paul2001sw-1 For a long film, there's remarkably little plot in Abdellatif Kechiche's 'Couscous', a story an elderly Tunisian immigrant in France who decides to open a restaurant; and if anything, the pace of the action slows as the film progresses, and it ends without reaching even the expected conclusion. In some ways, it feels remarkably like a documentary, even if a real documentary would be unlikely to capture people just talking (or dancing) with the same degree of un-self consciousness that is (deliberately, brilliantly) affected by this film. The scene where one woman berates her absent husband is harrowing, breathtaking: the achievement of the film overall is to capture the rhythms of life, and speech, of the community it portrays. There's both a truth and a poetry here that are the complete opposite of soap opera; though the absence of any concluding pay-off is maybe a step too far. Nonetheless, the film deserved its awards; and never drags, in spite of its length.

zetes I liked this one quite a bit more than Games of Love and Chance, though I didn't anywhere near love it. It drags a lot of the time, and could have told the same story at a half an hour shorter without losing a thing. Habib Boufares stars as a 60-something year-old man who has been laid off from his job at the shipyard. With the help of his family and friends, he plans to open a restaurant on a broken down old boat he acquires. Things do not quite go as planned. There's a lot of great development with the characters. I admit, the boredom came mostly from the earlier scenes, but most of it pays off nicely in the very good final forty minutes, which are surprisingly gripping. The acting here is, on average, much, much better than in Games of Love and Chance, without a bum actor in the group. The big discovery here is Hafsia Herzi. Her belly dancing is awesome, for sure, but she's outstanding throughout. Her career seems to have gone well afterward. I'll finally have to sit down and watch House of Pleasures (aka L'Apollonide) now.

druid333-2 In the grand tradition of film dealing with food as a central centerpiece,'La Graine Et Le Mulet' (released in the U.S.& other English speaking countries as 'The Secret Of The Grain') can easily be placed with other films such as 'Eat,Drink,Man,Woman','Big Night' & 'Babbette's Feast'. Slimane,a sixty something ship yard worker is being pressured by his boss to step down,due to the fact that he's not as fast as the younger men who are working the docks. All of this,plus the pressures of dealing with an ex-wife,who scolds him for non payment of alimony,plus his sons & daughters,who are constantly arguing with each other,as well as their own families is having an effect on his life. Slimane's dream is to refurbish a boat & turn it into a floating restaurant that serves up traditional North African cuisine (with CousCous,the star attraction). After procuring the funds,not to mention going through the bureaucratic b.s. that's necessary for an undertaking of this sort, Slimane is on to realizing his dream. Abdel Kechiche writes & directs a fine story of family bonds & over coming hurdles (or at least trying to over come hurdles). Habib Boufares plays a weary looking Slimane. The rest of the cast is made up of various folk from Tunesia,France & other places. The camera work (by Lubomir Bakchev) opts for a documentary look that really works for this film (as the documentary look also worked fine for 'The Class',earlier this year). If I have any quirk with this film, at two & a half hours,plus,it's a wee bit long in the tooth (several scenes could have been either trimmed,or even cut out,which would not have hurt the films integrity in the least). Make sure you enjoy a full meal before you undertake this film (as you'll be really hungry after wards). Spoken mostly in French & Arabic with English subtitles. Not rated,but contains raunchy language,brief flashes of nudity & some muted sexual content

Michel Private This was the first time ever that I left the art movie theater during the movie. What a bad, hollow story line and what an annoying atmosphere. We watched about 30-40 minutes (I believe), nothing interesting happened. Just a slow moving extremely boring story about an old guy, his job and his family. There were no characters to love, no intelligent turns, no perspective that it would be getting any better than this. After 20 minutes there were some scenes with a female actor playing a low-educated mother snarling in a very unpleasant way towards her own child and blabbering way too much at the dinner table in a very irritating way - I started to hate her and that was the mental point of exit for me. Could not take anymore of this. The only thing that was really good was the quality of acting by all actors, otherwise I would have given this movie a rating of minus 5 if possible. Very, very disappointing. (Please be advised that my rating is based on the first part of the movie.)