Carrie Meets Nisrine

Carrie Bradshaw, Samantha Jones, Charlotte York, and Miranda Hobbes are arguably the names of four women that have literally changed the face of American television, media, and culture. In May of 2008, the movie spinoff of the HBO hit show Sex and the City hit theaters, raking in $58 million its opening weekend, the biggest opening ever for an R-rated comedy. A year earlier, Sukkar Banat or Caramel was causing quite the stir in 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Easily becoming the most internationally acclaimed Lebanese film to date, the movie focused around a similar plotline of five women meeting the demands of their age, duties, relationships, and cultural beliefs.

The focus of this essay will highlight the similarities and differences in the portrayals of women in two culturally diverse settings, the reaches of feminism on a global level, and the differences each director took, cinematographically, to achieve the success in their films. While the movies share many implicit meanings on the ideas of women facing mid-life crises, the most interesting comparison of the movies will come in how two, so very different, cultures approach controversial subjects such as sex and how the feminist movement has paved the way for this major change in the position women hold in society, today.

Caramel, directed by Nadine Labaki, tells the story of five Lebanese women: Layale, Nisrine, Rima, Jamale, and Rose. Each woman carries a different burden in the forms of aging, ending relationships, questions of homosexuality, and loss of virginity (Gray). Nisrine’s story, in particular, and how she grapples with fact that she is no longer a virgin, yet set to be married in the Muslim religion, frames the idea of how different this subject, sex, has been greeted in Middle-Eastern theaters versus American theaters. Granted, this comfort area in the blatant discussion of sex is relatively new even in American media, and there is no doubt that the show Sex and the City, definitely marked new territory in global television. The idea of the show focusing on women desiring sex, women that were not prostitutes, was a risk, and America was ready for the publicity the show created with a more accepting view of premarital sex. The show gained fame on a global level, and it should be noted that in paving this revolutionary approach to women in media in America, the show has also paved the way in other countries, countries with strict no pre-marital sex beliefs, and even perhaps Muslim countries. The wide success of Caramel did not ignore this issue of sex and religion, but greeted it head-on in Nisrine’s story. Her pursuit for medical operation to attain an intact virginity is proof that this idea of pre-marital sex is becoming somewhat acknowledged in the Middle-Eastern world.

In Sex and the City, Carrie is a popular weekly column writer for a New York newspaper. She regularly blogs and is high in the ranks of the New York social crowds. Samantha is a successful entrepreneur, independent businesswomen, a breast cancer survivor, and encompasses the meaning of a female playboy. Charlotte and Miranda follow in the same successful New York women rankings as an art gallery manager and an ambitious lawyer with a degree from Harvard, respectively. The strong foundations of each woman abolish the thoughts of low class women, instantly. This automatically affirms one aspect of feminism, challenging the patriarchal social system, which men usually dominate. By announcing their desire for a healthy sex life, the four accomplished, independent women assume a role normally, and historically, occupied by men. The 1960’s spark of feminism in America, and the progressions in culture and film since then have escalated this acceptance, and Sex and the City finally pushed the limit (Barsam 327).

In Caramel, however, three of the five characters, in focus in the film, work in a run-down beauty salon, including Nisrine, a bride-to-be, with the dark secret that she is not a virgin. Implicitly, the women in the Lebanese movie share the same aspirations as the women in the American movie- as well a slightly underscored passion for beauty and fashion. Yet the unsatisfaction of the Lebanese women seems to be an underlying theme throughout the movie, and the outlooks of the older women, in particular, seem bleak. The women seem happy, but not nearly as confident or established as Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda. This coincides with the fact that Middle-Eastern society and the Muslim world is still miles apart in differences to western culture, especially in how each society holds the idea of powerful, ambitious women with a desire, just like men.

Despite the differences of the characters’ professions, the movies share the same ideological meaning of the powerful will of women defeating cultural stereotypes. In Caramel, the quiet character of Rima displays another traditionally shunned idea in the Muslim culture: homosexuality. Her disdain of dresses, short hair, falling in love with a female client of the salon, and her silent rebelliousness scream powerful statements over the movie screen, reminiscent of a certain feminist movement that occurred in the 1960’s America. Although this Muslim country has taken its time in slowly accepting western ideals, there is no doubt that the feminist movement of America had some influence on global media. While Sex and the City is an example of women defeating cultural stereotypes in the blunt role reversal of the sex-is-just-as-satisfying-for-women method, the movie also displayed feminist ideals in the strength Carrie Bradshaw displays after overcoming the tragedy of her fiancé leaving her at her wedding. The expected cold feet of the bride are traded for the cold feet of the groom and in Mr. Big’s fear of commitment, a role reversal on the altar. This role reversal not only represents feminism but also attracted large audiences the same way women were first attracted to the HBO show: “[Through Samantha,] women also get to enjoy that rarest of cinematic moments -- sequences that completely objectify men, for a change” (Lowry). The display of feminism in both films suggests the expanse and product of globalization in Lebanese cinema.

Yet the common ideological theory of feminism is approached uniquely by each director. Sex and the City, despite the predicaments of the women, keeps a jovial, airy tone throughout the film. Shot in the bright colors with the thriving, alive city of New York as the backdrop, the setting supports the light, cheery mis-en-scene the movie emulates. The soundtrack, composed of tracks such as “Labels or Love” by Fergie and “Walk This Way” by Run-D.M.C. featuring Aerosmith also contributes to the bright mis-en-scene, and, of course, the fashion in Sex and the City cannot be overlooked. The cutting edge, borderline-outrageous outfits displayed throughout the film display strong, confident women in its very definition.

The approach Nadine Labaki took in the mis-en-scene of Caramel, however, is quite the contrast. The bright colors of the city of Beirut are slightly dimmed by a use of sepia. The rich brown and sand tones recurrent throughout the movie tie into the title of the film, leaving the viewer with only one thing on the mind by the end of the movie- caramel. The music is one of the few national cinema aspects of the movie, the songs including the opening track “Succar Ya Banat”. The opening credits are focus on the preparation of caramel, and backdropped to sinuous Middle-Eastern vocalizing make for outstanding cinematography, even from the beginning. While the movie is certainly not as upbeat as Sex and the City, it approaches the same ideological theories in a different culture, and different tone- one more serious and dramatic. “‘Caramel’ has an optimism born not of dreamy romanticism but of resilience and a degree of hard-headedness”(Scott).


According to Labaki, caramel is something "sweet and salt, sugary and sour, of the delicious sugar that can burn and hurt you." In the same regard, Sex and the City and Caramel are two movies tied by similar stories and underlying ideological theories of feminism and the reversal of roles of women in society. Yet, at the same time, the movies are polar opposites in terms of style and form. One is sweet and one a little more sour, but the movies have both proven to leave an unforgettable impression on viewers.