Caramel (2008)

Caramel is a Lebanon-France Co-production with a charming story of female love, friendship and aging. The story focus on the love life of a group of young and middle-age women who work/visit a hair & beauty salon. The story breaks many stereotypes about religious confrontation in Lebanon and on how Middle Eastern Women think, feel or live.The movie mix romance, humor and sadness with simplicity, warmth, and heart under the fresh direction of young actress-director Nadine Labaki, who also plays the leading character.All the actors are terrific in their performances: Yasmine Elmasri as the modern and untraditional Muslim girl Nisrine, who is going to get married; Joanna Moukarzel as the boyish Lesbian Rima; Gisèle Aouad as the aging divorced actress Jamale who struggles with having to find a job in the modeling industry and move on with her life after her divorce; Nadine Labaki as Layale, a good-hearted girl who discovers her boyfriend is a married man; Adel Karam as the sweet policeman Youssef in love with Layale; Sihame Haddad as the patient and shy single tailor Rose, and Aziza Semaan as an impressive demented Lili.The face of Lebanon and Beirut shown is real and diverse, not stereotypical, despite showing Christians and Muslims, and different social groups. The Beirut we see is not the one under reconstruction, the post-war destroyed one, but the Beirut of the people who live in the city, the ones who make it a lovable place. We see real people who live their lives in their own way and faith and that intermingle without problems, a world in which Christianity and Islam and present in equal parts in their culture, people who struggle with the same issues that we Westerners do.The movie was shot in warm caramel tones, that goes well with title, which relates to the waxing system using home-made caramel that the beautician uses.The music, a warm and sentimental mix of French and Arabic songs is truly fantastic.A heart-warming enjoyable film that offers a real portrait of life in modern Beirut and Lebanese women told in an universal simple and touching language, with some soapy moments.

In Beirut, six women and six stories meet around a women's beauty parlour: Layale, in love with a married man who will never leave his wife for her, Nisrine, who is going to get married and doesn't know how to tell his boyfriend she is no longer virgin, Rima, who doesn't accept to be attracted by women, Jamale, obsessed by age and physical appearance and Rose, who has sacrificed the best years of her life to look after her sister. Inside the hot, colourful and magnetic atmosphere of the old-fashioned beauty parlour, between brush strokes and caramel wax we hear them speaking about sex, love, maternity, with the freedom and intimacy that only women can show. The result is a delicate fresco on women, capable of getting straightforwardly to the heart of women, but not only. A very delicate, never vulgar watercolour, depicting women involved in what seem to be out of time female problems and concerns. A fresco which also deals with hot topical issues, such as war, the living together between Catholics and Muslims, the clash of different cultures, but never losing its amusing and amused tone. In the end, we are both stunned and comforted by the strength that only women can show when they join together and problems are to be faced. The director and actress Nadine Labaki manages to render the female daily melancholy, without ever falling into the banal or the cliché, but through a powerful and intense synaesthetic strategy: through eyes, smells, sounds, in such a poignant way, as to make us able to touch, to smell, to taste what is being performed, as if we were absorbed in that same intense atmosphere. A word must be spent for the soundtrack, well and wisely dosed, and never boring. A feel-good and intelligent movie I would suggest to all women, and, why not, also to men.

Centred around a beauty shop in Beirut, this is the story of five friends and colleagues, their lives and their relationships. Layal is stunning but seems oblivious to the attentions of a local policeman as she focuses all her efforts on a doomed relationship with a married man. Nisrine is engaged to be married but is concerned about her husband discovering she is not a virgin. Rima runs the beauty parlour and stays out of such emotional messes but finds herself drawn to a dark-haired customer. Jamale is older than these three friends and struggles to audition for acting roles against much younger and fresh women. Rose is older again and finds confusion when she experiences reciprocated feelings of love from one of her customers.Caramel came to the UK on the back of quite a lot of nominations and discussions of it being "one of the best foreign films" of the year. Fortunately I had forgotten this until after I watched it recently and it was a good thing too because I do not think that the film really deserves such chatter. It is understandable that it got it though because the film is accessible, engaging and quite charming and generally when this occurs in a foreign film it gets it exposure and, with exposure, hyperbole. So, OK it doesn't deserve the tags it got but this is not to say that it is a bad film because it is actually a very enjoyable little piece that is as charming as it is slight. The plot will be familiar to anyone who has watching Waiting to Exhale or any other film where a group of female friends have a central place/relationship that pulls them together while the film follows each of them in a different thread. When I have seen this done it does have a tendency towards mawkishness and corn, I guess because the makers figure that this is what the target female audience want.Caramel doesn't do this though. Yes it has emotion but it never feels forced or false and it comes over with charm and ease. It doesn't build to big weepy moments but rather has a consistently quirky appeal that I enjoyed a great deal. The stories are not heavy in detail but this helps them slide along with a nice smoothness that again compliments the feel of the film. The cast do well because they all deliver solid characters without ever tipping into easy melodrama or pushing it too hard. Labaki has the character that would be most likely to go this way but she holds it back and instead delivers a sympathetic and engaging lead. It helps that she is stunning as well. Equally stunning is Elmasri and she gives a bit more Iin the way of comedy in her role. Moukarzel has a "difficult" character when you think about it but she does well with a tomboyish charm and makes the most of her few scenes with her customer. Aouad doesn't have the looks to rely on like the others but her harsh character gives way to moments where her real feelings come through and it is easy to feel for her. Haddad isn't given much time to work with but she is good and her thread makes for a sweet ending to the sweet film.Like the title suggests, this is a very charming and sweet film that avoids melodrama or "big" emotional moments in favour of a lighter tone that makes it much more accessible and enjoyable.

I watched this movie today and I can say I am a bit disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the movie wasn't bad in general, but I was expecting more. It's the hype, again...Coming from Greece, I can say that I found the situation described in the movie pretty familiar and that's another excuse for my low vote (7/10).It's like an hour since I saw the movie and if you I had to say three things about the movie I'd say "Habibi" (the Arabic word for "love", I think), "Lili" and "Oh my, Nadine's eyes are so stunning".All in all, it's a good way to spent some time.