3 Fridays, 3 French Films Part 2: Couscous

Film: Couscous (Abdel Kechiche, 2007)

Watched: 11th July 2008

Where: Renoir Cinema

Slimane has worked hard all his life, working in a shipyard to support his families, his first family and his new family. At sixty years old manual work is tough; life is tougher still when new generations of migrant workers who work faster and for less take the place of older migrant workers. What really matters to Slimane and who really understands him? I suppose that is the main theme of the film but maybe it says a little more about a desire to have something that is ours, something that cannot be taken away. After finding out that he is likely to be out of a job and that his family does not really understand him, Slimane decides to do something that matters to him, to bring things back around to how he thinks they should be. He decides to take his redundancy and use the funds to convert a boat in to a couscous restaurant with the help of Rym, the daughter of his new partner and owner of the hotel in which he lives.

Couscous sets itself up so we can see the difficult situation Slimane finds himself in, his family prefer to argue and only calm down at the dinner table to eat amazing couscous made by Souad, Slimane's ex-wife. Slimane prefers to eat alone in his tiny hotel room, however Rym likes to keep him company and support him. As the film builds, it is Rym who truly believes that Slimane can make his restaurant a reality and helps him out with the things he finds difficult. Cue the (comic) scenes where Rym and Slimane go to the chamber of commerce and the banks to try and get the necessary planning permission and funding to get the new restaurant afloat, with Rym playing his business assistant, making his business plan, and trying to look the part in only the way someone slightly out of their depth can manage. Slimane doesn't open up much in the film, though we can see his frustration and shyness, though from his ideas for the restaurant we feel what really matters to him, having his whole family round him, new and old, all together, all happy, all with a part to play. Slimane feels awkward in the hotel when invited to his partner's room, he feels lost when his sons come to visit and say he should go "back to the old country" now that he's retired/unemployed and useless to the family.

The film comes to a climax with the opening of Slimane's restaurant. His family (old) are preparing the food to be heated and served for the grand opening. The old boat has been transformed thanks to Rym's endeavor, a prime space has been reserved for one night only and everything is falling into place. Everyone who knows Slimane is playing a part for the opening and everyone wants to be there except for his new partner who feels she will be made unwelcome as Slimane's first family disapprove of their relationship. When it comes to the crunch the truth comes out, Couscous seems to show that everyone has their place in the world. Slimane's family turn out for him, all the guests turn up, the band from the hotel where Slimane stays play their hearts out, how could Slimane fail to fulfil his dream? Well, someone stole the couscous... Slimane's son Hamid is in trouble as the woman he is having an affair with is a guest at the opening of the restaurant, in a selfish panic he drives away unseen with all the couscous in the boot. The consequences are two fold: we see the truth of Hamid, he is deceitful, we see the truth in the rest of Slimane's family and friends, they all come together to try and make his mark on the world a reality, they stall the guests with drinks and music and dance as Slimane goes off on his moped in search of the grain! Even Slimane's new partner gets in on the act, going back to her hotel to make up a new batch of couscous even though she doesn't trust her cooking. As Slimane goes searching for Hamid, Souad and the couscous, his moped is stolen by a gang of youths. Slimane runs himself to death chasing the moped and the film ends. Slimane gets what he wanted, not that he's around to know it. His truth, that his life will be the death of him, is made real. What is also made true is that Slimane has left his mark on the world and his family. He has left them a restaurant and also the truth that they can come together and make something special.

3 Fridays, 3 French Films. Part 1: Angel

Film: Angel (Francois Ozon 2008)

Watched: 4th July 2008

Where: Cine Lumiere

Back at the end of July I had the pleasure of watching the following films: Angel (Ozon, 2007), Couscous (Kechiche, 2007) and Summer Hours (Assayas, 2008) on successive Fridays. Despite different styles and stories they form an interesting trilogy together about the legacy we leave on the world vs the legacy we try to leave on the world. What does it mean to try and leave something behind and what control do we have over it? Can this legacy be preserved or is it solely in the hands of time and others? The first film of the three is Francois Ozon's Angel.

"What matters to me is being able to create in the here and now. Will my work survive the test of time? I don't ask myself that question, it would paralyze me. Art can cross centuries, but it's also made for immediate consumption. I can relate to Angel's sense of urgency, her drive to create. Her pragmatism gets her out of her social condition. Her art is in service to her life. It allows her to buy her mansion, surround herself in luxury, get the man she loves and support him financially." (Francois Ozon on his website)

Angel is the story of a young writer who lives in the world of the melodrama she creates (or that creates her). The film is shot as a parody/homage to such melodramas, think a little touch of Sunset Boulevard peformance, complete with a cheesy score, hilarious back projection montage scenes and no end of romantic clichés. Angel Deverell wants to be a somebody, a rich lady who lives in Paradise House with servants and the love of her life. However, Angel Deverell is a sickly school girl writing in her bedroom, an outsider, a grocer's daughter (Shades of Maggie Thatcher anyone?). The film opens with Angel out in the snow looking through the gates to Paradise House. Angel is a master of fantasy, writing about a world she has no real experience of (opening champagne with a corkscrew, child birth etc.) in fact she has almost no life experience outside of the family business and her servant aunt's tales from from Paradise House. By some fantastic miracle Angel's books become a roaring success, they are adapted into plays and she becomes the toast of the town. However, what is any young woman without a man at her side, one who will complement her. After watching an adaptation of one of her novels, Angel meets Esme, a painter and it's love at first sight. Esma is Angel's opposite, he comes from a wealthy background, he tries to create something real in his art, not just capture what he is asked to. Esme's work goes largely unrecognised. Angel becomes obsessed with Esme and his paintings and eventually they marry and with all Angel's money from her novels they move in to Paradise house together, complete with servants and all the trappings. Angel has everything that she ever wanted, Paradise house is hers and is great again and she is married to the love of her life. Angel's dream turns sour, Esme has an affair, and later kills himself. After his death Esme is recognised as a great artist, Angel slips into obscurity - she even finds herself being interviewed about Esme's work after his death, nobody is interested in her novels anymore. One night Angel finds herself outside in the snow looking for her kitten and eventually dies from the cold.

What makes Ozon's film so great and original? The style of the film creates a continued uncertainty. We see everything how Angel imagines/sees it, through her rose tinted and innocent eyes. We have the link from her beginnings as a writer, sat in bed after catching a chill from being out in the snow by Paradise House, to her death from a chill chasing a cat in the snow outside Paradise House. To me it feels like Angel never leaves her bed, she ages but she never grows up. Her experiences never seem real, she gets what she asks for and realises what that means. She never really experiences anything but herself. Like film itself Angel's childhood dreams are trapped forever, she cannot truly grow up and what is left behind does not change, even in her dream she is born a nobody and dies a nobody. Her husband Esme also tries to escape the life he is born into, he chooses to live in poverty and to suffer in order to make his art, to go to war, to have affairs. He wants to feel what life is and not escape it.
Esme is born a somebody and after his death he is not forgotten. Esme is also trapped forever like film, he is unable to find real recognition until he has escaped the film by taking his own life much like his art.

Judging by many of the comments on this film it seems Ozon's work is a success, he has made a film for today about today and for those of us who love it, we see what Angel sees in Esme, a great artist. For those of us that loathe it, we see what the world sees of Angel once the dust has settled. Whilst Ozon says he is making something in the here and now it's also something that draws on his experience and love... I suppose if you prefer celebrity and blockbuster to cinema and its history then you will have no interest in Angel.