Belle Vie (2022) Movie Script
A dangerous virus
is spreading rapidly in China
and U.S. officials are very
worried that it could come here.
China has more than 200
confirmed cases
of Coronavirus, it's called,
which produces pneumonia-like
symptoms.
Three people have already died
from-
- Wait.
I love this photo because
we really look like
we're coming from mafia.
My grandfather, his brother,
my great-grandfather,
my grandfather's other brothers,
my great grandmother and
my father lying here.
Look, he was so cute.
Okay, let's go get some wine
guys.
Oo,
voila.
This right here, has been
my grandfather's restaurant
for like 40, 50 years.
The bottle opener from my
grandpa.
So you see, he's really part
of my life all the time.
Up,
oh la la.
There, voila.
Who is Vincent Samarco?
Vincent Samarco is a little
guy, who has a lot of hopes
and a lot of dreams.
I'm a third generation
Restaurateur.
The first of the family was my
grandfather
from the Greek part of my
family.
He immigrated to South of
France when he was a young man.
He opened a restaurant in Paris.
We used to go every Sunday.
And when I was a child, he was
just an amazing impression.
I've been working in
the restaurant industry
since I'm only 18 years old.
I've been working in Paris all
my career
until I immigrated to
L.A. seven years ago.
You know, I come to the United
States,
I want to do French food
and to share my passion about
French food.
And that's kind of the
easiest point, you know,
like you're going to
represent what you are.
And what does it mean to be
French?
It's awesome.
It's the best thing to be
French.
Well, you know, there's a lot of
history.
There's a good invocation.
It means a lot to me to be
French
because we-
People see us differently, you
know,
they see us as romantic,
and they think we have so many
wives,
they have
ideas and image of us, but you
know,
being French is like being
anybody else, you know.
It's just like-
It's just cooler due to the
accent.
I totally agree, but
we're just-Just the same.
What does it mean to be
American?
It means to be a good immigrant.
That's what it means to be
a good American, you know.
Belle Vie, bonsoir?
Belle Vie, bonjour?
Belle Vie, bonsoir?
Belle Vie, bonjour?
Belle Vie, beautiful life.
Life in beautiful, that's it.
You know, I live in Southern
California,
I have a restaurant, I'm happy.
So, life is beautiful, Belle
Vie.
Where I'm located on Wilshire,
between Bundy and Barrington
and most importantly
between McDonald's and KFC.
Two big corporation, who
feeds you crappy meat
and put cardboard into your
fries and-
And people are waiting in
line to go eat over there.
It's freedom, people can
eat the shit they want.
A cheeseburger it's very cheap,
I get it.
Well, obviously in between
a McDonald's and KFC
is not the best location you can
dream of
but that's the one I could
afford.
The restaurant was very crappy.
It was a restaurant from the
60's, 70's,
has been changing hands
for the last 50 years.
I had to build everything from
scratch.
I had to do all the
electricity, all the plumbing,
all the trenches for the sewer.
I built the tables myself,
with my friend, Trenten.
I bought piece of marble,
glued them to a piece of wood,
and created marble tables.
I tried to do, invent even
economic.
I didn't have a lot of money.
So it was literally just a
little cube,
and slowly, slowly through the
years,
I did more stuff, I installed
more stuff to make it warmer.
I remember when I opened
we started with, like,
15 photos and painting on the
wall.
Now, I don't know how much there
is,
but there's a lot of them.
The wall, I covered, everywhere.
There's art everywhere
to make it warm and, and-
and decorative.
The chef
- right here.
- Oh, yeah?
With the PSG.
I called Cedric, and I said,
hey, man I'm about to open a
restaurant.
I can do your papers if you want
to come.
Would you like to come?
And he said yes.
We've been working
together before already,
so it's a team that goes back
together.
- We met 12 Years ago in Paris,
working together in a
small restaurant called
Nomiya on the rooftop of a
Le Palais de Tokyo which is
a contemporary art museum.
We opened first of
August, like, four years ago.
So it's coming really soon.
The opening
was August 1st, 2016.
He's a very
strict boss, by the way.
I can't be late, which
usually, in our normal life,
I can be late, as late as I want
to be.
I've been late for dates
like an hour and a half late.
For dates.
There was one day they
came in, I was like, okay,
I think, I think it's time
for me to find somebody
and just keep him waiting.
It sounds very vague,
but I was very nervous.
I'm Ornella Samarco
and I'm Vincent's wife.
Well, the
moment I first saw her,
she was wearing a red dress and-
And she was amazingly beautiful.
Time stopped, like, for real.
Like in the movies, like for
real, that was a kind of weird.
- I'm told by Julie, my friend,
that the time stopped
for about two minutes,
because at some point I feel
her tugging on my jacket.
- You say like, oh, who's that
girl?
You see, I don't know, I want to
know.
Just a simple, basically,
very beautiful love story.
- I love you.
- Do you want me
to do that?
You seem to be having trouble-
- No this thing is blocking
everything.
Can I do that for you?
- Yes, not now, I just need
that.
I was very disappointed.
Who's it going to be-
Oh, those ones.
I thought you were
talking about these guys.
- This guy is this for the Greek
salad,
which has the special
ingredient, that nobody has-
She's very nice.
She's very sweet.
She's very smiley.
I don't know where she comes
from.
She's very mysterious.
No, she comes from Russia.
- About three pounds of
tears we shed on that-
On that flight.
But I remember-
I will never forget the moment
that I was
in the plane over Los Angeles.
That overwhelming feeling of
home.
There's no place like it, it's
home.
L.A. is where my
heart is, where my life is.
It's my body and soul, I'm here.
That's where I'm thinking about.
I love living in that
town, I love the people.
I know it's very rare,
usually people say, oh my God,
L.A. people, they're so empty.
They're not empty, they are
like, they're-
They're welcoming, they're
generous.
I think maybe also because
I'm a restaurateur and
I'm a easy talking to,
and I'm easy at friendship,
it's at my advantage.
But the friendship I
made in the United States
are in Los Angeles.
It's a lot of fun to be
part of this community.
It's a big community of Los
Angeles.
I like my job because many,
many of the time, I'm here.
I'm part of the community.
I know all the community.
And that's very exciting to
me to be part of society,
you know, it's something I
really like.
Five
four
three
two
one!
Happy new year!
The restaurant was full.
Not every day, of course,
but most of the time
people were enjoying, customer
was happy.
People coming having fun,
live music on weekends,
piano bat Thursdays,
getting more employees, getting
more-
more presence, getting more
following.
The restaurant was thriving and-
And just turning like a
beautiful
oiled machine, you know,
like like a beautiful clock.
And obviously the pandemic
killed everything.
New alarm bells ringing tonight
on the Corona virus
outbreak in this country.
As the number of dead rises,
more confirmed cases tonight
in New York and Los Angeles.
Tonight
in Los Angeles,
a local emergency as six
new Corona virus cases
have been confirmed,
and now a startling warning
shaking the region of 10 million
people.
What we do know, experts say,
is Corona virus can spread
between people within
six feet of each other.
- And whenever possible,
try to keep six feet between you
and other people that you
don't know at large events.
The entire state of California
ordered to stay at home.
That's 40 million people.
The global death toll
has now topped 10,000,
almost 250,000 cases have been
recorded.
I think it's
going to take a lot of time.
I think a lot of optimistical
businessmen
wants to make money, think
that in a few months,
it's going to be ended.
Since the beginning I heard
that,
that, oh, like, don't worry,
by this summer is going to be
ended.
And it's not going to
be ended for a while.
Oh, wow.
Oh, no.
I was not expecting that.
It's kind of logical.
All the animation of a farmer
market
with all the stands on both
sides.
It's so exciting.
10 pounds of tomato,
10 pounds of cucumber.
Half and half like the cream,
thank you.
I voila, I like that, perfect.
I should have bring my weed,
I could have smoked a
joint while I'm waiting,
it would have been so perfect.
I think not enough people come
here
and enjoy the produce of-
of locality.
That's how we are supposed to
be.
Different size.
Not all the same.
Look at the cucumber.
You see?
Aw, there's even a bit of dirt
in there.
It's so cute!
Do you need a receipt, chap?
Yes, of course
I need a receipt, please.
It smells good.
Yeah, so it's, eye,
smell,
mouth,
hears, and of course touch.
You have to smell it.
You have to drink it.
You have to taste it.
Have a lovely day, guys, thank
you, amigo.
Look at that, beautiful.
Thank you, sir, have a lovely
day.
- You too, and, yeah,
let us know how they are.
- Oh yeah, definitely.
Pork and flowers.
Oh my God this is so exciting-
You have to buy flower if you
buy pork,
just so you know.
- Hey buddy.
- Hello.
- How you doing?
- Good, man.
Can I get six
pounds of bell paper please?
- Sure.
- Thank you.
No tomatoes today?
No, no tomatoes today.
That's pretty good I think,
it should be pretty good.
You said six pounds there?
- Yeah, six pounds.
Hmm.
- Pretty good, huh?
- Not bad.
They are delicious.
- Low acidic acid, yeah.
They're going to get better
Once we get some more humid-
We've got everything we need.
Chef's going to be happy.
Happy chef, happy life.
Cedric started and started
to do some mixed plates,
charcuterie, and cheese.
- We were going to open
the menu a little bit
to make it bigger and try to
start
to play again a little bit.
- To make a little
menu, to try to develop,
to try to have more
pickup orders, more to go.
Okay, I got it.
Order.
Branzino sausage.
Here you go, my dear.
- All right.
- I voila.
- I got it, I got it.
- You got it?
- Yeah.
- Bon appetit.
And let me put that right here.
It's okay, honey, do you want me
to-
Let me take it to your car,
please.
I don't care.
Behind you.
I voila.
Merci, bonsoir a.
Merci beaucoup.
Merci.
I transform all my wine
list as a retail place,
like, you know, retail price,
and started to send emails
and put that on Instagram.
We open.
We've, of course,
some respect, only 60% of
occupation,
separation in between
plexiglass,
separation in between every
table,
blue plexiglass in wood.
But we were like to make it
nice, to make it beautiful.
And,
and two weeks after we had to
close again.
Tonight, governor Gavin Newsom
has a stark warning for
Californians,
with coronavirus numbers rising.
The state's recovery may be at
risk
and that puts businesses at
jeopardy of staying open.
We are now effectively,
rather effective today,
requiring all counties to
close their indoor activities.
Their indoor operations.
