Caramel (2007)
Country: FR/LEB
Technical: col 95m
Director: Nadine Labaki
Cast: Nadine Labaki, Yasmine Al Masri, Joanna Moukarzel
Synopsis:
The problems of women working at a hair and beauty salon in Beirut encompass everything from guilt over infidelity to auditioning opposite much younger rivals for roles in commercials. Their friendship and ultimate optimism pull them through.
Review:
Inevitably reminiscent at times of Vénus Beauté, Institut in its somewhat formless narrative, this attractive debut by a director of music videos is a series of vignettes centred around one of the five female characters at its centre, one of whom, an ageing seamstress, is the odd one out in that her story does not reach a happy conclusion exactly. The film affords a look at the real Beirut, behind the bombs and the headlines, one which reminds us of any other eastern Mediterranean city, where having a raft of parking fines is shrugged off but marrying without being a virgin requires corrective surgery. It is a sunny film, and a slightly glamourised one beneath the precarious shop sign, but none the worse for that. The title refers to the substitute for wax used for depilation by the salon owner.
Country: FR/LEB
Technical: col 95m
Director: Nadine Labaki
Cast: Nadine Labaki, Yasmine Al Masri, Joanna Moukarzel
Synopsis:
The problems of women working at a hair and beauty salon in Beirut encompass everything from guilt over infidelity to auditioning opposite much younger rivals for roles in commercials. Their friendship and ultimate optimism pull them through.
Review:
Inevitably reminiscent at times of Vénus Beauté, Institut in its somewhat formless narrative, this attractive debut by a director of music videos is a series of vignettes centred around one of the five female characters at its centre, one of whom, an ageing seamstress, is the odd one out in that her story does not reach a happy conclusion exactly. The film affords a look at the real Beirut, behind the bombs and the headlines, one which reminds us of any other eastern Mediterranean city, where having a raft of parking fines is shrugged off but marrying without being a virgin requires corrective surgery. It is a sunny film, and a slightly glamourised one beneath the precarious shop sign, but none the worse for that. The title refers to the substitute for wax used for depilation by the salon owner.
Country: FR/LEB
Technical: col 95m
Director: Nadine Labaki
Cast: Nadine Labaki, Yasmine Al Masri, Joanna Moukarzel
Synopsis:
The problems of women working at a hair and beauty salon in Beirut encompass everything from guilt over infidelity to auditioning opposite much younger rivals for roles in commercials. Their friendship and ultimate optimism pull them through.
Review:
Inevitably reminiscent at times of Vénus Beauté, Institut in its somewhat formless narrative, this attractive debut by a director of music videos is a series of vignettes centred around one of the five female characters at its centre, one of whom, an ageing seamstress, is the odd one out in that her story does not reach a happy conclusion exactly. The film affords a look at the real Beirut, behind the bombs and the headlines, one which reminds us of any other eastern Mediterranean city, where having a raft of parking fines is shrugged off but marrying without being a virgin requires corrective surgery. It is a sunny film, and a slightly glamourised one beneath the precarious shop sign, but none the worse for that. The title refers to the substitute for wax used for depilation by the salon owner.