Last night I was delighted to attend the Opening Night Gala of COLCOA French Film Festival at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles.  This festival highlights feature films, shorts, TV series, and other forms of entertainment and enlightenment with a distinctive French accent and elegance.

I arrived early and soon the reception started, with lovely snacks and treats from the many local French restaurants — delicious!  An open bar was offered, and folks chatted and caught up with friends while the Red Carpet was going on nearby.

Then we all lined up to enter the theatre to see a short film, following by the Opening Night film, Everyone’s Life, directed by Claude Lelouch.  He directed the international hit film, A Man and a Woman in the 60’s.   Everyone’s Life is a very unusual film in that the narrative arc is splintered into telling dozens of characters’ stories.  It has humor, some remarkable acting, and is generally an entertaining film, if perhaps a bit too long.  Afterwards there was a discussion with the writer/director Lalouch and his co-writer and partner Valerie Perrin.

A very French and very fun evening.  The COLCOA French Film Festival continues on through Tuesday, May 2.  For more information and tickets visit colcoa.org.  For more photos, visit my Flickr page here: flickr.com/joybennett.  COLCOA stands for City of Light, City of Angels, demonstrating the joint endeavors of France and the United States in the pursuit of wonderfully adventurous filmmaking.