- And after we closing again,
it was-
It was, we were struggling even
more.
Hey guys, how are you doing?
Stuck in, how are you?
- No problemo.
- Are you guys open?
- For pickup only.
Oh, it's pickup only?
- Yeah, like, right now,
we cannot have dine-in or
anything, guys.
Every restaurant?
- Yeah.
It's only dine out.
You can only dine outside.
Because it's only outside?
- It's only outside and
it's going to be like that
for a while, I think, Sir.
- And a lot of people were
coming in all the time,
picking up a to go order and
asking if they can stay and eat
inside the restaurant.
I mean, every other person
was asking that question.
And I think Vincent just wanted
to-
Knowing that he cannot do that
and it's not safe and
it's not in compliance,
Vincent kept saying no,
obviously,
but then I think he wanted
to do something for his
community, for the neighborhood,
for his customers, his friends.
Nobody's talking about
opening or anything.
So.
We need to do something about
it.
If not, like I said,
it's bankruptcy tomorrow.
May the force be with you.
I must quickly go back to the
restaurant
and get rid of that.
We have a lot going on.
- Voila, you said it.
Huh?
You said it.
- We have a lot going on.
- I said it?
- Yeah, you said it.
- Oh yeah.
I love you.
I love you more.
Okay, basically call me if
you need anything, okay?
Ah, I feel like I'm
opening the belly of a pork.
Ready to do anything to
try to save the business,
look at me.
Trying to plant some trees in an
ally,
behind the McDonald.
Okay,
no?
When it's going to be windy,
it's going to move all the time.
So we need all this stuff to
block all the way through,
but I know what I'm going to do.
Restaurant industry's already
very hard.
I strongly not recommend it.
Unless you're in tech and
you make millions of money
just behind your computer doing
nothing.
And now, the pandemic made it
impossible
basically.
Nothing like that is going to
happen.
Spare to put some art and stuff
like that.
It's a first try.
Other staff are going to be-
You see, like using the
measure tape to see everything
is at six feet from each other,
try to respect all the rules
and then go for it.
Before we go, I just want
us to do like, a little
plan of the back area again
together.
So I know what I have to do
tomorrow morning to try to-
- Okay, you know what,
there was one thing I
was just thinking about.
You know, like those are
doors on that wall, right?
Like the windows or something on
there,
like make something kind of cute
out of-
- Yeah, we can,
but when we need to do
something, then we-
- Just, you screw it in.
Go see how much a 24
foot piece of lumber is.
Do they do 24 feet of lumber?
They don't.
They do.
- You help me one day, I
give you one case of wine?
We'll figure it
out, yeah, we'll figure it out.
Trenten is a good friend of mine
since I came into this country.
He is very handy like I am,
and he's a very good friend.
I'm very grateful to have
met such people in America,
you know, and create so much
friendship.
- Do you have a 4x4x20 foot?
The 4x4x12's-
- Yeah?
- They're $25 each.
- Perfect.
One, two, three, four, five,
okay.
Then we-
One bracket on the wall, okay.
And then we need-No, no, no.
We will, we'll have these
going across it, right?
We have the thing, okay.
And they're going to sit-Yeah.
- We take one more parking
space.
I don't mind.
Probably can do 1300
outside plus the to go.
So we arrive around 2000.
It's not enough, but it's a
beginning.
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
Voila, boom.
Yeah.
That's the-Last time
you gave me a bigger one.
If you want I
can give you a bigger one-
- No, if that's
enough, I'm okay with it.
Thank you, honey.
Have a good day.
Hey there, how are you doing?
What do you want me to park?
Okay buddy.
Thank you man.
Oh.
Okay, I'm good to go.
I just need a day off with my
wife.
I want to go to Point Dune.
With a lot of wine and my
wife and maybe some friends.
It's not holding, we
have a problem, Houston.
No, I don't feel good at all.
Voila.
Finally got it, guys.
On the road again, buckle up.
It's a day to day, the
future of Belle Vie.
It's a day to day thinking, I
don't know.
I don't want to take chance of
saying it's going to keep open,
it's going to close.
Right now, I'm doing my best
every day
to not to have to answer
to that question yet.
If I lose the restaurant, I lose
my visa.
If you lose your visa,
you cannot stay here
that's the ID.
I lose my visa and my chef
is also losing his papers.
So in three weeks after
you lose your E-2 visa,
you lose the business.
You have to go back to
your country, basically.
You're not welcome anymore.
Even though if you work
and pay taxes for like
now four years, like, bye-bye,
thank you.
- Yeah, it's a very complex
process to immigrate
and to actually stay here,
you have to take an oath and
you're standing with about
2000 other immigrants.
They have to put their
hand up the same as you.
I remember just crying
for two and a half hours.
I couldn't believe that I
finally made it.
It took me 12 years to become
a citizen in this country.
You constantly have that
fear in the back of your head
that you're not going
to be able to stay here.
And you had wasted so many
years of your life, nothing.
- The process of coming from
France
was difficult due to-
That's why I had to open a
restaurant
so I can create my own business.
- If Belle Vie is closing,
I have two months to leave the
country
because my visa is-I'm under
Belle Vie.
Which is why if Belle Vie
doesn't exist, I can't stay
here.
I have to go.
I like to live here, for sure,
better than, than Paris now.
Yeah, I feel more free here.
Do you have a girlfriend?
- I do have a girlfriend
that I met here, yeah.
That would be a sad
hand, but if it's happen,
it's happen.
You know.
What's up?
I'm in the back.
I just wanted to say hi, are you
busy?
Yeah, no, no.
I'm on my way, I went to
buy some wood quickly.
I'm on my way back right now.
No no, it's
okay, I'll see you at home.
I see you at home, baby.
I'm going to try to be
finished in an hour and a half
then we can go to Glendale.
Okay, I did
the application for Marlon-
- And we need to do
the one for me as well.
- No, I did the SBA for-
I'm gonna do the one for-
PPP-that's the one I need to do
for you.
- And there's a fund from the
city now.
The city is doing new loans and
stuff.
I don't know so
much about the new stuff.
I'll check it out, okay?
Okay.
Hey, today we're
getting our marriage done.
Okay.
Now being married, I'm
going to be able to stay.
And usually, I don't know.
They've been closing all
the offices for immigration
due to COVID-19 and due to an
extreme,
new way of managing the country.
And this is their new hoax,
the coronavirus, you know that
right?
Corona virus.
We'll do everything in our power
to keep the infection and
those carrying the infection
from entering our country,
we have no choice.
- But let's not talk
about politics together.
So my next step is to
have a working permit
and a green card.
And then she does want me
to become a U.S. citizen,
but it's going to take seven
years from now to do that.
And voila, you know, that's
the next steps to take.
Where's my Coca-Cola, baby?
I put it in the glass.
That's it, for me?
Baby, I'm working in the sun,
outside, all day woodworking.
I need an entire Coca-Cola.
- No you don't.
- This is insulting.
- It's too much sugar.
He needs an American size.
- Not yet.
- I need a bigger
Coca-Cola, I'm a man, baby.
I'm 6.4, 200 pounds.
- One has poison the other one
doesn't.
Okay I'll try
two-Both of them then.
Perfect.
Yeah, let's do that.
One.
I voila.
We're good.
Boom.
There's a 16 foot, are
going to be long enough?
We going fast, it's exciting.
At least, instead of doing
nothing at all, all day,
you trying to do something, you
know,
to fight against adversity, you
know.
Instead of waiting for
people to order food,
we making it happen.
And Sasha I need also the level.
It's so heavy.
You good?
Thank you.
That's 93 right there.
Oh fuck.
Oh my God.
Well, yeah, I'm hoping this
looks like a little cute canopy
With some tables outside and to
transform
this very ugly part of Los
Angeles.
You know, we've got your
McDonald's next door,
the fucking nail salon,
to make it cute, you know.
Like you can have a good
experience
and be happy having dinner
and be transported to Paris.
Drew a structure and then some
plans,
add then some decor and music,
some sexy French accent,
and we good to go.
A little Vincent.
- Voila.
Probably like 10 tables,
if I don't have enough tables,
we're going to have to see if it
works
and buy more tables I presume.
I don't know how much I'm going
to spend.
And there's no lim-
Yes, there's a limit, but
like we need to anyway.
I have nothing else to do right
now, guys.
Okay.
We do them all the same
size, we cut them and we just
Is it perfect?
In your face.
Boom, okay.
Okay.
Can I get a kiss before you go?
Just like that, perfect.
If the city doesn't like
what I'm doing right now
well, we're closing after that.
'Cause this is illegal, what
we're doing, by the way.
Bonjour.
Gazebo.
A gazebo, cute.
So it's that or bankruptcy,
but it's cute, no?
What do you think?
Ah, happy hour, a little glass
of rose.
Perfect, merci madam.
Ciao.
Oh my God, man, it's
looking like something.
I'm going to have a break.
I'm more this kind of
person, you know, like-
I don't like weapons, I don't
like war,
I don't like politics, I
don't like destruction,
but I like building stuff.
It's very fulfilling, you know?
I think it's, yeah, it's
fulfilling.
As in, I think every human
should be-
Can be fulfilled just
by building something
instead of trying to destruct
and make the most money
they can make in the world.
Me, look.
I'm broke as hell, I'm in
debt, and I'm super happy.
Easy, Sasha, a beer for
the gentlemen, please.
I build like a structure in
the back of the restaurant,
probably for like 800 bucks.
I would have paid a contractor
for probably like, $10,000
to do the same work.
I think we did a great job
of trying to do something,
trying to react of this crazy
situation.
- Now we're going to open the
back,
the patio, and people are
going to start coming again.
They feel like, they feel at
Belle Vie,
but outside, you know,
and I'm sure Vincent is going
to make it super pretty.
Hey, business is starting, man.
- How long did it take you?
A day and a half.
So which one?
Oh, so this, this is an aioli
with mushroom and parsley.
You have your mask on the floor.
Behind your chair.
Really not your- And I
love it guy, thank you.
Not bad huh?
For a small business.
Belle Vie, bonsoir?
Me, no, I'm trying to do stuff.
Do another patio that I built
myself
and a lot of other stuff like
that.
And we're going to make it work.
No no.
Bonjour.
Put it down, okay, now you can
pull it.
Sasha, careful, heavy man.
Oh no.
See like how hard it is to
bring out and back in every day.
Full carom marble table with
cast iron on the bottom.
It's kind of heavy.
