The documentary series La Californie!, by Lukas Hoffmann and Thomas Rigler, has the virtue of not making the film industry the main part of its abundant subject, throughout three 52-minute episodes broadcast by Arte in one evening. If certain actors, like Peter Coyote, participate, it is not so much to evoke their career on the big screen as the socio-political commitments of their youth. An important place is also given to the student uprisings at the University of Berkeley, from 1964.
But the trilogy, which focuses on the post-World War II period, does not avoid clichés, such as the hippie movement, the little geniuses who invent computers in their parents’ garage, the houses of the architect John Lautner, without forgetting surfing and its terrestrial variation, the skateboard (even if it seems debatable that it was invented in California). It should be noted, however, that the floor is given to two women who were eminent representatives, including Kathy Zuckerman, Gidget’s literary and cinematographic model.
Space research is one of the major axes of Hoffmann and Rigler. Certainly, fundamental work has been carried out at the JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) laboratory for research on jet propulsion, about twenty kilometers north of Los Angeles, but we cannot say that the first steps on the Moon, largely commented, be a strictly Californian affair…
Two Germanic Figures
The trilogy of Lukas Hoffmann and Thomas Rigler being produced by the German branch of Arte, it is not surprising that it stops on two figures of Germanic expression – in this case of Austrian origin: the actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, elected governor of California from 2003 to 2011, and chef de cuisine Wolfgang Puck, best known for cooking 29 official Oscar dinners.
As much as the political role of “The Governator” deserves to be included in this statement, it is annoying that we preferred to roll out the red carpet to the very media-friendly Puck rather than to the very emblematic Alice Waters who, two years before the he arrival of the Austrian chef in the United States opened the legendary restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley in 1971.
The reference to Alice Waters would have been all the better since it could be linked to the student demonstrations at the University of Berkeley, in which she actively participated. Another hook with the eco-responsible virtues of the State of California recalled by La Californie! : Waters launched the beginnings of slow food in the United States, shortening the path from the vegetable garden to the plate and working only with local and “virtuous” producers.
We are also surprised that in terms of the pleasures of the palate, Californian wine production is not mentioned, the successes of which have led certain locally produced bottles to win the tables of three-star French and Parisian establishments. But it is true that, even if this series (which only partially delivers on its promises) had double the episodes, these would probably not be enough to cover the wealth of this promised land that is the “Golden State”. – The Golden State.
