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Belle Vie, a film that documents the pandemic journey of a West LA restaurant, from lockdowns to shutdown, is to premiere at the Santa Barbara Film Festival on 9 March.
More than 10% of restaurants shut their doors for good during the pandemic. The rollercoaster of rolling lockdowns, the lifting of restrictions, the discovery of new Covid variants and more lockdowns played out to devastating effect. Restaurants' capital got whittled down and mounting pressure on staff caused once busy and profitable establishments to come apart at the seams.
This story plays out in Belle Vie, a documentary by filmmaker Marcus Mizelle about a charming LA French bistro. The owner, Vincent Samarco, struggles through pivots, bankruptcy, red tape and personal loss to save his business in the face of the biggest challenge to the industry in decades.
Belle Vie - Trailer 1 from Marcus Mizelle / Forte Pictures on Vimeo.
Samarco comes across as a relentlessly positive and determined entrepreneur, who rolls with the punches throughout. “[I’m] ready to do anything to try to save the business,” Samarco said on camera in July 2020, dumping fertiliser into large wooden containers. “Look at me, trying to plant some trees in an alley behind a McDonald’s.”
Courtesy Marcus Mizelle
Belle Vie, the restaurant, opened in West LA in 2016, and Samarco built it up from nothing into a real culinary hub for the community. The art on the walls was donated by locals, and the dining room had the kind of tangible authenticity that only comes when a restaurant embeds itself in the lives of locals over time. Its story echoes that of so many restaurants, jobs, dreams, and ambitions in what has been a tumultuous time in the service industry.
Courtesy Marcus Mizelle
While his restaurant is no more, Samarco does have plans to open another one in LA, even if the landscape in terms of costs has completely shifted. The new venue won’t be another incarnation of Belle Vie, however.