That's why I don't go to
the gym, I have a restaurant
Never carry
this by yourself, man.
Something that's heavy, you call
me.
- This is not heavy.
I don't care.
- It's not heavy, no.
Don't take that totally apart,
but you know, it's nice.
It's going to be tough to bring
it in.
Was it difficult to-
From the honor to get
the permit, and the city?
- I didn't ask.
That's the thing I learned in
America,
is that you don't ask.
You do, and then you ask for
forgiveness,
that's what they told me in the
U.S.
- Yeah, the saying is,
it's easier to ask for
forgiveness than permission.
- Voila, thank you.
Number one, what the
landlord is going to say,
the landlord is going to say,
take it off.
Okay, I don't make money, so
like-
What I give you the key back?
Then, the city, they want
us to do stuff outside now.
Now it feels way more Parisian
because you can bring your dog.
Exactly, it's better.
I will never forget.
Just seeing people
come into the restaurant.
To see the amount of
happiness that it brought them
to walk back into Belle
Vie, into Stevenson's face,
and to hear about his adventures
over the last month and a half.
That was an incredible side for
me to see.
And there are people who
come in every single day,
whether they pick up an order to
go
or just to pick up a bottle of
wine
and every single one of them
just as-
says the same thing, like,
thank God you're back.
Thank God you're back.
Just it's-
It's been very flattering to see
that my husband was missed so
much.
Fantastic,
have a wonderful night.
Thank you,
guys, thank you, brother.
I'm very happy about what I did
because you have a lot of
regular clients
that is the first time
they come to the restaurant
for the last four months.
So it's very rewardful,
because I see all my-
All my community that I created,
you know.
A small restaurant is a
center of a community,
is a center of a neighborhood.
At the prehistoric time
we started socializing.
Why?
Because we were cold, so we did
a fire.
And everybody sits around the
fire.
And then we say like, oh my God,
if we put some meat on
the fire, that's so good.
And we're starting exchanging,
doing like shadows and stuff
like that.
You know, starting socializing.
We need to socialize.
So the COVID-19 is going to
block us for a few years.
And I'm sure it's a few years,
but after, for our industry,
it's going to go back to normal.
Because people need it.
We're talking about the
future of humanity.
In a week or something like
that,
we're going to get some
customers,
send an email.
They going to come by, you know,
a few.
We're going to do a sort of
opening.
Give a bit of food, a bit of
drink,
and they all going to
come and put some drawing,
a message about 2020,
a year that I don't know what
you feel to be, you know.
It can be good for people,
it can be bad for people,
but that's where we got to do.
We wanted to
take elements from the inside
that make it special and bring
it outside
so that you could get kind of a
piece
of what you once had in there.
People who have visited
the restaurant and love it
can come by and make their mark,
fill in a frame, or right
a quote or something.
Just to, so it's like an
ongoing community piece.
Okay guys, it's already ready.
I'm sorry.
A lot of people answered to the
leaving some words for 2020,
but they're leaving words
of love, it's pretty cool.
You have to say it's 2020,
what's happening, you know.
What's up, you know?
Okay, dokey, guacamole.
Here you go, honey..
Okay, cool.
Yeah, it's a happy, you know,
like.
People like to do that.
And you see like this,
a lot of people just feel
artistic.
Look at them, a cute little
couple having a glass of wine.
Look,
bell, V,
that's funny.
People love it.
People are very excited
about what we're doing.
People are having a lot of fun.
It's just, it's eight
tables instead of 20.
Financially,
it's not a very feasible plan
because the amount of tables
that we can-
We can place in the back is very
limited.
The restaurant has to work at,
you know, 70, 80% full,
for you to kind of started
making money, you know.
That's how you do your
business plan and calculations.
So like getting full at 25%,
30%
doesn't make enough money.
We need to do at least 25
to 3000, hundred every day,
five days a week to be afloat.
And we're far from there,
and we're far from getting
there.
French food is also not like
pizza, pasta.
You know, it's not like
something
you can order and get delivered.
So it's not, I guess,
I shouldn't be French.
I should be more like, Italian,
or Chinese or Japanese,
you know, to have like a more
bigger to go
and delivery possibility of
business.
Oh yes, like, let's do a,
small business administration
loan, and give them money.
We don't want money.
We want to be able to open
so we can employ people
and this people can also make
money.
If there's a pandemic,
the first people who will be
careful
about all the legislation you
have to do,
you're six feet apart,
all that stuff, is going
to be small businesses.
Why?
Because all big businesses,
an corporation, the owner is not
here.
The owner is behind an office
or the owner is shout orders
and be on the office.
I just want more money.
And the people that are working
there
is just fucking manager who
doesn't care.
- You know, to just come and
take their salary and go home.
When you work for big
corporation like that,
you just come to work on time,
take your break on time.
It's hard, you know, it depends.
I used to work for Gordon
Ramsey in Versailles,
which is a big corporation,
in a big hotel.
It's still hard but
when you go home, you're just
like,
that's it.
You tried to forget about it.
And that this thing,
when you work for a
small business like that,
you have to be that kind
of available all the time.
It's like your baby.
You have to take care of
him, like all the time.
- And people are saying like,
ha ha, we're going to
reopen in three months,
and everybody's going to go out.
No, not everybody's going to go
out.
People are freaked out.
It's going to be very hard for
small-
Mom and Paps restaurant to
survive.
Nearly one in six restaurants
is closed either long-term
or permanently due to the
pandemic.
That figure represents about a
hundred thousand restaurants.
The food service industry
lost 165 billion in revenue
from March to July.
California restaurants appear
to be fairing even worse
with one in three restaurants
telling
the California restaurant
association
that they will either close
permanently
or downsize by closing some
locations.
- Four more billion of
money they did, Amazon.
So like some people are very
happy about this pandemic
and
oh, what a chance it's the
most rich people in the world
that are happy about that.
Rich people don't care.
Everybody's playing at wall
street
with the money and they all
making money.
And us, so we're struggling.
I don't know, there should
be a cap or something.
You know like, okay, you're
$3 billion, congratulation,
you have a golden plate,
you're part of member of
society.
And all the rest of the
money goes to education
and helping people.
We trying to have the
same thing everywhere,
instead of having local
restaurants and local farmers
to make our food and to get our
food,
you know, like a community.
Look at all these people
that need money anywhere.
All the people in the
street that needs help.
If you're pulling people
through the bottom,
you cannot rise.
And right now I don't see
anything rising.
I'm seeing everything going
down,
but the corporation are
making more money every day.
I'm not-
I'm not a research person,
I'm not a political expert,
but what I see is that it's not
working
and that we're not doing
anything to go somewhere.
Find another solution,
another way to live together,
so we can live in symbion
with each other and planet
earth.
I know a lot of people that are
very rich
and very sad because you
cannot buy happiness.
You can just buy stuff
that is going to give you
like, a little inch of
happiness.
Anyway, I just think happiness
is something that, you know,
you have to learn how to find
it.
You know, it's something you
have to find.
You live
an elevated life of love and-
And research of
knowledge and sharing.
You know.
We need to try to live in your
community
and do something nice.
Oh,
how are you doing?
You okay?
Yeah.
- I voila, I'm getting a
Christmas tree.
Okay.
Hello, how are you?
Welcome welcome,
how can I help you today?
- I want a beautiful Christmas
tree for a beautiful house.
All right, come on in.
Fir, no?
Oh, Fir, yes okay.
This is a Douglas Fir.
- Okay, perfect then.
Douglas.
You got it, man.
Can I take off my mask to smell
it?
- Ah, yeah, you can go
for it, I'll step away.
- Okay, cool, perfect,
can you put it on the roof
of my truck over there?
Absolutely.
- And I have some tenders to
attach it.
How's your day so far?
Yeah, Good living
the dream, I guess, you know.
I voila.
There you go.
- Gonna put it right up here?
Yeah.
- All right, sorry, I'm trying
to get on-
Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.
Perfect.
Thank you for your help,
brother.
Thank you very much.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas, happy holidays.
And I wish you the best
in your restaurant
during these COVID times.
Oh yeah, I mean, it's dead.
I think if the restaurant
industry doesn't work for me,
I could definitely be Santa.
With big pleasure.
And my beard is starting
to be white already.
Oh, oh.
I voila, we made it.
I'm very happy about my tree.
I've been waiting for it.
Christmas is like, it's
the day in the world
where you have the most love.
You know there's not another
day in the whole year
where like you
you have so many people
giving to each other,
having dinner together,
try to help each other.
I think
love should rule the world and
not fear,
like it is today.
You know.
We've been drived by money
and fear for the last,
I don't know, thousands
and thousands of years.
And we might feel
like we're done with COVID-19,
but COVID-19 isn't done with us.
- Could LA county be headed
toward
a wide-scale lockdown with
even more restrictions?
LA county set to shut down
all dining at restaurants,
bars, and breweries this week.
Both indoor and outdoor dining
is now shut down in the county.
- Well that's right, outdoor
dining now has to stop.
And it's devastating news for
restaurants
after the owner spent $5,000
to build that outdoor patio
that you see right there.
- They say they've taken all
the necessary precautions.
They dealt with one shutdown,
then no dining in, and
now are facing the threat
of a second shutdown.
This all after they spent
tens of thousands of dollars on
PPE.
- Everything I own is
being taken away from me
and they set up a movie company
right next to my outdoor patio.
Because of recent
LA county health orders,
Marsden was forced to shut
down her outdoor dining patio,
which she says she spent
close to 80 grand building
and making COVID compliant.
Under the county's guidelines,
video and music production
is deemed essential.
Many production crews also
test employees frequently,
but Marsden says
this isn't about the
entertainment industry.
She feels restaurants are
being unfairly targeted
by county health orders.
- So yeah, the decision has been
made.
We're closing.
Being closed, totally,
there's no survival possible.
Okay, I'm going to go bankrupt.
I'm losing everything.
I'm tired of fighting.
It's been-
Last week I got super sick
just because of a nervous
breakdown
because you know what, I'm
holding on.
I'm holding on,
I'm working 12 hours
a day, 15 hours a day,
finding solution, stressing
up and stuff like that.
And it's inside me, it doesn't
get out.
And you know, I don't
want to regret something,
that I didn't fight for my
business and my restaurant,
but
also what I just learned
is that, you know,
being also a good business owner
is to know how to get out.
To make money, I have to be open
inside.
This is the only way.
The last seven months hasn't
been,
I've been losing money every
day.
I'm probably around like
$400,000 of debt.
