More than skin deep

>> Filmmaker Nadine Labaki on her
Lebanese chick flick Caramel

GROUP DYNAMIC: Caramel

by MATTHEW HAYS

For decades, films that dealt with female characters were usually dismissed pejoratively as “women’s pictures” or “weepies,” and thought of as inferior. But the melodrama, so often placed in this category, has since been reclaimed by critics, who see the genre’s many contradictions as a reflection of the contradictions women face off-screen.

It was these very complications that inspired Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki to write, direct and act in her first feature, Caramel.

“Women living in the Middle East face a lot of confusing influences, the confusion between East and West,” she says. “I liked the idea of five different women, with five different viewpoints and at different points in their lives, connecting through a beauty salon.”

In Caramel, Labaki has a group of disparate women facing down a boiling pot full of issues in the heart of Beirut. Labaki herself plays the owner of the beauty salon, a 30-year-old unmarried Christian woman who is in love with a married man. Another character, a Muslim, is poised to get married, but her fiancé doesn’t know that she’s no longer a virgin—thus she’s considering having herself stitched up in order to create the illusion that she’s untouched once more. Another salon client is menopausal and dealing with the unwelcome fact that she’s getting older, not helped by the news that her husband has left her for a younger woman.

Caramel even touches on queer themes, with one of the salon employees grappling with her attraction for other women. All the while, Labaki says these issues are introduced “in a soft way,” never intending to “provoke or shock,” but rather to make people think about new things in a different manner.

Labaki says the beauty salon was a fitting place to ground the action. “A beauty salon is a very important place in a woman’s life, especially in Lebanon. In some respects, Lebanon appears to be an example of an open and free society. But that isn’t always true. Behind the façade, we are subjected to many constraints.” The title itself comes from the substance used for hair removal in Lebanese salons.

There are obvious cosmetic similarities between Caramel and certain other American chick flicks, but Labaki says there were no specific models for her as she wrote the screenplay. “This was very personal, and very different, I felt,” she contends. “I wanted to go beyond what many of those previous films had done.”

Going non-pro

Labaki, who has extensive experience directing commercials and music videos, made a challenging decision about the filmmaking process early on.

“I chose to use non-actors for the key roles. Other than the policeman, who is played by a popular comedian, the women are all portrayed by non-professional actors. We looked everywhere to cast them—public places, we put ads in papers. This was not easy, though I’m very happy with the result. They didn’t have the discipline of a trained actor—they couldn’t always memorize their lines, for example. I think that the fact that I was acting in the film led me to be very close to them, and this made them feel at ease. I was their friend and their director.”

And what was the trickiest part of directing a first feature? “Everything is tricky with your first feature. It’s hard—you’re not very sure of yourself, and with a low-budget film, you’re strapped for time. You try to get the best out of everybody. I felt like I was running all the time. There wasn’t even time to breath.”

Labaki says she kept her process open. Since it was her screenplay, she kept the Caramel set ready for ad hoc changes. “We did a lot of improvisation. If something worked, I was open to the change. I would forget about what was written and adapt.”

And Labaki adds that she’s extremely positive about the future of the film industry in Lebanon and the role of women within it. “The numbers of women are increasing, and I never found this a barrier,” she reports.

As for life in Lebanon, “We are always trying to be optimistic. We say that today is a better day and are happy about that. One thing is sure: you don’t ever get bored living here—never!”

CARAMEL OPENS THIS
FRIDAY, MARCH 28

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