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Couscous (2007)

Director: Abdellatif Kechiche

Time Out rating

Average user rating

6 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

alessia said...

Posted on Jul 25 2008 23:19 never seen such a crap!boring,storyless and too long.

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enat said...

Posted on Jul 13 2008 02:04 beautiful, life loving film, loved the fact that it was long and uncut with a chance to let the actors get carried away in natural and genuine acting. didnt want it to end. was it based on a true story? otherwise a happy ending would be preferable.

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john said...

Posted on Jul 12 2008 12:07 thank you for more very interesting comments! Fantastic. Further, it strikes me how both father and son abandon their wives and pursue higher status females. The father, disempowered by his redundancy also becomes impotent in his relationship with his mistress. His solution seems to be to compete with his mistress by showing his worth and abilities, to overcome his inferiority and humiliation and once again become potent. Tragically,He never achieves this and is further humiliated by children in his demise. Further, Women dominate and control the domestic sphere and emotional sphere. Its hard for our hero to succeed and gain status within those realms. He chooses to construct his own sphere of power. What struck me was the ending where you see the mistress go home ,cook and bring some couscous to the rescue . So the film portrays the mistress and her daughter as the ones who are empowered and effective. The females save the day. Perhaps the families would come together afterwards , I dont know, I wonder if the divided families are symbolic of the divided racial communities. There can never be a real marriage between the two, they could have a love affair with each other , and they could work together and compete with each other but no true marriage. Perhaps father's values have to be sacrificed....or perhaps its something else.

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Eli said...

Posted on Jul 12 2008 06:46 You are right john; French society is cruel and intolerant in this picture. It illustrates the attractive stereotype of the French taking advantage of free food while despising their hosts and plotting their defeat.
It also shows the other stereotype, a Tunisian girl who knows instinctively what to use to tame them.
While the guests senses, already drowned in free alcohol, are mesmerized by her curved body shimmering in sweat and moving with the hypnotic sound of the music, the old musician starts an infernal dance around her, hypnotized by her sex- appeal and finishing the diabolical tableau.
Arabs inflame the imagination and provoke forbidden yearnings.
Historically French poets and painters awakened their senses in exotic Arab countries (A. Gide, Delacroix). The same mystery is captivating these free- loading French gluttons.
The natural seductive appearance of this life- loving Tunisians and their determination will be hard to defeat, but racism, jalousie and power are also lethal arms.
The French can exploit the immigrants sexually while under paying them, the same way the white southerners used their liberated black slaves staying on the plantation because they had nowhere to go. After all, old exploitation habits taken during the French colonialism are hard to die (father’s treatment). Hiding behind elitism is a way to weed out from their society those who do not know how to present a researched dossier at the bank. For the French the Arab live on spontaneity and sexual instincts they are not refined human like them. It justifies the treatment of the Arabs. Yes the director Abdel Kechiche was right to leave a very vague ending to his immigrants’ story.
We know for sure that in some Arab countries forbidden sexual interactions with another man, for a married woman, is punishable by death. In this sexual arena, the host country makes sure the male intruder will die to pay for his son’s sin.
No this is not a film to fulfill a director‘s ego trip. He simply wants to illustrate the every day experiences of Arab immigrants living in a country that would rather see them disappear (The fascist politician Jean-Mari Le Pen spoke eloquently on this subject).

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john said...

Posted on Jul 11 2008 18:04 I liked Eli's thoughts and thinking about it more made me wonder about the significance of the extra marital affairs/ sexual indiscretions of father which become repeated by his son, and the consequent abandonment of their partners.Its as if the film is saying at one level , sex outside marriage will ultimately undermine what can be achieved and lead to failure. Also the son is shown has having a cross cultural/racial affair which is outside the immigrant community and ultimately destructive and I wonder if this is a deep and instinctive moral belief of director and/or script writer ie. that sexual relations between different racial and financial stratas of society will lead to disaster. An immigrant male is potent and desirable but cannot be seen to marry a high status female , only have an illicit affair with one. Its as if its secret venegance on a rival french male.Further, the immigrant father is portrayed as being exploited by the host nation, rather than the other way round. His achievement is undervalued and his capabilities doubted and scorned. The host nation is portrayed as ready to destroy his business if it becomes a threat to them. I wonder if this is a common immigrant fantasy about host communities...

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katkin said...

Posted on Jul 10 2008 20:01 This film could have been a masterpiece if it had been an hour shorter. As it was it came across as a boring, overlong vehicle for the director's ego.

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Eli said...

Posted on Jul 09 2008 01:41 Two different societies trying to coexist while sharing common human short comings. The proud and stubborn father will not see his dream come true.He survived incredible difficulties to open his restaurant, but the next generation's behavior will defeat him. we want to believe that as he has already inspired the 2 families to cooperate, they will not need him to seize the new prospect in life he granted them.Their future success is plausible even though the ending does not spell it out. The acting was superb.

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sakura said...

Posted on Jul 04 2008 23:43 Massively overrated, hugely disappointing. 1.5 hours too long

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Rosalyn said...

Posted on Jul 02 2008 22:14 Would have been much better if it had been at least half an hour shorter. I found myself desperate for it to end.

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john said...

Posted on Jun 27 2008 19:53 interesting view of immigrant community, found ending was dragged out too much and some of couscous was over cooked..thought the french were made to look negative, are they really like that?

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Philippe said...

Posted on Jun 27 2008 08:43 Very beautiful and thought-provoking film. Not sure whether I agree that the ending was misjudged as mentioned by the TO critic.

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Phil said...

Posted on Jun 24 2008 12:49 A very French film that's not too far off Rohmer, I thought; a humane film about some infuriating people.

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