We touch a point of no return.
By next week I empty,
then I'm gonna file for
bankruptcy.
And then I'm going to put
it on Instagram, Facebook,
and email all the customers
to say that we're closing,
you know, a little announcement.
My lawyer for the
bankruptcy said like, oh,
like,
you're so poor you don't own
anything,
that you can probably save
the furniture of the restaurant.
Like.
In my misery, I have
some kind of happiness,
you know, it's kind of funny I
think.
Taking my art and my
copper pans and a few lamps
and that's it, you know,
there's-
There's nothing else to be taken
it's-
Yeah, so many souvenirs,
so much happiness,
so much stuff shared with
customers
and meet so many people.
And I got a lot of experience
into American restaurant
industry, I guess.
It was a piece of shit
and I imagined happen as the
little gem of the neighborhood.
This is the first guitar
of one of my best friends
who played many times here.
So I cannot leave that
guitar here, I mean.
There was no live music
in the neighborhood.
No live music in the
neighborhood.
This is me and my best friend
when we were young and stupid.
Oh my God, this is so
depressing.
I have to take him now, he's so
cute.
So, everything's going
to be empty like that.
It's going to be-
You know, if you look at
a photo of the restaurant
at the beginning and at
the restaurant today,
it evolved so much, you know,
like-
It was just like maybe one
picture and two, three.
It was not the whole wall.
So everything, piece by
piece, you know, started.
So it was a living
wall, kind of, you know,
changing all the time,
new art, and new stuff,
new paintings.
Customers are bringing me
paintings.
Putting-starting over to zero,
back to zero.
This is a very kind customer.
He's a accountant,
but he loves painting and he
loves Paris.
I'm sad for the community
more than I'm sad for myself,
actually.
This is also the-
My-
The mother of my friend does
that.
She-
It's a rose and she put like,
polyurethane on it to
immortalize the rose.
Oh,
I can't leave any of my records
here
because it's the only
thing I own, my records.
Je pars habiter a Los Angeles.
And so it's kind of very
meaningful to me.
Because I'm going to live in Los
Angeles.
Cool think I found in an estate
sale,
how to speak French.
This was a employee of mine
who drove me behind my bar.
This, is the best sex music you
can have.
In the world, okay?
Serge Gainsbourge, Melody
Nelson, okay.
I'm going to take him for sure,
man.
This is my friend.
We have spent so many nights
together drinking, singing.
Bada bing, bada boom.
That's my grandpa, Papu again.
This is of course, as usual,
my grandpa
uh-huh.
Telendos is the island where
we're from,
and this, look at this bad-ass
olive tree
and the goats
sounds beautiful and delicious.
That's my grandpa,
that's his restaurant,
the bar and everything.
And that's Vicki who died a year
ago.
And was his waitress
for like 30 years or so.
Also, all the copper pans
are from my grandfather.
So I can't leave my
grandfather's stuff.
Nicely compacted.
Ah-huh.
So, some recipe book from a
collection that I have already
with a lot of very famous French
chef,
used to cost 180 Francs.
Jacques Prvert Paroles,
is my favorite poet.
He's a French poet, it's very-
He's the only French poet who
can do like
kind of happy poesie.
It's amazing.
Les Secrets de la Mre Brazier
400 recipe from-Huh?
What's in there?
Oh, it's really chocolate.
No way.
More chocolate.
Do you want more chocolate?
- Okay.
- Okay.
This is the good one, it's
like, with orange inside, no?
Then we have some-Oh-la-la.
Look at that.
We have some dry salami
from South of France
made by a butcher, illegally
imported.
Thank you, once again.
Aa what is that?
I don't know, it's always-
It depends-it's somewhat.
Sometimes it's random stuff.
Oh.
I don't think it's for me.
Oh my God, I think-
I think this is for my wife.
It's one, every three months
like that.
This, we're going to eat it,
this, we're going to eat it,
and this we're going to read it.
Hello?
Hello?
- Ciao.
He can't sleep, he's dreaming
of having a restaurant every
night.
So he doesn't have enough
employees.
Like, so it's a normal
life of a restaurateur,
he's dreaming it every night.
So he can put him to sleep,
90 years old, nice, no?
You say like I have to change
jobs,
I should stop restaurant
industry,
it's a slavery job,
I will never be rested,
I will always be slave of my
business,
but you know, I'm like
him, that's what I love.
Dear patrons and friends,
Belle Vie adventures
are touching to an end.
On December 20th, 2020,
Belle Vie closed after
a day of to go order.
The door shut down in silence.
Nobody talked about it in the
news,
and with none of you around.
As we know, a restaurant is
to be full to make money.
And we don't see restaurants
reopening
at 75% inside very soon
without being pessimists.
I tried with my team,
everything in my power
in the last nine months
to spend less and
propose maximum of offer,
to go myself to the farmer's
market,
washing all the laundry,
doing the marketing,
emailing everybody,
delivering, and many others.
The destiny of our small
businesses
have been pushed to a point of
no return.
I'm not closing by choice
or because my business is not
efficient.
It's more because politics
decided so.
But like a wise man said
the dining table is adorn as an
altar
to celebrate the cult of
friendship.
So my friends, as long
as you're around a table,
please, commemorate disbelief,
and who knows, maybe I'll
be serving you again.
Thank you.
That was a good one.
Voila.
I voila.
I just did what I knew I had to
do.
Organizing a service, you know,
from
six to 9:00 PM,
live music, people
dancing, people having fun,
people enjoying-
It's the people, you know,
it's the people that makes the
restaurant.
This is-
Yeah, man.
This is difficult.
I still have to take the
books, the cooking books.
Still have to take a few lamps
the arts and then that's
it, you know, and,
junga boogie.
I'm gonna take some wine as
well, I'm gonna drink it.
In my sad-
Drown my sadness into wine from
France
and other regions.
Anyway.
So that's it.
This fucking
COVID is everywhere.
I would like to stay to be on
this
and do something else than Belle
Vie,
if I can,
but obviously it's not easy
with the visa situation
and the situation now-
Now with COVID-19 nobody is
hiring a chef in a restaurant
because they are all closed, you
know.
Who's gonna hire a chef
now for a restaurant,
I don't know.
There's so many family
here who use private chef,
but even for those that I need,
I need a-
Another visa to be able to stay
and-
And that's not going to be easy.
I have to be fast
because as soon as Belle
Vie's officially closed,
I don't have too much time to
stay here.
It's better not to fight anymore
because it costs money to fight
and-
And just remember the good
things.
And look for something else,
now.
I like to have like a
basil, growing her, in
the middle of winter here.
I have to start again.
This is-
Everything is from last
year when I moved here,
I stopped
planting
seed and everything.
And like I said, I had a lot,
but like sit and show didn't
walk and stuff like that.
I have to-
that's what's left.
So I have to start again
for next summer, you know.
I tried everything.
Me, I don't
see business coming back
in the next year or more.
The dining, the dining.
The dining
inside, have fun and wine.
And oh my God, that girl is
cute,
let's go talk to that girl at
the bar.
So.
I mean.
It's terrible, I don't know what
to say.
I know it's-
How you doing?
You okay?
Good, how are you?
Well, it's depressing, man.
They're taking
the coffee machine away?
Yeah man, but don't worry.
I'm going to continue to work
with them.
Okay.
But it was not mine.
So I'd rather call them
before I do the bankruptcy and
au revoir.
- See you brother.
- I love you, man.
- I love you.
- I love you, too.
Give me a hug, too.
Okay.
Yeah, we all suffering, man.
It's a big mess for all of us.
- Very unfortunate.
Somebody who will buy-
I know, I mean, I just
don't know what to say.
Oh, it's okay, don't worry, man.
The future
is ours.
This is super heavy.
Full of copper and all that
stuff.
That's it.
This is the end.
The only end my friend.
Okay, go.
And that's it, you know.
I've been trying to call my
lawyer a few times already.
Didn't call me back so we
can file for bankruptcy.
It's sad.
It's sad, now you feel it,
you know, emptying everything.
It's sad, like, you know,
because
I know like a year ago,
like we were killing it.
No, there's-
I'm not going to say any
goodbye.
You know, I lost a lot of
people in my life, you know?
And, I never say goodbye
because you know, it's
always in your heart.
You know, you always think
about the people, you know.
It's my first baby, my first
restaurant.
I hope not my last one.
I hope very much not my last
one,
because what happened to
me, I didn't deserve it.
Like-
So many other people-
It's, Belle Vie is going to
continue
because Belle Vie, it's a model.
It's a state of mind.
It's a beautiful life.
Life is beautiful.
But business is not finished,
restaurants are not going to
die.
People are always going to
want to go outside for a drink
and socialize, you know,
because that's why we in
society,
we create community, we
socializing,
we need socializing
together, we need to talk.
We need to talk to people,
they need to be listened.
They will find-
We need to be listened.
We want to be listened.
We want to exist.
That's what we want,
we screaming every day,
I want to exist.
Everybody, you know.
I'll still be happy.
I still have my kitchen
and my table outside
to receive all my friend
and to get drunk with them
around a beautiful meal.
To-do-do.
Hi, good afternoon.
This is Christina from Carnegie
law group,
how can I help you?
- Hey Christina, I would
like to talk to Ryan.
Ryan, may I
ask who's calling, please?
- Oh, my name is Vincent
Samarco.
- Oh, hi Mr.
- Samarco.
I would like
to file for bankruptcy.
Hello!
Hello, my friend.
- Champagne.
Where's the boy?
Okay, my brother.
Okay.
When you cook with a book,
you follow the recipe,
but you also interpret it, you
know.
Like with your imagination.
Like when you read a book
or when you look at a movie.
When you look at a movie,
you just seeing the
imagination of the director,
but when you read a book,
you imagine, so when you cook
from a book, you imagine.
- Same thing.
- Same thing.
We finished the first bottle
already?
Voila, champagne.
You know like, the end of the
world filmed movie, pandemic.
Yeah. It is kind of nice
and liberating, you know.
If you would,
Just pose for the camera
and take a picture
And we'll be done.
Okay. I'm going to take
a picture of you then.
Because that's the idea you
know.
It's perfect because then
you go into my new project.
My new project is going to be
to take photos of my friends,
An other job.
So your my friend and
you're working right now.
So I'm going to try to take
portrait.
We don't have enough light,
so I'm not sure we're going
to have a good picture.
Luckily, I took one just before-
I voila.
I got your soul.
- Boom.
