Venice. The Secret of the Grain.

"In the ambitious social-issues family drama The Secret of the Grain, writer-helmer Abdellatif Kechiche uses a Maghrebi emigre's attempt to open a restaurant as the pretext to explore more profound themes," writes Alissa Simon in Variety of this "overlong, dramatically unbalanced" film, which nonetheless "looks like a top contender for Venice fest prizes."

"His previous film, L'esquive was the surprise winner of the Best Film César in 2005," notes Boyd van Hoeij for Cineuropa. "Like that earlier film, La Graine et le mulet (literally 'Grain and Mullet,' the two principal ingredients of a fish couscous) explores both the universal search for happiness and tensions and situations very specific to immigrant families, though the director's new film is not set in a Parisian suburb but in the Mediterranean port city of Sète (near Montpellier)."

Updated through 9/10.

Update, 9/6: "Capturing the love, loyalty and internecine squabbles of a large family struggling to get by in an often unwelcoming land, the film features some excellent performances in its tale of a hard-working family patriarch who decides to open a restaurant on a boat," writes Ray Bennett in the Hollywood Reporter. "Watching people eat and talk with their mouths open at length in close-up on a wide screen and listening to harangues that last way past their point of impact may not please all audiences but the film has many pleasures and should travel well."

Updates, 9/10: "Most of the film is a character-building prelude, long but brilliant," writes Nigel Andrews in the Financial Times. "The film's heart-rending climax, which cross-cuts resolutions to different subplots, becomes very nearly unbearable. And not in the sense that some other films at Venice have been unbearable."

"Winner of the Special Jury Prize, The Secret of the Grain was very much loved by both critics and the public at the Venice International Film Festival and perhaps deserved more," suggests Camillo de Marco, who interviews director Kechiche for Cineuropa.

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Covering the coverage: Venice 07. Index.

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Posted by dwhudson at September 5, 2007 1:37 PM