I get a distinct impression from reviews I've read that most, if not all were written by women and that 'Caramel' is generally seen as a movie for the 'girls'....
I love my World cinema and will watch almost anything, so when it came up on BBC2 recently, I recorded it on my provider's box without knowing much about it. And, yes, like the confectionery in the title, it is soft centred and a bit gooey and whilst I (obviously) didn't appreciate all the finer points of the treatments available at the salon, I could appreciate the warmth and camaraderie of the five women.
Beirut and Lebanon usually conjure up either actual or imagined images of war, conflict and heavy oppression of women. Here, director (& lead actress) Nadine Labaki serves us up a candy bar that's full of wholesome goodness, quite a lot of sweetness but more importantly, a message to the west that women there think and wish and love like every other woman, anywhere. It's just circumstances that differ and those can have huge effects on people's lives.
Whilst we generally see modern, beautiful and free-thinking women in the film, scenes that were still commonplace in the UK just 50-60 years ago, make us realise that there still are 'rules' in Arabic countries. I'm talking about sharing a double room in a hotel, which requires a marriage certificate and personal I.D. Also, at the beginning, a man and a woman just chatting in a car in the street at night is considered 'indecent' by the local police and they are asked to go indoors.
I won't go into all the ins and outs of the various relationships, as it's the overall impression I want to give and whether the film is any good. The latter is partly answered by all the 5 and 4 star reviews already up and I'd have to agree. Even for a middle aged bloke like me, I can see enough human strands and their gentle effects on the nicely different lifestyles and circumstances to keep almost anyone interested. Whether your gung-ho action flick freak will, or not, is not one I'm not going to speculate on!
I love my World cinema and will watch almost anything, so when it came up on BBC2 recently, I recorded it on my provider's box without knowing much about it. And, yes, like the confectionery in the title, it is soft centred and a bit gooey and whilst I (obviously) didn't appreciate all the finer points of the treatments available at the salon, I could appreciate the warmth and camaraderie of the five women.
Beirut and Lebanon usually conjure up either actual or imagined images of war, conflict and heavy oppression of women. Here, director (& lead actress) Nadine Labaki serves us up a candy bar that's full of wholesome goodness, quite a lot of sweetness but more importantly, a message to the west that women there think and wish and love like every other woman, anywhere. It's just circumstances that differ and those can have huge effects on people's lives.
Whilst we generally see modern, beautiful and free-thinking women in the film, scenes that were still commonplace in the UK just 50-60 years ago, make us realise that there still are 'rules' in Arabic countries. I'm talking about sharing a double room in a hotel, which requires a marriage certificate and personal I.D. Also, at the beginning, a man and a woman just chatting in a car in the street at night is considered 'indecent' by the local police and they are asked to go indoors.
I won't go into all the ins and outs of the various relationships, as it's the overall impression I want to give and whether the film is any good. The latter is partly answered by all the 5 and 4 star reviews already up and I'd have to agree. Even for a middle aged bloke like me, I can see enough human strands and their gentle effects on the nicely different lifestyles and circumstances to keep almost anyone interested. Whether your gung-ho action flick freak will, or not, is not one I'm not going to speculate on!