- Boom.
Forever and ever.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
is spreading rapidly in China
and U.S. officials are very
worried that it could come here.
China has more than 200
confirmed cases
of Coronavirus, it's called,
which produces pneumonia-like
symptoms.
Three people have already died
from-
- Wait.
I love this photo because
we really look like
we're coming from mafia.
My grandfather, his brother,
my great-grandfather,
my grandfather's other brothers,
my great grandmother and
my father lying here.
Look, he was so cute.
Okay, let's go get some wine
guys.
Oo,
voila.
This right here, has been
my grandfather's restaurant
for like 40, 50 years.
The bottle opener from my
grandpa.
So you see, he's really part
of my life all the time.
Up,
oh la la.
There, voila.
Who is Vincent Samarco?
Vincent Samarco is a little
guy, who has a lot of hopes
and a lot of dreams.
I'm a third generation
Restaurateur.
The first of the family was my
grandfather
from the Greek part of my
family.
He immigrated to South of
France when he was a young man.
He opened a restaurant in Paris.
We used to go every Sunday.
And when I was a child, he was
just an amazing impression.
I've been working in
the restaurant industry
since I'm only 18 years old.
I've been working in Paris all
my career
until I immigrated to
L.A. seven years ago.
You know, I come to the United
States,
I want to do French food
and to share my passion about
French food.
And that's kind of the
easiest point, you know,
like you're going to
represent what you are.
And what does it mean to be
French?
It's awesome.
It's the best thing to be
French.
Well, you know, there's a lot of
history.
There's a good invocation.
It means a lot to me to be
French
because we-
People see us differently, you
know,
they see us as romantic,
and they think we have so many
wives,
they have
ideas and image of us, but you
know,
being French is like being
anybody else, you know.
It's just like-
It's just cooler due to the
accent.
I totally agree, but
we're just-Just the same.
What does it mean to be
American?
It means to be a good immigrant.
That's what it means to be
a good American, you know.
Belle Vie, bonsoir?
Belle Vie, bonjour?
Belle Vie, bonsoir?
Belle Vie, bonjour?
Belle Vie, beautiful life.
Life in beautiful, that's it.
You know, I live in Southern
California,
I have a restaurant, I'm happy.
So, life is beautiful, Belle
Vie.
Where I'm located on Wilshire,
between Bundy and Barrington
and most importantly
between McDonald's and KFC.
Two big corporation, who
feeds you crappy meat
and put cardboard into your
fries and-
And people are waiting in
line to go eat over there.
It's freedom, people can
eat the shit they want.
A cheeseburger it's very cheap,
I get it.
Well, obviously in between
a McDonald's and KFC
is not the best location you can
dream of
but that's the one I could
afford.
The restaurant was very crappy.
It was a restaurant from the
60's, 70's,
has been changing hands
for the last 50 years.
I had to build everything from
scratch.
I had to do all the
electricity, all the plumbing,
all the trenches for the sewer.
I built the tables myself,
with my friend, Trenten.
I bought piece of marble,
glued them to a piece of wood,
and created marble tables.
I tried to do, invent even
economic.
I didn't have a lot of money.
So it was literally just a
little cube,
and slowly, slowly through the
years,
I did more stuff, I installed
more stuff to make it warmer.
I remember when I opened
we started with, like,
15 photos and painting on the
wall.
Now, I don't know how much there
is,
but there's a lot of them.
The wall, I covered, everywhere.
There's art everywhere
to make it warm and, and-
and decorative.
The chef
- right here.
- Oh, yeah?
With the PSG.
I called Cedric, and I said,
hey, man I'm about to open a
restaurant.
I can do your papers if you want
to come.
Would you like to come?
And he said yes.
We've been working
together before already,
so it's a team that goes back
together.
- We met 12 Years ago in Paris,
working together in a
small restaurant called
Nomiya on the rooftop of a
Le Palais de Tokyo which is
a contemporary art museum.
We opened first of
August, like, four years ago.
So it's coming really soon.
The opening
was August 1st, 2016.
He's a very
strict boss, by the way.
I can't be late, which
usually, in our normal life,
I can be late, as late as I want
to be.
I've been late for dates
like an hour and a half late.
For dates.
There was one day they
came in, I was like, okay,
I think, I think it's time
for me to find somebody
and just keep him waiting.
It sounds very vague,
but I was very nervous.
I'm Ornella Samarco
and I'm Vincent's wife.
Well, the
moment I first saw her,
she was wearing a red dress and-
And she was amazingly beautiful.
Time stopped, like, for real.
Like in the movies, like for
real, that was a kind of weird.
- I'm told by Julie, my friend,
that the time stopped
for about two minutes,
because at some point I feel
her tugging on my jacket.
- You say like, oh, who's that
girl?
You see, I don't know, I want to
know.
Just a simple, basically,
very beautiful love story.
- I love you.
- Do you want me
to do that?
You seem to be having trouble-
- No this thing is blocking
everything.
Can I do that for you?
- Yes, not now, I just need
that.
I was very disappointed.
Who's it going to be-
Oh, those ones.
I thought you were
talking about these guys.
- This guy is this for the Greek
salad,
which has the special
ingredient, that nobody has-
She's very nice.
She's very sweet.
She's very smiley.
I don't know where she comes
from.
She's very mysterious.
No, she comes from Russia.
- About three pounds of
tears we shed on that-
On that flight.
But I remember-
I will never forget the moment
that I was
in the plane over Los Angeles.
That overwhelming feeling of
home.
There's no place like it, it's
home.
L.A. is where my
heart is, where my life is.
It's my body and soul, I'm here.
That's where I'm thinking about.
I love living in that
town, I love the people.
I know it's very rare,
usually people say, oh my God,
L.A. people, they're so empty.
They're not empty, they are
like, they're-
They're welcoming, they're
generous.
I think maybe also because
I'm a restaurateur and
I'm a easy talking to,
and I'm easy at friendship,
it's at my advantage.
But the friendship I
made in the United States
are in Los Angeles.
It's a lot of fun to be
part of this community.
It's a big community of Los
Angeles.
I like my job because many,
many of the time, I'm here.
I'm part of the community.
I know all the community.
And that's very exciting to
me to be part of society,
you know, it's something I
really like.
Five
four
three
two
one!
Happy new year!
The restaurant was full.
Not every day, of course,
but most of the time
people were enjoying, customer
was happy.
People coming having fun,
live music on weekends,
piano bat Thursdays,
getting more employees, getting
more-
more presence, getting more
following.
The restaurant was thriving and-
And just turning like a
beautiful
oiled machine, you know,
like like a beautiful clock.
And obviously the pandemic
killed everything.
New alarm bells ringing tonight
on the Corona virus
outbreak in this country.
As the number of dead rises,
more confirmed cases tonight
in New York and Los Angeles.
Tonight
in Los Angeles,
a local emergency as six
new Corona virus cases
have been confirmed,
and now a startling warning
shaking the region of 10 million
people.
What we do know, experts say,
is Corona virus can spread
between people within
six feet of each other.
- And whenever possible,
try to keep six feet between you
and other people that you
don't know at large events.
The entire state of California
ordered to stay at home.
That's 40 million people.
The global death toll
has now topped 10,000,
almost 250,000 cases have been
recorded.
I think it's
going to take a lot of time.
I think a lot of optimistical
businessmen
wants to make money, think
that in a few months,
it's going to be ended.
Since the beginning I heard
that,
that, oh, like, don't worry,
by this summer is going to be
ended.
And it's not going to
be ended for a while.
Oh, wow.
Oh, no.
I was not expecting that.
It's kind of logical.
All the animation of a farmer
market
with all the stands on both
sides.
It's so exciting.
10 pounds of tomato,
10 pounds of cucumber.
Half and half like the cream,
thank you.
I voila, I like that, perfect.
I should have bring my weed,
I could have smoked a
joint while I'm waiting,
it would have been so perfect.
I think not enough people come
here
and enjoy the produce of-
of locality.
That's how we are supposed to
be.
Different size.
Not all the same.
Look at the cucumber.
You see?
Aw, there's even a bit of dirt
in there.
It's so cute!
Do you need a receipt, chap?
Yes, of course
I need a receipt, please.
It smells good.
Yeah, so it's, eye,
smell,
mouth,
hears, and of course touch.
You have to smell it.
You have to drink it.
You have to taste it.
Have a lovely day, guys, thank
you, amigo.
Look at that, beautiful.
Thank you, sir, have a lovely
day.
- You too, and, yeah,
let us know how they are.
- Oh yeah, definitely.
Pork and flowers.
Oh my God this is so exciting-
You have to buy flower if you
buy pork,
just so you know.
- Hey buddy.
- Hello.
- How you doing?
- Good, man.
Can I get six
pounds of bell paper please?
- Sure.
- Thank you.
No tomatoes today?
No, no tomatoes today.
That's pretty good I think,
it should be pretty good.
You said six pounds there?
- Yeah, six pounds.
Hmm.
- Pretty good, huh?
- Not bad.
They are delicious.
- Low acidic acid, yeah.
They're going to get better
Once we get some more humid-
We've got everything we need.
Chef's going to be happy.
Happy chef, happy life.
Cedric started and started
to do some mixed plates,
charcuterie, and cheese.
- We were going to open
the menu a little bit
to make it bigger and try to
start
to play again a little bit.
- To make a little
menu, to try to develop,
to try to have more
pickup orders, more to go.
Okay, I got it.
Order.
Branzino sausage.
Here you go, my dear.
- All right.
- I voila.
- I got it, I got it.
- You got it?
- Yeah.
- Bon appetit.
And let me put that right here.
It's okay, honey, do you want me
to-
Let me take it to your car,
please.
I don't care.
Behind you.
I voila.
Merci, bonsoir a.
Merci beaucoup.
Merci.
I transform all my wine
list as a retail place,
like, you know, retail price,
and started to send emails
and put that on Instagram.
We open.
We've, of course,
some respect, only 60% of
occupation,
separation in between
plexiglass,
separation in between every
table,
blue plexiglass in wood.
But we were like to make it
nice, to make it beautiful.
And,
and two weeks after we had to
close again.
Tonight, governor Gavin Newsom
has a stark warning for
Californians,
with coronavirus numbers rising.
The state's recovery may be at
risk
and that puts businesses at
jeopardy of staying open.
We are now effectively,
rather effective today,
requiring all counties to
close their indoor activities.
Their indoor operations.
- And after we closing again,
it was-
It was, we were struggling even
more.
