"Lila dit ça" is a contemporary story about two teenagers, Chimo and Lila, which have a hidden attraction for each other in spite of not knowing each other very well… Chimo (Mohammed Khouas) is a young Muslim guy which lives with his mother and has a group of friends also Arab. He's quieter than the others, he's calm, peaceful and has a great dream: to become a writer… but he thinks he'll never get it… Lila (Vahina Giocante) is a mysterious young girl who arrives in the neighborhood. From the very first moment Chimo is in love with her. At the beginning he didn't notice, he thinks it's just an attraction, but then he'll understand he is… Lila is mysterious, acts strangely, but she's beautiful. She has the face of an angel (as is said by herself in the movie!) but the mind of a devil… She's provocative, insinuating, and she's always speaking about sex, and about her sex… She's a real devil with an angel face! But is she in love with Chimo (as he's for her), or is it just a game to her? By the end the viewer will find out!It's a story about passion (teenage passion), self-discovery, teenage relationships, but it also portrays a reality of mixed cultures. It describes very well the shock between different cultures which stand side-by-side in the French suburbs nowadays… It's just the plot's background but it ends being a good social portrait of these different cultures.All in all it's a good movie which deserves a 7/10 score!

I found this film very enjoyable. I believe the setting is actually Marseilles... not a Paris suburb as was mentioned in another review, However, a "poorer neighborhood" of "anywhere, big-city France" would describe it. I think this film can even provide a bit of insight into the underlying causes of the riots in France in Fall 2005.Lila is an orphan, lives with her aunt/foster mother. She is beautiful and says many shocking things, even in the first two or three minutes of the film. (I would probably not let children watch this movie due to language, more than any other type of content.) Lila is a character who the viewer does not fully understand until the end of the film, which I will not spoil here. I was called back to my own adolescence while watching her character's actions and even more so by the end of the film.Chimo is a complex character and it is fascinating to see his story. I have met many "Chimos." He is stuck in a life that he did not create, yet feels helpless to change, so he doesn't try. As the movie begins, he is writing and telling a story, thereby setting the stage for all the meetings with Lila that are included in the film.Chimo and his mother have an interesting relationship. He definitely loves her, but he is frustrated because he believes she has given up on living a full life. The same could be said of his mother as she questions his motivation-level.I really enjoyed this film and think it is beautifully filmed. Makes me want to visit Marseilles.The songs were well-chosen. I actually wished more of the soundtrack had been French or Arabic music, perhaps it was more real that many songs are in English. I am not sure what French teenagers listen to...I recommend this film to viewers over 16 years old, but actually could see watching it with younger adolescents as a catalyst for a "teachable moment." A bittersweet ending that leaves some details hanging for the viewer to fill in.

"Lila dit ça" is the filming by Lebanese director Doueiri of a somewhat sensational popular French novel set in Marseille. The anonymous author, Chimo, is the main character. An Arab youth with writing talent, he keeps a journal of his encounters with a young blonde provocatrice newly arrived in the neighborhood. He submits the journal for a writing scholarship and it gets him out of the ghetto. The movie shows us what the journal describes: his teasing, frustrating relationship with the blonde cutie.The idea makes sense, but the execution goes wrong. Doueiri's first film, "West Beirut," which showed the youths of that war- torn, partitioned town struggling to grow up like kids anywhere else, was full of humor and charm. But Doueiri falters in this more structured adaptation set in France. From the first moments in "Lila Says" where the young Lolita teases nineteen-year-old Chimo by talking dirty, the scenes between the two principals are embarrassing and awkwardly paced. The photography is crude and poorly lit. Chimo's little gang of pals have zero appeal and are quite unworthy of both Chimo, who's as pretty as the girl and has far more class, or the director, whose Beirut characters seemed to have real backstories and depth. Vahine Giocante, who plays Lila, had a haunting debut as the fugitive girlfriend in Manuel Pradal's 1997 "Marie Baie des Anges." The trouble is this time she can't just rely on her Lolita body and ballet training to move around provocatively; she has dialogue. But is it her delivery, or the crude dirty talk itself that doesn't work? In either case, although it may have succeeded on the page, it seems leaden on the screen.While the sensitive-looking Chimo (Mohammed Khouas) restrains himself, his pals don't, and it all ends badly and foster child Lila is taken away by her off-color female caretaker. Too late it dawns on Chimo that he could have saved the situation if he'd simply declared his love -- and perceived that Lila's four-letter words and porno stories came out of naïve fantasy. He's failed her and betrayed their fledgling love affair, but he's got his ticket out of the Arab quarter and the bus takes him away.The scenes are rickety. It's a shame because the two principals are nice to look at and some of the sets are colorful. But the shock value of a very pretty young blonde who's opener is "Do you want to see my pussy?" has attracted more attention than this effort deserves.As is mentioned in one scene, Arabs are all the rage now in France, in movies anyway, witness Benoît Jacquot's stylish recent love-on-the run noir tale, "À tout de suite." Doueiri ought to have been capable of much more than this stereotypical encounter. The worst part is that it's not even a turn-on.

