Etta James and Dinah Washington

[TC Chris]

Just back from the movies. Tuesday night is the Film Festival series downtown. This one was a great feel-good French film, Une Belle Course, translated somewhat inaccurately into English as Driving Madeleine. (Better to say A lovely Drive). It's about a 92-year-old lady taking a taxi across Paris to move into a nursing home by an extended route. She and the taxi driver each improve the other's life in the encounter. I was wiping my eyes.

But the music. In an early scene, we hear the first instrumental notes of Etta James singing her classic recording of "At Last." You'll recognize the song right away just from those first notes. Etta James, just floating through the theater on its great sound system, I thought I'd gone to heaven. What a song. Then a bit later we got two songs by Dinah Washington, jazzy and sophisticated, Yeah, the French have always recognized good American music.

The lead actress, playing a 92-year old lady, was 93 when she made it. There's hope for us younger folks.

Chris Campbell