Hey guys, how are you doing?
Stuck in, how are you?
- No problemo.
- Are you guys open?
- For pickup only.
Oh, it's pickup only?
- Yeah, like, right now,
we cannot have dine-in or
anything, guys.
Every restaurant?
- Yeah.
It's only dine out.
You can only dine outside.
Because it's only outside?
- It's only outside and
it's going to be like that
for a while, I think, Sir.
- And a lot of people were
coming in all the time,
picking up a to go order and
asking if they can stay and eat
inside the restaurant.
I mean, every other person
was asking that question.
And I think Vincent just wanted
to-
Knowing that he cannot do that
and it's not safe and
it's not in compliance,
Vincent kept saying no,
obviously,
but then I think he wanted
to do something for his
community, for the neighborhood,
for his customers, his friends.
Nobody's talking about
opening or anything.
So.
We need to do something about
it.
If not, like I said,
it's bankruptcy tomorrow.
May the force be with you.
I must quickly go back to the
restaurant
and get rid of that.
We have a lot going on.
- Voila, you said it.
Huh?
You said it.
- We have a lot going on.
- I said it?
- Yeah, you said it.
- Oh yeah.
I love you.
I love you more.
Okay, basically call me if
you need anything, okay?
Ah, I feel like I'm
opening the belly of a pork.
Ready to do anything to
try to save the business,
look at me.
Trying to plant some trees in an
ally,
behind the McDonald.
Okay,
no?
When it's going to be windy,
it's going to move all the time.
So we need all this stuff to
block all the way through,
but I know what I'm going to do.
Restaurant industry's already
very hard.
I strongly not recommend it.
Unless you're in tech and
you make millions of money
just behind your computer doing
nothing.
And now, the pandemic made it
impossible
basically.
Nothing like that is going to
happen.
Spare to put some art and stuff
like that.
It's a first try.
Other staff are going to be-
You see, like using the
measure tape to see everything
is at six feet from each other,
try to respect all the rules
and then go for it.
Before we go, I just want
us to do like, a little
plan of the back area again
together.
So I know what I have to do
tomorrow morning to try to-
- Okay, you know what,
there was one thing I
was just thinking about.
You know, like those are
doors on that wall, right?
Like the windows or something on
there,
like make something kind of cute
out of-
- Yeah, we can,
but when we need to do
something, then we-
- Just, you screw it in.
Go see how much a 24
foot piece of lumber is.
Do they do 24 feet of lumber?
They don't.
They do.
- You help me one day, I
give you one case of wine?
We'll figure it
out, yeah, we'll figure it out.
Trenten is a good friend of mine
since I came into this country.
He is very handy like I am,
and he's a very good friend.
I'm very grateful to have
met such people in America,
you know, and create so much
friendship.
- Do you have a 4x4x20 foot?
The 4x4x12's-
- Yeah?
- They're $25 each.
- Perfect.
One, two, three, four, five,
okay.
Then we-
One bracket on the wall, okay.
And then we need-No, no, no.
We will, we'll have these
going across it, right?
We have the thing, okay.
And they're going to sit-Yeah.
- We take one more parking
space.
I don't mind.
Probably can do 1300
outside plus the to go.
So we arrive around 2000.
It's not enough, but it's a
beginning.
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
Voila, boom.
Yeah.
That's the-Last time
you gave me a bigger one.
If you want I
can give you a bigger one-
- No, if that's
enough, I'm okay with it.
Thank you, honey.
Have a good day.
Hey there, how are you doing?
What do you want me to park?
Okay buddy.
Thank you man.
Oh.
Okay, I'm good to go.
I just need a day off with my
wife.
I want to go to Point Dune.
With a lot of wine and my
wife and maybe some friends.
It's not holding, we
have a problem, Houston.
No, I don't feel good at all.
Voila.
Finally got it, guys.
On the road again, buckle up.
It's a day to day, the
future of Belle Vie.
It's a day to day thinking, I
don't know.
I don't want to take chance of
saying it's going to keep open,
it's going to close.
Right now, I'm doing my best
every day
to not to have to answer
to that question yet.
If I lose the restaurant, I lose
my visa.
If you lose your visa,
you cannot stay here
that's the ID.
I lose my visa and my chef
is also losing his papers.
So in three weeks after
you lose your E-2 visa,
you lose the business.
You have to go back to
your country, basically.
You're not welcome anymore.
Even though if you work
and pay taxes for like
now four years, like, bye-bye,
thank you.
- Yeah, it's a very complex
process to immigrate
and to actually stay here,
you have to take an oath and
you're standing with about
2000 other immigrants.
They have to put their
hand up the same as you.
I remember just crying
for two and a half hours.
I couldn't believe that I
finally made it.
It took me 12 years to become
a citizen in this country.
You constantly have that
fear in the back of your head
that you're not going
to be able to stay here.
And you had wasted so many
years of your life, nothing.
- The process of coming from
France
was difficult due to-
That's why I had to open a
restaurant
so I can create my own business.
- If Belle Vie is closing,
I have two months to leave the
country
because my visa is-I'm under
Belle Vie.
Which is why if Belle Vie
doesn't exist, I can't stay
here.
I have to go.
I like to live here, for sure,
better than, than Paris now.
Yeah, I feel more free here.
Do you have a girlfriend?
- I do have a girlfriend
that I met here, yeah.
That would be a sad
hand, but if it's happen,
it's happen.
You know.
What's up?
I'm in the back.
I just wanted to say hi, are you
busy?
Yeah, no, no.
I'm on my way, I went to
buy some wood quickly.
I'm on my way back right now.
No no, it's
okay, I'll see you at home.
I see you at home, baby.
I'm going to try to be
finished in an hour and a half
then we can go to Glendale.
Okay, I did
the application for Marlon-
- And we need to do
the one for me as well.
- No, I did the SBA for-
I'm gonna do the one for-
PPP-that's the one I need to do
for you.
- And there's a fund from the
city now.
The city is doing new loans and
stuff.
I don't know so
much about the new stuff.
I'll check it out, okay?
Okay.
Hey, today we're
getting our marriage done.
Okay.
Now being married, I'm
going to be able to stay.
And usually, I don't know.
They've been closing all
the offices for immigration
due to COVID-19 and due to an
extreme,
new way of managing the country.
And this is their new hoax,
the coronavirus, you know that
right?
Corona virus.
We'll do everything in our power
to keep the infection and
those carrying the infection
from entering our country,
we have no choice.
- But let's not talk
about politics together.
So my next step is to
have a working permit
and a green card.
And then she does want me
to become a U.S. citizen,
but it's going to take seven
years from now to do that.
And voila, you know, that's
the next steps to take.
Where's my Coca-Cola, baby?
I put it in the glass.
That's it, for me?
Baby, I'm working in the sun,
outside, all day woodworking.
I need an entire Coca-Cola.
- No you don't.
- This is insulting.
- It's too much sugar.
He needs an American size.
- Not yet.
- I need a bigger
Coca-Cola, I'm a man, baby.
I'm 6.4, 200 pounds.
- One has poison the other one
doesn't.
Okay I'll try
two-Both of them then.
Perfect.
Yeah, let's do that.
One.
I voila.
We're good.
Boom.
There's a 16 foot, are
going to be long enough?
We going fast, it's exciting.
At least, instead of doing
nothing at all, all day,
you trying to do something, you
know,
to fight against adversity, you
know.
Instead of waiting for
people to order food,
we making it happen.
And Sasha I need also the level.
It's so heavy.
You good?
Thank you.
That's 93 right there.
Oh fuck.
Oh my God.
Well, yeah, I'm hoping this
looks like a little cute canopy
With some tables outside and to
transform
this very ugly part of Los
Angeles.
You know, we've got your
McDonald's next door,
the fucking nail salon,
to make it cute, you know.
Like you can have a good
experience
and be happy having dinner
and be transported to Paris.
Drew a structure and then some
plans,
add then some decor and music,
some sexy French accent,
and we good to go.
A little Vincent.
- Voila.
Probably like 10 tables,
if I don't have enough tables,
we're going to have to see if it
works
and buy more tables I presume.
I don't know how much I'm going
to spend.
And there's no lim-
Yes, there's a limit, but
like we need to anyway.
I have nothing else to do right
now, guys.
Okay.
We do them all the same
size, we cut them and we just
Is it perfect?
In your face.
Boom, okay.
Okay.
Can I get a kiss before you go?
Just like that, perfect.
If the city doesn't like
what I'm doing right now
well, we're closing after that.
'Cause this is illegal, what
we're doing, by the way.
Bonjour.
Gazebo.
A gazebo, cute.
So it's that or bankruptcy,
but it's cute, no?
What do you think?
Ah, happy hour, a little glass
of rose.
Perfect, merci madam.
Ciao.
Oh my God, man, it's
looking like something.
I'm going to have a break.
I'm more this kind of
person, you know, like-
I don't like weapons, I don't
like war,
I don't like politics, I
don't like destruction,
but I like building stuff.
It's very fulfilling, you know?
I think it's, yeah, it's
fulfilling.
As in, I think every human
should be-
Can be fulfilled just
by building something
instead of trying to destruct
and make the most money
they can make in the world.
Me, look.
I'm broke as hell, I'm in
debt, and I'm super happy.
Easy, Sasha, a beer for
the gentlemen, please.
I build like a structure in
the back of the restaurant,
probably for like 800 bucks.
I would have paid a contractor
for probably like, $10,000
to do the same work.
I think we did a great job
of trying to do something,
trying to react of this crazy
situation.
- Now we're going to open the
back,
the patio, and people are
going to start coming again.
They feel like, they feel at
Belle Vie,
but outside, you know,
and I'm sure Vincent is going
to make it super pretty.
Hey, business is starting, man.
- How long did it take you?
A day and a half.
So which one?
Oh, so this, this is an aioli
with mushroom and parsley.
You have your mask on the floor.
Behind your chair.
Really not your- And I
love it guy, thank you.
Not bad huh?
For a small business.
Belle Vie, bonsoir?
Me, no, I'm trying to do stuff.
Do another patio that I built
myself
and a lot of other stuff like
that.
And we're going to make it work.
No no.
Bonjour.
Put it down, okay, now you can
pull it.
Sasha, careful, heavy man.
Oh no.
See like how hard it is to
bring out and back in every day.
Full carom marble table with
cast iron on the bottom.
It's kind of heavy.
That's why I don't go to
the gym, I have a restaurant
Never carry
this by yourself, man.
