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Couscous (2007)

Director: Abdellatif Kechiche

Time Out rating

Average user rating

27 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Set in the French port of Sète, director Abdel Kechiche’s ‘Couscous’ is a rich and quietly surprising portrait of that town’s French-Tunisian community. Basically an ensemble piece, it pokes into the lives of the two extended families belonging to a separated, 60-year-old immigrant shipworker, Slimane (Habib Boufares). When unemployment hits, it is the grain and red mullet dish his estranged wife so lovingly prepares which he hopes may prove the central selling point of a new restaurant he plans to open on a reconditioned quayside barge.

The special quality of ‘Couscous’ doesn’t lie in its story – it’s the kind of film where you wish for less story rather than more – but in how well it manages to immerse us in the lives of this relatively isolated microcosm. It provides a series of scenes that genuinely sparkle with life and spontaneity – notably a delightful, talky family lunch presided over by Slimane’s wife, where cinematographer Lubomir Bakchev’s mainly hand-held camera fast pans from close-up to close-up, beautifully capturing emotions on the wing.

The performances, too, developed in extensive workshops, are superb, with two standouts. The first is Boufares, who is particularly touching and impressive as a prideful man coping in his own way with dislocation, disappointment and redundancy. The other is Hafsia Herzi as his ‘adopted’ daughter, whose bolder, more street-wise manner belies an equal, if different, second-generation immigrant’s vulnerability to the problems of cultural assimilation.

Finally, Kechiche is very successful at placing a gnawing tension at the heart of his film – not least the discomforting doubt over whether this reticent, flawed but deeply sympathetic old guy will succeed – even if he proves less adept at resolving it. The ending – to this writer’s mind – is dramatically and artistically misjudged, but, nevertheless, it remains a remarkable and thought-provoking work.

Author: Wally Hammond

Time Out London Issue 1974, June 18-25, 2008

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User reviews of this film

Kelly said...

Posted on Dec 01 2011 18:32 dont normally watch this type of film but was up late as dogs were upset by storm missed the start got quite engrossed but fell asleep so didnt see any of the progress on the ship woke up as they are having the opening night i was really dissapointed with the ending or lack of it needed a conclusion

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Mary Fletcher said...

Posted on Oct 07 2010 09:08 A marvellously engrossing film. The family relationships are revealed bit by bit. The acting is very naturalistic. I personally hate to see people talk with food in their mouths, but I still loved this film. Unfortunately our recorder lost the last ten mins .I hope it ended optimistically?

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reg_sinclair said...

Posted on Aug 22 2010 19:34 A lovely film which rewards being revisited again and again. I particularly liked John's crtique of the film. Its style of presentation reminded me of some of the dramas on tv in the seventies which were presented like documentaries. I was also reminded of Chekhov's comment to the effect that there is more drama in real life than any adventure story.

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Litho said...

Posted on Mar 11 2010 19:10 Dreadful. A pretentious art-house style film from someone who I can only assume fancies himself as a French Mike Leigh. No plot, no logic, no story, no sense.

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KateR said...

Posted on Feb 28 2010 22:50 Superb. Just watched it on DVD .. the tension built and built - Totally absorbing.

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zaman said...

Posted on Jun 12 2009 12:58 I have just watched on DVD. Brilliant. One of the best movies I have ever seen. Wonderful crafting of the story, extraordinary acting quality. It moved me in so many ways. I have never heard of the director but hats off to him.

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Chris said...

Posted on Mar 25 2009 10:28 Superb film. Watched it on DVD last night and woke up still thinking about its many threads. Obviously the main themes of sexism, immigrant communities, family etc - but also politics of business, work, growing old, our changing society... brilliant. And not too long at all - it swept me in entirely and could easily have continued. I'd read some of the reviews on here before seeing it and can't understand at all how some of you feel that an hour (or even 90 mins) could have been cut?!

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William T said...

Posted on Feb 08 2009 23:28 A brilliant, beautiful film. Full of the real pain and passion of life. There's not enough films like this.

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Sinead said...

Posted on Feb 03 2009 13:57 I loved this movie. Hollywood should be embarrassed by the crap they regularly dish out. This movie made me think and feel. I got so involved with the family and really felt the pain in the last 30 mins. I wanted to slap that petulant wife-cheating, dissapointment of a son. Did Slimane die?

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David said...

Posted on Nov 29 2008 18:15 I will never get that 2 and a half hours back. Avoid.

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kittykate63 said...

Posted on Nov 18 2008 14:24 when i took this film out of my local library the blurb sid, " the most mouthwatering scenes of food and feasting ever commiitd to celluloid." so i was looking forwardto sumptious banquest and a real love of food and its life affirming properties coming over through the family feats. As always thee was a big differece betwee the write up and the actual film, wat I saw instead was a familty meal, in a boring bedsitting room, with cold, wet roasted pepers limpin over plates and peoples manners progressivley getting worse, Not only was fo seen all over their mouths and chins but you saw the red, squashy couscous embedded in someones teeth as they opened their mouth wide. lots of talking and eating at the same time and food spitting every where. the film should have been called cousous on your face and falling don a babies bib.
unfortunately this film didnt engage me at all and within the first half hour I was bored and not at all interested in any of the characters lives, if the main character had died of a heart attack with his face flpped into a plate of couscous it wouldnt have stirred me at all as the main characters arent likable in anyway and the constant bicker/ banter is boring, if i want to hear someone complaining about difficult potty training or low paid work i would go down to my local pub and listen to the neighbours. What a disappointment to buy a film to be transported to another place, another culture which is supposed to centre around food only to fce a lot of talk about potty training, and watching people shovel food down as if their mouth was a coal furnace on the titanic..

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kittykate63 said...

Posted on Nov 18 2008 14:24 when i took this film out of my local library the blurb sid, " the most mouthwatering scenes of food and feasting ever commiitd to celluloid." so i was looking forwardto sumptious banquest and a real love of food and its life affirming properties coming over through the family feats. As always thee was a big differece betwee the write up and the actual film, wat I saw instead was a familty meal, in a boring bedsitting room, with cold, wet roasted pepers limpin over plates and peoples manners progressivley getting worse, Not only was fo seen all over their mouths and chins but you saw the red, squashy couscous embedded in someones teeth as they opened their mouth wide. lots of talking and eating at the same time and food spitting every where. the film should have been called cousous on your face and falling don a babies bib.
unfortunately this film didnt engage me at all and within the first half hour I was bored and not at all interested in any of the characters lives, if the main character had died of a heart attack with his face flpped into a plate of couscous it wouldnt have stirred me at all as the main characters arent likable in anyway and the constant bicker/ banter is boring, if i want to hear someone complaining about difficult potty training or low paid work i would go down to my local pub and listen to the neighbours. What a disappointment to buy a film to be transported to another place, another culture which is supposed to centre around food only to fce a lot of talk about potty training, and watching people shovel food down as if their mouth was a coal furnace on the titanic..

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Shannon said...

Posted on Nov 08 2008 11:31 To Eli : so easy for you to accuse French people of being racits. They are not . Go and live for a while in the 93 suburb of Paris and you might change your mind about the whole thing. You prat !

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Brian Damage said...

Posted on Aug 30 2008 13:21 Possibly the worst film I have ever seen. Even if it hadn't been an hour too long it would still have been excruciatingly boring and unpleasant.
A mean and pointless little film with no redeeming features whatsoever.
Rubbish, avoid like the plague.

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Feduppp said...

Posted on Aug 16 2008 19:37 Can't remember the last time I walked out of a film early, but this film made the pacing of "The Weeping Camel" and "Bombon El Perro" seem like MTV music videos in comparison.

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