's beautiful, she's really into him, but here it's verbal foreplay-interrupts.
Beneath the witty, brilliantly-scripted comedy, there are some serious questions posed that many disabled people will appreciate. Fred's presence touches on the issues of relationships, independent living and sexual love. Love me? Love my carer ... make love to me while my facilitator, um, watches / gets off on it?
At its heart, Handicap is all about language and communication. Natascha is deaf, but Mike is the one who cannot hear. Yet, if he were listening with more than just his auditory sense he couldn't fail to hear her. And that's a testament to Caroline Ducey, who is wonderfully expressive as an actress. She emotes joy, desire, frustration and sorrow beautifully, without saying a single word. Hardly surprising from an actress of her caliber. A veteran of some twenty movies, Caroline Ducey was named as one of European films 'Shooting Stars in 2000' by European Film Promotion.
Handicap is a gem of a piece: a very funny, beautifully shot, emotional short film which I adored. In fact, I loved it so much that I'm willing to overlook the totally non-disabled cast and crew.
A sign language coach is listed in the credits, and I'm curious: could anyone tell me if Caroline Ducey is signing what she's meant to be signing?
If you miss Handicap this time round, it will probably be coming to a festival near you soon; this marvelous short film has already graced fourteen of them!
Handicap: you may hate the word, but you'll love the film.
Natascha is hoping to get lucky with Mike (Jean-Marc Mineo). And Mike? He's wishing it wasn't a case of two's company but three's a crowd on his sofa.
"And you thought blind dating was edgy - try deaf dating!" The film's playful tagline all but tells us that Natascha is deaf. But when the very feminine Natascha signs to Mike while kissing him, we're still very surprised when it's a male voice that crashes in and says, "I like you". It's as jarring to us as it is to her would-be lover. And that's when - thanks to Lewis-Martin Soucy's brilliant direction - you realize that Fred, her sign language interpreter, has been there all along.
Voyeur, interloper, nerdy perve, Fred (Eric Berger) sits silent and unnoticed on a chair behind the sofa until Natascha signs. Then his voice is all we can hear.
Natascha gets turned on and begins to talk dirty, but all Mike can focus on is his growing discomfort with the three-way access situation, and the deep brown voice of her interpretor.
OK, so you have to suspend your disbelief a little - in a real life situation, Mike would have shown Fred the door. She's beautiful, she's really into him, but here it's verbal foreplay-interrupts.
Beneath the witty, brilliantly-scripted comedy, there are some serious questions posed that many disabled people will appreciate. Fred's presence touches on the issues of relationships, independent living and sexual love. Love me? Love my carer ... make love to me while my facilitator, um, watches / gets off on it?
At its heart, Handicap is all about language and communication. Natascha is deaf, but Mike is the one who cannot hear. Yet, if he were listening with more than just his auditory sense he couldn't fail to hear her. And that's a testament to Caroline Ducey, who is wonderfully expressive as an actress. She emotes joy, desire, frustration and sorrow beautifully, without saying a single word. Hardly surprising from an actress of her caliber. A veteran of some twenty movies, Caroline Ducey was named as one of European films 'Shooting Stars in 2000' by European Film Promotion.
Handicap is a gem of a piece: a very funny, beautifully shot, emotional short film which I adored. In fact, I loved it so much that I'm willing to overlook the totally non-disabled cast and crew.
A sign language coach is listed in the credits, and I'm curious: could anyone tell me if Caroline Ducey is signing what she's meant to be signing?
If you miss Handicap this time round, it will probably be coming to a festival near you soon; this marvelous short film has already graced fourteen of them!
Handicap: you may hate the word, but you'll love the film.