Footnotes (Sur quel pied danser)
Directed by Paul Calori & Kostia Testut
France | 2016 | Fiction | 83 min | French w/English subtitles
Film Source: Visit Films
Sponsors: Lyric Theatre
* Closing Night Film *
The musical is in the midst of an unexpected renaissance. Though La La Land got the Oscar buzz (and, for a few minutes, the Oscar) Footnotes is no less an heir to the films of Jacques Demy, whose The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort broke ground by integrating musical numbers into everyday situations. Footnotes concerns the stumbling adventures of a twenty-something who shuffles between dead-end jobs before landing at a shoe factory that makes designer styles out of step with current fashion trends. She soon finds herself entangled in a feminist labor strike and a romance with a competing trucker that jeopardize her much-needed rent money. With a delightful performance by Pauline Etienne as the girl-next-door heroine, Footnotes is a blue-collar musical that hides its proletarian politics behind frothy entertainment and cleverly executed songs and dances. ~LB
