COLCOA 2012: MICHEL PETRUCCIANI

Michel Petrucciani in Michel Petrucciani.

Glassworks

By John Esther

For those who have heard Michel Petrucciani play piano, it a pretty impressive experience. The guy's technique is stunning, a marvelous combination of speed, lightness and joy. But to see him play is something altogether more impressive and that is the best attribute of Michael Radford's documentary, Michel Petrucciani.

Born in 1962 with osteogeneis imperfecta (AKA glass bone disease), Petrucciani's body was highly delicate, prone to fracture. He would never grow taller than three feet and could not walk for most of his life. As the outside world was often too dangerous for the boy, Petrucciani would stay home listening to jazz and playing piano (with a custom food petal) on a constant, and soon, phenomenal level.

It was not long before he started playing with the jazz greats. As his career took off, Petrucciani would spend his time traveling the globe, but much of his short time on earth in Paris, New York and Big Sur where he fully engaged in the party lifestyle of a jazz musician. He was also quite the ladie's man, albeit not much of a monogamous one.

For anyone who knew the basic details of late pianist (he died in 199), not much of the information provided in the documentary will be informative. We get the familiar inspiring narrative of a little kid who could along with the sordid details of the rather hedonistic man, but not much else. For example, what were Petrucciani's opinions regarding art, politics or the second class status society places on people with disabilities? What did he think about rock & roll?

But these ommissions can be overlooked to some degree as Radford (Van Morrison in Irelend) unearths some fantastic footage of a man born just right to play the piano.


Michel Petrucciani screens April 17, 5:30 p.m. at Directors Guild of America. For more information: Petrucciani

COLCOA 2011: INTO OUR HANDS

A scene from Into Our Hands.

Woe-mains struggle By John Esther Attributing to a weakening economy part and parcel of the management at Starissima, a French lingerie factory for boutiques, a group of 50 workers, mostly women, must decide if they want to form a co-op (SCOP) and run the place themselves. An exciting yet stressful prospect, the venture will first require an act of faith in the collective by requiring each worker consenting to pay, at least, one month's salary just to put the idea into action. If you really believe, you can offer more. As you can imagine, some of the workers are more committed, courageous and conscious about what it means to work in a company where you, ideally, participate on an equal basis. Some of the workers are smarter than others. After reaching one hurdle, the company's boss still wants to pay to play his part, and that leads to more anxiety for people facing the prospect of losing their jobs after investing what may be their final wages. Is it better to live with remorse than with regret? An engaging documentary full of people with varying viewpoints set against a backdrop of bras, panties and cardboard boxes, the latest documentary by Mariana Otéro (It's Your TV, Too; History of a Secret) -- which made its U.S. Premiere at the ColCoa last night -- offers a lot of drama and little bit of comedy as one roots for the workers. At least, whatever happens to the workers of Into Our Hands (Entre nos mains), they will always have the marvelous musical number they perform in the documentary, which fairly summarizes the documentary by using a little fiction.

COLCOA 2011: OPENING NIGHT

Suzanne (Sandrine Kiberlain) and Jean-Louis (Fabrice Luchini) in Service Entrance.

Film d'aventures, Espagnol

By John Esther

At an invitation-only event, City of Lights, City of Angels (ColCoa) kicked off its 15th year with patrons, celebrities, journalists, and Francophiles packing the Directors Guild of America lobby to sip on fine wine and and nosh on good food before catching the West Coast premiere of Philippe Le Guay's Service Entrance (Les Femmes de 6èmé ètage).

Traditionally promoting French films to English-speaking Americans as a way of cultural exchange between France and America, Colcoa, intentional or otherwise, broadened its appeal to Spanish-speaking American audiences with this film about an investor, Jean-Louis (Fabrice Luchini), who befriends a group of Spanish maids who have fled to Paris from Franco's Spain.

After the death of Jean-Louis's mother, he and his wife, Suzanne (Suzanne Kiberlain), hire Maria (Natalia Verbeke), a newly-arrived Spanish maid who may not be all that she represents (she often has domestic help from her friends). A poor Catholic with some command of the French language, Maria and her fellow docile Spanish compatriots -- with the notable exception of Carmen (Lola Dueñas), a staunch lefty -- are considered a refreshing departure from their uppity French counterparts.

Singing, joyful and gregarious, the Spanish women provide an alternative milieu to the conservative one Jean-Louis dwells in and often detests (he is still the boss). Jean-Louis also begins to understand the daily struggles of the working women -- cramped quarters, clogged toilets, domestic abuse, etc., -- and does something about it. Unfortunately, Jean-Louis' benefactor behavior does not stem from any new sense of humanism or noblesse oblige, but rather for his increasing fondness for Maria.  Jean-Louis hardly recognized the existence of the other Spanish maids who actually live in his building before Maria came along.

But we all have our cages, and Maria is imprisoned in her own ways, beyond just her low income. Years ago, she gave her son up for adoption, leaving him behind in Spain. 

Doing that type of farce the French often do oh so well, Service Entrance maintains a steady beat of humor throughout the film, spicing it up with a little class consciousness and a dose of romance. It is not the best thing to come along in recent French cinema, but the French and Spanish language film's attention to detail and nuance makes for a good time at the cinema and goes further in ColCoa's commitment to cultural awareness between the two countries. 


Colcoa runs through April 18. For more information: www.colcoa.org