I had the chance to screen this movie in a Hungarian festival. A colleague of mine said a lot of good things of this movie so I eagerly wanted to see it. And as always I was ambushed due to someone's enthusiasm.How to say... I expected something extremely staggering drama and what I got was a staggering drama but not extremely. From the first time Lila started talking about sex the whole story became obvious. And it got even more obvious when Chimo's friends were shown more and more.In the first few minutes I got scared because there were some allusions to racism, especially the conflict between the Muslim and not Muslim due to the 11th of September 2001. But it stayed in the level of discussing how difficult is for arabesque to get a job. So it didn't turn out to be a political "horror". LUCKILY! So let's see... we have Chimo an arabesque 19-year-old boy who most of the time just hangs around with his 3 best friends. They steal, harass girls, drink, smoke, whatever a couple of hopeless, sort of outcast guys can do. Chimo is a bit different from them but still he calls them his best friends. And he writes. Novels. And apparently he is talented and gets the great chance to get out of this misery and go to Paris learning to be a writer. But he turns it down, he thinks that this huge L wearing on his forehead can't be removed. He thinks his fate is sealed by being an arabesque in France. And that's what his friends hammer in his brain too. They obviously don't want him to break out. They don't manage it either. Then we have Lila, a beautiful blond girl with gorgeous blue eyes who lives with her weird aunt.So they meet. While Chimo's friends are trying to pique Lila's attention, Lila and Chimo immediately become ... well ... sort of friends. As long as the definition of friendship bears some j***ing off on a moped or some exhibitionism, or talking about and strictly just talking about sex. But these things can make a relationship even more beautiful and unforgettable, can't they? So when they meet they talk a lot. More like Lila talks, especially about her juicy dreams and filthy reveries. She even shares verbally her experiences and sexually exalted, sometimes pervert ideas with Chimo which obviously drives him crazy. But perhaps this makes Chimo feel this stronger and stronger love. He doesn't want to hang around with his friends anymore, he works in order to pay the bills. He tries to change. But his friends are not fond of this metamorphosis, and they are getting more and more aggressive. The fact that Lila refuses their "overtures" and she is not even willing to speak with them is fuel to the fire. The bomb explodes...Summa summarum the movie is good. Very good, but nothing surprising happens in it. Still it is a beautiful love movie. I liked a lot that Ziad Doueiri eliminated the physical parts of sex (apart from this ominous hand job, but that doesn't count) and he focused on verbalism, and emotions which gives the peculiarity of the movie.The ending is sad and happy at the same time, I found it perfect. A destroyed first love but hope of a better life.Oh ... the music is brilliant. I suspect that people already got used to the fact that most of the time in french movies the producers abuse them with french songs (which is not always bad, but sometimes quite annoying - sorry about that). This movie is an exceptional. Frankly saying it has a compelling soundtrack.