Something that's heavy, you call
me.
- This is not heavy.
I don't care.
- It's not heavy, no.
Don't take that totally apart,
but you know, it's nice.
It's going to be tough to bring
it in.
Was it difficult to-
From the honor to get
the permit, and the city?
- I didn't ask.
That's the thing I learned in
America,
is that you don't ask.
You do, and then you ask for
forgiveness,
that's what they told me in the
U.S.
- Yeah, the saying is,
it's easier to ask for
forgiveness than permission.
- Voila, thank you.
Number one, what the
landlord is going to say,
the landlord is going to say,
take it off.
Okay, I don't make money, so
like-
What I give you the key back?
Then, the city, they want
us to do stuff outside now.
Now it feels way more Parisian
because you can bring your dog.
Exactly, it's better.
I will never forget.
Just seeing people
come into the restaurant.
To see the amount of
happiness that it brought them
to walk back into Belle
Vie, into Stevenson's face,
and to hear about his adventures
over the last month and a half.
That was an incredible side for
me to see.
And there are people who
come in every single day,
whether they pick up an order to
go
or just to pick up a bottle of
wine
and every single one of them
just as-
says the same thing, like,
thank God you're back.
Thank God you're back.
Just it's-
It's been very flattering to see
that my husband was missed so
much.
Fantastic,
have a wonderful night.
Thank you,
guys, thank you, brother.
I'm very happy about what I did
because you have a lot of
regular clients
that is the first time
they come to the restaurant
for the last four months.
So it's very rewardful,
because I see all my-
All my community that I created,
you know.
A small restaurant is a
center of a community,
is a center of a neighborhood.
At the prehistoric time
we started socializing.
Why?
Because we were cold, so we did
a fire.
And everybody sits around the
fire.
And then we say like, oh my God,
if we put some meat on
the fire, that's so good.
And we're starting exchanging,
doing like shadows and stuff
like that.
You know, starting socializing.
We need to socialize.
So the COVID-19 is going to
block us for a few years.
And I'm sure it's a few years,
but after, for our industry,
it's going to go back to normal.
Because people need it.
We're talking about the
future of humanity.
In a week or something like
that,
we're going to get some
customers,
send an email.
They going to come by, you know,
a few.
We're going to do a sort of
opening.
Give a bit of food, a bit of
drink,
and they all going to
come and put some drawing,
a message about 2020,
a year that I don't know what
you feel to be, you know.
It can be good for people,
it can be bad for people,
but that's where we got to do.
We wanted to
take elements from the inside
that make it special and bring
it outside
so that you could get kind of a
piece
of what you once had in there.
People who have visited
the restaurant and love it
can come by and make their mark,
fill in a frame, or right
a quote or something.
Just to, so it's like an
ongoing community piece.
Okay guys, it's already ready.
I'm sorry.
A lot of people answered to the
leaving some words for 2020,
but they're leaving words
of love, it's pretty cool.
You have to say it's 2020,
what's happening, you know.
What's up, you know?
Okay, dokey, guacamole.
Here you go, honey..
Okay, cool.
Yeah, it's a happy, you know,
like.
People like to do that.
And you see like this,
a lot of people just feel
artistic.
Look at them, a cute little
couple having a glass of wine.
Look,
bell, V,
that's funny.
People love it.
People are very excited
about what we're doing.
People are having a lot of fun.
It's just, it's eight
tables instead of 20.
Financially,
it's not a very feasible plan
because the amount of tables
that we can-
We can place in the back is very
limited.
The restaurant has to work at,
you know, 70, 80% full,
for you to kind of started
making money, you know.
That's how you do your
business plan and calculations.
So like getting full at 25%,
30%
doesn't make enough money.
We need to do at least 25
to 3000, hundred every day,
five days a week to be afloat.
And we're far from there,
and we're far from getting
there.
French food is also not like
pizza, pasta.
You know, it's not like
something
you can order and get delivered.
So it's not, I guess,
I shouldn't be French.
I should be more like, Italian,
or Chinese or Japanese,
you know, to have like a more
bigger to go
and delivery possibility of
business.
Oh yes, like, let's do a,
small business administration
loan, and give them money.
We don't want money.
We want to be able to open
so we can employ people
and this people can also make
money.
If there's a pandemic,
the first people who will be
careful
about all the legislation you
have to do,
you're six feet apart,
all that stuff, is going
to be small businesses.
Why?
Because all big businesses,
an corporation, the owner is not
here.
The owner is behind an office
or the owner is shout orders
and be on the office.
I just want more money.
And the people that are working
there
is just fucking manager who
doesn't care.
- You know, to just come and
take their salary and go home.
When you work for big
corporation like that,
you just come to work on time,
take your break on time.
It's hard, you know, it depends.
I used to work for Gordon
Ramsey in Versailles,
which is a big corporation,
in a big hotel.
It's still hard but
when you go home, you're just
like,
that's it.
You tried to forget about it.
And that this thing,
when you work for a
small business like that,
you have to be that kind
of available all the time.
It's like your baby.
You have to take care of
him, like all the time.
- And people are saying like,
ha ha, we're going to
reopen in three months,
and everybody's going to go out.
No, not everybody's going to go
out.
People are freaked out.
It's going to be very hard for
small-
Mom and Paps restaurant to
survive.
Nearly one in six restaurants
is closed either long-term
or permanently due to the
pandemic.
That figure represents about a
hundred thousand restaurants.
The food service industry
lost 165 billion in revenue
from March to July.
California restaurants appear
to be fairing even worse
with one in three restaurants
telling
the California restaurant
association
that they will either close
permanently
or downsize by closing some
locations.
- Four more billion of
money they did, Amazon.
So like some people are very
happy about this pandemic
and
oh, what a chance it's the
most rich people in the world
that are happy about that.
Rich people don't care.
Everybody's playing at wall
street
with the money and they all
making money.
And us, so we're struggling.
I don't know, there should
be a cap or something.
You know like, okay, you're
$3 billion, congratulation,
you have a golden plate,
you're part of member of
society.
And all the rest of the
money goes to education
and helping people.
We trying to have the
same thing everywhere,
instead of having local
restaurants and local farmers
to make our food and to get our
food,
you know, like a community.
Look at all these people
that need money anywhere.
All the people in the
street that needs help.
If you're pulling people
through the bottom,
you cannot rise.
And right now I don't see
anything rising.
I'm seeing everything going
down,
but the corporation are
making more money every day.
I'm not-
I'm not a research person,
I'm not a political expert,
but what I see is that it's not
working
and that we're not doing
anything to go somewhere.
Find another solution,
another way to live together,
so we can live in symbion
with each other and planet
earth.
I know a lot of people that are
very rich
and very sad because you
cannot buy happiness.
You can just buy stuff
that is going to give you
like, a little inch of
happiness.
Anyway, I just think happiness
is something that, you know,
you have to learn how to find
it.
You know, it's something you
have to find.
You live
an elevated life of love and-
And research of
knowledge and sharing.
You know.
We need to try to live in your
community
and do something nice.
Oh,
how are you doing?
You okay?
Yeah.
- I voila, I'm getting a
Christmas tree.
Okay.
Hello, how are you?
Welcome welcome,
how can I help you today?
- I want a beautiful Christmas
tree for a beautiful house.
All right, come on in.
Fir, no?
Oh, Fir, yes okay.
This is a Douglas Fir.
- Okay, perfect then.
Douglas.
You got it, man.
Can I take off my mask to smell
it?
- Ah, yeah, you can go
for it, I'll step away.
- Okay, cool, perfect,
can you put it on the roof
of my truck over there?
Absolutely.
- And I have some tenders to
attach it.
How's your day so far?
Yeah, Good living
the dream, I guess, you know.
I voila.
There you go.
- Gonna put it right up here?
Yeah.
- All right, sorry, I'm trying
to get on-
Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.
Perfect.
Thank you for your help,
brother.
Thank you very much.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas, happy holidays.
And I wish you the best
in your restaurant
during these COVID times.
Oh yeah, I mean, it's dead.
I think if the restaurant
industry doesn't work for me,
I could definitely be Santa.
With big pleasure.
And my beard is starting
to be white already.
Oh, oh.
I voila, we made it.
I'm very happy about my tree.
I've been waiting for it.
Christmas is like, it's
the day in the world
where you have the most love.
You know there's not another
day in the whole year
where like you
you have so many people
giving to each other,
having dinner together,
try to help each other.
I think
love should rule the world and
not fear,
like it is today.
You know.
We've been drived by money
and fear for the last,
I don't know, thousands
and thousands of years.
And we might feel
like we're done with COVID-19,
but COVID-19 isn't done with us.
- Could LA county be headed
toward
a wide-scale lockdown with
even more restrictions?
LA county set to shut down
all dining at restaurants,
bars, and breweries this week.
Both indoor and outdoor dining
is now shut down in the county.
- Well that's right, outdoor
dining now has to stop.
And it's devastating news for
restaurants
after the owner spent $5,000
to build that outdoor patio
that you see right there.
- They say they've taken all
the necessary precautions.
They dealt with one shutdown,
then no dining in, and
now are facing the threat
of a second shutdown.
This all after they spent
tens of thousands of dollars on
PPE.
- Everything I own is
being taken away from me
and they set up a movie company
right next to my outdoor patio.
Because of recent
LA county health orders,
Marsden was forced to shut
down her outdoor dining patio,
which she says she spent
close to 80 grand building
and making COVID compliant.
Under the county's guidelines,
video and music production
is deemed essential.
Many production crews also
test employees frequently,
but Marsden says
this isn't about the
entertainment industry.
She feels restaurants are
being unfairly targeted
by county health orders.
- So yeah, the decision has been
made.
We're closing.
Being closed, totally,
there's no survival possible.
Okay, I'm going to go bankrupt.
I'm losing everything.
I'm tired of fighting.
It's been-
Last week I got super sick
just because of a nervous
breakdown
because you know what, I'm
holding on.
I'm holding on,
I'm working 12 hours
a day, 15 hours a day,
finding solution, stressing
up and stuff like that.
And it's inside me, it doesn't
get out.
And you know, I don't
want to regret something,
that I didn't fight for my
business and my restaurant,
but
also what I just learned
is that, you know,
being also a good business owner
is to know how to get out.
To make money, I have to be open
inside.
This is the only way.
The last seven months hasn't
been,
I've been losing money every
day.
I'm probably around like
$400,000 of debt.
We touch a point of no return.
