One of the stand-out characteristics of this part of the world is the quality of the service industry and those who work within it.

Municipal workers on the street with ancient brooms.

Yesterday, I was in a taxi (all taxis here are luxury cars, mostly Mercedes) going from Cannes to Le Bocca with a very chatty but efficient and friendly driver (who, I admit, I instantly took a liking to because he mistook me for Anthony Hopkins which idea, of course, I immediately disabused him of). I asked him how long he had been working in this area. He replied “20 years” and I asked him why he stayed in one place so long.

He looked at me as if I was mad, gave me an exaggerated Gallic shrug and said in a distinct French accent “Monsieur—but—it’s the Cote d’Azure! —the weather!—the seaside!”

Early morning on a beach at Cannes.

Because of the very nature of Cannes, in particular, as an international, resort city, hosting serious conventions some 40 weeks of the year, the pressure to perform with excellence is right on those who serve the public.

Of course, in Europe, the position of waiter is taken seriously to start with but added incentive to “shine” is here because the visitors are generally well-heeled, used to good service and when pleased and happy, tip well. So it’s a good job – and, presumably some competition for it.

There is one waiter at the Festival Bar who has been there for years and likely has seen it all – impatient cinephiles demanding extra service during the impossibly crowded Film Festival for example. But, he always has a cheerful smile and truly welcomes you to the establishment. Just two or three days ago, when out on my early morning walk, I ran into him on the promenade – he was carrying his little girl and proudly introduced me to his “jeune fille.” It was a very nice human moment!

Now, when at the Festival Bar, which is often, if he is there, a welcoming and loud “hallo” drifts across the patio from wherever he is. He enjoys his job. I have read and heard much aobut the “rudeness” of French waiters but I never experienced anything but efficient and, more often than not, friendly attention and upon many an occasion assistance much beyond the call of duty. 

In addition, I’ve always been impressed by the hard work of the “beach boys.” It’s not an easy job, manicuring the beach each morning, then running around getting people settled into their chaise lounges, serving coffee then lunch and not to mention the nightmare they experience when it’s very windy and the umbrellas (parasols) are whipping around dangerously having been stripped out of their moorings.

They not only manicure the beach each morning, but must put out the lounge chairs and the umbrellas in perfect symmetrical order.

The point is that these individuals do not find their jobs demeaning but, on the contrary, in doing them well manifest a dignity that seems missing in similar positions in North America.

I’ve always enjoyed “A Bronx Tale” with Robert de Niro because it has the same sense of finding dignity in simple work and a much older, quite endearing movie, “Marty,” the 1955 Academy Award winner. And, for fun, I’ve included the hard-hitting, low-budget film from Jon Avildsen starring Peter Boyle in the title role of "Joe."

Movie Review:

A Bronx Tale

Directed by Robert DeNiro —1993
Starring: Robert DeNiro and Chazz Palmentiri

In his directorial debut, Robert de Niro gives us an assured and tender film set in the ‘60’s about a boy and his father in conflict.This clash is played out in a small Bronx neighborhood where Lorenzo (de Niro) and his son Calogero (Francis Capra age nine; Lillo Brancato age seventeen) struggle over Calogero’s admiration and idolization of the local mob boss – the charismatic Sonny (Palminteri).

Sonny and his boys horsing around The Chez Bippy.

Sonny and his crew are headquartered at The Chez Bippy, a local saloon just one – half block from where Lorenzo and his family live. Lorenzo is resolute in his determination to see his son grow up “right” and not waste his talent. 

Lorenzo is a bus driver for the city’s transit authority. He is hard working, reliable and is so possessed of a fierce love for Calogero and of such unshakable courage to see him free of the unsavory element of the neighborhood that Lorenzo is drawn, inevitably, into a dangerous and decades long clash with Sonny and his men.

Father and son taking the bus to a ball game.

But, Lorenzo is fighting a losing battle as Calogero is saying things like: “Nothing is cooler than you Sonny” and “Sonny is right: the working man is a sucker.” Both Lorenzo and the very young Calogero witness Sonny killing a man in cold blood but when questioned by the police, they are silent. Sonny compliments them as “stand up guys” and Calogero is very excited that he didn’t “rat!”

Sonny kills a man in broad daylight in front of Calogero and Lorenzo.

The situation further deteriorates when Sonny takes a liking to the boy and sort of “adopts” him leading, or course, to very dangerous physical conflict between Lorenzo and Sonny.

But all of the main characters are portrayed sympathetically, and to my mind, realistically – particularly de Niro’s characterization of Lorenzo. Not much to work with on the outside – but within a steely determination and pride that he “works” for a living and provides for his family quite adequately if simply. Again, I refer to Shane’s eulogy for the murdered homesteader where he lauds the hardworking “sodbusters” of the west as the real heroes of the day – and that people like him (Shane) will come and go; forever rootless and homeless!

The film progresses in a somewhat predictable manner and ends quickly and brutally – but the acting is superb across the board and de Niro’s directing is flawless – much better I think than his recent “The Good Shepherd.”

Lorenzo in physical conflict with Sonny and his men over Sonny’s treatment of Calogero.

Robert de Niro has made an excellent movie that touched me deeply and brought me back to that day when I saw tears in my father’s eyes for the first time. It was 1956 and I was 20 years old – Dad had taken me to the Hillcrest Park in Port Arthur, Canada where we stood in the shadow of the fabulous view of the late afternoon sun setting on the great land mass of the Sleeping Giant which dominates the harbor at the very end of the Great Lakes system.

My father was a hard-working, traveling salesman - lower middle class, I guess, struggling to put two boys through university and he had heard through the grapevine that I was a “playboy.” My drinking and partying had just begun in earnest. He was so distressed, that this man whose stoicism and hard work were ostensibly his principle qualities, could barely contain his weeping at the disappointment he felt. 

I will never forget that moment. And “A Bronx Tale” reminded me of it in a most powerful fashion!

Another great movie about “the little man” is the 1955 Academy Award winner “Marty” with Ernest Borgnine as the lonely butcher in search of love. A singular achievement in the art of “small” and intimate filmmaking!

There is also another movie from the early ‘60’s - the same time period of “The Bronx Tale” but made exactly during that turbulent period when the “hippies” were trashing everything that their parents and the postwar culture stood for – and as a result there was a serious clash between the blue collar workers and the dope-smoking longhairs who, aside from everything else, were, in a final insult, also “fucking up the music!” This is a direct quote from Joe played by Peter Boyle in the movie of the same name. “Joe” directed on a very low budget by John Avildsen is dramatic, somewhat over the top but on the money in many aspects – I recommend all three films as enjoyable entertainment as well as providing insight into a particular time and the eternal verities of the parent – child relationship.

Joe had this kind of factory job.

The American culture has always praised the “working man” with his mythical values of hard work and devotion to family along with being the cornerstone of all that is right with the American “experiment” in freedom.

Four recent books on this subject suggest that this view and whatever realities it is based upon is in serious trouble! They are:

1.”The Disposable American: Layoffs and their Consequences – Louis Uchitelle

2. “The Great American Jobs Scam” – Gregg LeRoy

3. “The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism” – John C. Bogle

4. “Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream”

All four books are extensively reviewed in the June 14, 2007 and August 15, 2007 editions of “The New York Review of Books.”