Piche: Between Heaven and Earth ( Sylvain Archamba, 2010): France

Reviewed by Dorothy Littlejohn at the Santa Barbara International film Festival

One of the films in Focus On Quebec, this soul searching story is about an alcoholic pilot who ends up saving a plane load of passengers with skills he acquired running drugs.

As the pilot, Michel Côté as Commander Piché, struggles through his drug rehab program, we see flashbacks of his life flying, his lovers, his children, his life in prison – all of which got him to the present. We see a man struggling to make decisions about what is important in his life and what he can let go. Mistakes he made earlier come back to haunt him, like his developing relationship with his oldest daughter. How can he build a relationship with her when she resents her dad for abandoning her in the past?

Several days after the film was over I wondered to myself what elements of this movie make it a good movie? The story wasn’t so fantastic. The editing was pretty ordinary with the flashbacks in time. the cinematography was good but not outstanding. The settings were normal and appropriate – nothing special. That leaves the directing and the acting for the most part.

Maybe it was the actor and/or director holding back when the film opens with a press conference about the safe landing of Piche’s disabled airplane. You wonder why the company and the pilot are not all smiles. No, they are very restrained, like something isn’t quite right. And I wondered until the end of the film why there wasn’t a big smile of their faces.

This was a good movie to see and one I highly recommend.