By next week I empty,
then I'm gonna file for
bankruptcy.
And then I'm going to put
it on Instagram, Facebook,
and email all the customers
to say that we're closing,
you know, a little announcement.
My lawyer for the
bankruptcy said like, oh,
like,
you're so poor you don't own
anything,
that you can probably save
the furniture of the restaurant.
Like.
In my misery, I have
some kind of happiness,
you know, it's kind of funny I
think.
Taking my art and my
copper pans and a few lamps
and that's it, you know,
there's-
There's nothing else to be taken
it's-
Yeah, so many souvenirs,
so much happiness,
so much stuff shared with
customers
and meet so many people.
And I got a lot of experience
into American restaurant
industry, I guess.
It was a piece of shit
and I imagined happen as the
little gem of the neighborhood.
This is the first guitar
of one of my best friends
who played many times here.
So I cannot leave that
guitar here, I mean.
There was no live music
in the neighborhood.
No live music in the
neighborhood.
This is me and my best friend
when we were young and stupid.
Oh my God, this is so
depressing.
I have to take him now, he's so
cute.
So, everything's going
to be empty like that.
It's going to be-
You know, if you look at
a photo of the restaurant
at the beginning and at
the restaurant today,
it evolved so much, you know,
like-
It was just like maybe one
picture and two, three.
It was not the whole wall.
So everything, piece by
piece, you know, started.
So it was a living
wall, kind of, you know,
changing all the time,
new art, and new stuff,
new paintings.
Customers are bringing me
paintings.
Putting-starting over to zero,
back to zero.
This is a very kind customer.
He's a accountant,
but he loves painting and he
loves Paris.
I'm sad for the community
more than I'm sad for myself,
actually.
This is also the-
My-
The mother of my friend does
that.
She-
It's a rose and she put like,
polyurethane on it to
immortalize the rose.
Oh,
I can't leave any of my records
here
because it's the only
thing I own, my records.
Je pars habiter a Los Angeles.
And so it's kind of very
meaningful to me.
Because I'm going to live in Los
Angeles.
Cool think I found in an estate
sale,
how to speak French.
This was a employee of mine
who drove me behind my bar.
This, is the best sex music you
can have.
In the world, okay?
Serge Gainsbourge, Melody
Nelson, okay.
I'm going to take him for sure,
man.
This is my friend.
We have spent so many nights
together drinking, singing.
Bada bing, bada boom.
That's my grandpa, Papu again.
This is of course, as usual,
my grandpa
uh-huh.
Telendos is the island where
we're from,
and this, look at this bad-ass
olive tree
and the goats
sounds beautiful and delicious.
That's my grandpa,
that's his restaurant,
the bar and everything.
And that's Vicki who died a year
ago.
And was his waitress
for like 30 years or so.
Also, all the copper pans
are from my grandfather.
So I can't leave my
grandfather's stuff.
Nicely compacted.
Ah-huh.
So, some recipe book from a
collection that I have already
with a lot of very famous French
chef,
used to cost 180 Francs.
Jacques Prvert Paroles,
is my favorite poet.
He's a French poet, it's very-
He's the only French poet who
can do like
kind of happy poesie.
It's amazing.
Les Secrets de la Mre Brazier
400 recipe from-Huh?
What's in there?
Oh, it's really chocolate.
No way.
More chocolate.
Do you want more chocolate?
- Okay.
- Okay.
This is the good one, it's
like, with orange inside, no?
Then we have some-Oh-la-la.
Look at that.
We have some dry salami
from South of France
made by a butcher, illegally
imported.
Thank you, once again.
Aa what is that?
I don't know, it's always-
It depends-it's somewhat.
Sometimes it's random stuff.
Oh.
I don't think it's for me.
Oh my God, I think-
I think this is for my wife.
It's one, every three months
like that.
This, we're going to eat it,
this, we're going to eat it,
and this we're going to read it.
Hello?
Hello?
- Ciao.
He can't sleep, he's dreaming
of having a restaurant every
night.
So he doesn't have enough
employees.
Like, so it's a normal
life of a restaurateur,
he's dreaming it every night.
So he can put him to sleep,
90 years old, nice, no?
You say like I have to change
jobs,
I should stop restaurant
industry,
it's a slavery job,
I will never be rested,
I will always be slave of my
business,
but you know, I'm like
him, that's what I love.
Dear patrons and friends,
Belle Vie adventures
are touching to an end.
On December 20th, 2020,
Belle Vie closed after
a day of to go order.
The door shut down in silence.
Nobody talked about it in the
news,
and with none of you around.
As we know, a restaurant is
to be full to make money.
And we don't see restaurants
reopening
at 75% inside very soon
without being pessimists.
I tried with my team,
everything in my power
in the last nine months
to spend less and
propose maximum of offer,
to go myself to the farmer's
market,
washing all the laundry,
doing the marketing,
emailing everybody,
delivering, and many others.
The destiny of our small
businesses
have been pushed to a point of
no return.
I'm not closing by choice
or because my business is not
efficient.
It's more because politics
decided so.
But like a wise man said
the dining table is adorn as an
altar
to celebrate the cult of
friendship.
So my friends, as long
as you're around a table,
please, commemorate disbelief,
and who knows, maybe I'll
be serving you again.
Thank you.
That was a good one.
Voila.
I voila.
I just did what I knew I had to
do.
Organizing a service, you know,
from
six to 9:00 PM,
live music, people
dancing, people having fun,
people enjoying-
It's the people, you know,
it's the people that makes the
restaurant.
This is-
Yeah, man.
This is difficult.
I still have to take the
books, the cooking books.
Still have to take a few lamps
the arts and then that's
it, you know, and,
junga boogie.
I'm gonna take some wine as
well, I'm gonna drink it.
In my sad-
Drown my sadness into wine from
France
and other regions.
Anyway.
So that's it.
This fucking
COVID is everywhere.
I would like to stay to be on
this
and do something else than Belle
Vie,
if I can,
but obviously it's not easy
with the visa situation
and the situation now-
Now with COVID-19 nobody is
hiring a chef in a restaurant
because they are all closed, you
know.
Who's gonna hire a chef
now for a restaurant,
I don't know.
There's so many family
here who use private chef,
but even for those that I need,
I need a-
Another visa to be able to stay
and-
And that's not going to be easy.
I have to be fast
because as soon as Belle
Vie's officially closed,
I don't have too much time to
stay here.
It's better not to fight anymore
because it costs money to fight
and-
And just remember the good
things.
And look for something else,
now.
I like to have like a
basil, growing her, in
the middle of winter here.
I have to start again.
This is-
Everything is from last
year when I moved here,
I stopped
planting
seed and everything.
And like I said, I had a lot,
but like sit and show didn't
walk and stuff like that.
I have to-
that's what's left.
So I have to start again
for next summer, you know.
I tried everything.
Me, I don't
see business coming back
in the next year or more.
The dining, the dining.
The dining
inside, have fun and wine.
And oh my God, that girl is
cute,
let's go talk to that girl at
the bar.
So.
I mean.
It's terrible, I don't know what
to say.
I know it's-
How you doing?
You okay?
Good, how are you?
Well, it's depressing, man.
They're taking
the coffee machine away?
Yeah man, but don't worry.
I'm going to continue to work
with them.
Okay.
But it was not mine.
So I'd rather call them
before I do the bankruptcy and
au revoir.
- See you brother.
- I love you, man.
- I love you.
- I love you, too.
Give me a hug, too.
Okay.
Yeah, we all suffering, man.
It's a big mess for all of us.
- Very unfortunate.
Somebody who will buy-
I know, I mean, I just
don't know what to say.
Oh, it's okay, don't worry, man.
The future
is ours.
This is super heavy.
Full of copper and all that
stuff.
That's it.
This is the end.
The only end my friend.
Okay, go.
And that's it, you know.
I've been trying to call my
lawyer a few times already.
Didn't call me back so we
can file for bankruptcy.
It's sad.
It's sad, now you feel it,
you know, emptying everything.
It's sad, like, you know,
because
I know like a year ago,
like we were killing it.
No, there's-
I'm not going to say any
goodbye.
You know, I lost a lot of
people in my life, you know?
And, I never say goodbye
because you know, it's
always in your heart.
You know, you always think
about the people, you know.
It's my first baby, my first
restaurant.
I hope not my last one.
I hope very much not my last
one,
because what happened to
me, I didn't deserve it.
Like-
So many other people-
It's, Belle Vie is going to
continue
because Belle Vie, it's a model.
It's a state of mind.
It's a beautiful life.
Life is beautiful.
But business is not finished,
restaurants are not going to
die.
People are always going to
want to go outside for a drink
and socialize, you know,
because that's why we in
society,
we create community, we
socializing,
we need socializing
together, we need to talk.
We need to talk to people,
they need to be listened.
They will find-
We need to be listened.
We want to be listened.
We want to exist.
That's what we want,
we screaming every day,
I want to exist.
Everybody, you know.
I'll still be happy.
I still have my kitchen
and my table outside
to receive all my friend
and to get drunk with them
around a beautiful meal.
To-do-do.
Hi, good afternoon.
This is Christina from Carnegie
law group,
how can I help you?
- Hey Christina, I would
like to talk to Ryan.
Ryan, may I
ask who's calling, please?
- Oh, my name is Vincent
Samarco.
- Oh, hi Mr.
- Samarco.
I would like
to file for bankruptcy.
Hello!
Hello, my friend.
- Champagne.
Where's the boy?
Okay, my brother.
Okay.
When you cook with a book,
you follow the recipe,
but you also interpret it, you
know.
Like with your imagination.
Like when you read a book
or when you look at a movie.
When you look at a movie,
you just seeing the
imagination of the director,
but when you read a book,
you imagine, so when you cook
from a book, you imagine.
- Same thing.
- Same thing.
We finished the first bottle
already?
Voila, champagne.
You know like, the end of the
world filmed movie, pandemic.
Yeah. It is kind of nice
and liberating, you know.
If you would,
Just pose for the camera
and take a picture
And we'll be done.
Okay. I'm going to take
a picture of you then.
Because that's the idea you
know.
It's perfect because then
you go into my new project.
My new project is going to be
to take photos of my friends,
An other job.
So your my friend and
you're working right now.
So I'm going to try to take
portrait.
We don't have enough light,
so I'm not sure we're going
to have a good picture.
Luckily, I took one just before-
I voila.
I got your soul.
- Boom.
- Boom.
Forever and ever.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.