French cinema’s current renaissance continues with The Secret of the Grain, a remarkable new film by writer-director Abdellatif Kechiche (2003’s Games of Love and Chance). Since both Grain and Chance swept the French Oscars, you could say Kechiche is batting a thousand these days. Novelistic in scope and densely textured, Keciche’s latest humanist triumph tells the story of Tunisian immigrant Slimane (Habib Bufares), a veteran shipyard worker in the tiny port town of Sète off the Mediterranean coast. Slimane’s large, extended family — his ex-wife Souad and their various children and grandkids — competes for his attention with landlord/lover Latifa and her comely young daughter Rym. That (most) everyone gets along is a testament to Slimane’s genuine good nature and persistence.
Slimane’s decision to open a couscous restaurant after getting laid
off down at the yard would be the dramatic turning point in an ordinary
movie. But Kechiche is more interested in narrative digressions,
character detail and extended dinner-table conversations. Instead of
building to a crescendo, Kechiche instead plays a series of jazzy riffs
that are perfectly modulated, always in tune and wonderfully
seductive.
The improvisatory, loosely structured filmmaking style and obvious
affection for society’s underclass feels like a playful French variant
on Mike Leigh’s working-class dramedies (High Hopes, Life is
Sweet, et al.). The naturalistic performances are as seemingly
effortless as Keciche’s bustling mise-en-scene. Hafsia Herzi’s
Cesar-winning performance as Rym is a standout, and the superb
cinematography by Lubomir Bakchev (who also shot Games of Love and
Chance) lends the proceedings an appealing, quasi-verité
flavor.
This article appears in May 6-12, 2009.