COLCOA: A French Film Festival in Hollywood

The annual French film festival, COLCOA (City of Lights, City of Angels), that honors the ever-stronger bond between the two film capitals — Paris and Los Angeles — celebrated its 18th year at the Directors’ Guild of America in 2014. After the Oscars, COLCOA devotes one week in April for which its faithful audience awaits all year. On the 20th of the month, the curtains opened before a full house to watch films infused with poetry, humor, candor, pathos, passion, sex and yes, a most French ingredient, love.

On opening night, François Truffart, COLCOA’s director, announced that present in the audience was Claude Lelouch, the director of the 1966 Oscar-winning film, “A Man and a Woman.” The French film director stood up among the audience to a heart-warming ovation. Moments later, the lights dimmed for the premier of Lelouch’s latest film, “Salaud, on t’aime” (We love you, bastard).

It has become a tradition that the film selections include documentaries and wildly creative shorts. The features range from elegance to seediness representing the panoply of life. Among this year’s selections from a slate of 61 films was the surprising Roman Polanski’s “La Venus a la fourrure” (Venus in Fur). Another production was a Cesar winner (the French equivalent to the Oscar): Guillaume Gallienne’s “Les Garçons et Guillaume, à table!” (Me, Myself and Mom). Also present at the festival was the well-liked director Cédric Klapisch. He attended the screenings of two of his films, ”L’Auberge espagnole” and “Casse-Tête chinois” (Chinese Puzzle). Following many of the screenings, there were conversations on stage moderated by established journalists, film directors or screenwriters. COLCOA is one of the rare festivals where the public can have direct contact with screen icons. This was again the case in this year’s festival when Dany Boon, Johnny Hallyday, Romain Duris and the American actors Laura Dern and Robert Forster as well as the film director Taylor Hackford were a few of the famous screen names who mixed in with the crowd.

COLCOA displays the quintessence of the French artistic experience. Aside from productions in every genre, this spring’s festival screened a number of classics, such as the 1946 film “La belle et la bête” (The Beauty and the Beast) and a new film adaptation of Marcel Pagnol’s Marius and Fanny from his famous trilogy of novels. Complementing the wealth of film choices, sponsors provided audiences with French delicacies, such as the best wines, the flavorful Hollywood Blonde beers, cheeses, as well as the ever-delicate crêpes and macaroons. French elegance, a great diversity of films and culinary hospitality are COLCOA’s vintage diplomacy.

My reasons to pay homage to French film and culture do not only involve the eyes and the palate. I attend also to enjoy seeing people I last saw during previous festival years. Sculptors, composers and dreamers of every sort are among the film buffs. These are faces that in time become acquaintances and friends. Plunging into the sound of French spoken in the theater before the films start is part of my cultural submersion. Being kissed on each cheek by the ladies, who expect reciprocity when greeting each other, is part of the fun — just as we see on the screen. Even men kiss each other on the cheek, which is a bit much for my Anglo-Saxon preference for reserve.

Commanding more than one language as is my case, to the regrettable exclusion of French, but listening to it all around me at the festival constantly reminds me that the world is more complex, and more vibrant, than my daily American routine. When Q&As occur and the director or the star of a film takes the stage to draw us into the story of how the film was made, an interpreter often joins the filmmaker or doubles as a host, which makes the experience that much richer. Such as is the case with one of the festival’s interpreters, Paris-born Katherine Vallin, whose charisma has captivated this audience for years. Her elegance in dress and her film knowledge garnish the conversations on stage with insightful perspectives. The other ambassadress of charm is the Belgian interpreter Yolanda Gilot. Their participation contributes to the audience’s entertainment.

A different side of COLCOA reveals its social activism. Every year, yellow school buses line up in front of the DGA bringing thousands of inner-city school children to see a movie, introducing them in this way to the world of foreign film.

This French festival is a veritable cinematic banquet where film enthusiasts can see up to three, four or more movies a day. Their high level of artistic quality transports audiences emotionally during one full week of undisputable magic.