Catangro
After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
Micah Lloyd
Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.
Married Baby
Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?
gelman@attglobal.net
This movie is advertised as a "comedy," and in classic drama definitions that's what it is. But there's little more to be had in Avenue Montaigne than mild amusement and genuine admiration for Cecile De France, a young woman from the provincial city of Macon who takes a job as a waitress in a small restaurant on the Avenue to experience the wonders of this fancy neighborhood. Cecile is an absolute delight, and the subplots -- a famous soap opera actress seeking a role in a serious play; a famous classical pianist who wants to give up performing on the global circuit, and an art collector who started with nothing amassed a fortune in artistic masterpieces and is now auctioning it all off -- are well-executed. It's a very pleasant film, worth an evening. And although her character is perhaps too good to be true, I'm grateful to discover Cecile De France.
mstomaso
Daniele and Christopher Thomspon's light melodrama "Avenue Montaigne" (AKA Fauteuils d'orchestre) paints a wandering portrait of life in Paris' theatre district, centered on a small bistro which brings together stars, writers, directors, musicians, celebrity worshipers, and waiters. Several story arcs involving a variety of somewhat neurotic main characters are woven together around the story of the single character who does not appear to indulge in any particular neuroses - Jessica (Cecile DeFrance), a young woman who has come to Paris in hopes of creating an independent life for herself. Tirelessly hopeful, homeless, and delightful, Jessica's willfulness and charming personality wins her a job as the first female employee of the bistro around which most of the stories evolve.Here, our heroine meets a brilliant pianist who is sick of the constraints of his own success and is married to a beloved wife who has sacrificed her own career to support his (Lefort - Albert DuPontel); A father and son (the Grumbergs, played by Claude Brasseur and Christopher Thompson) whose strained relationship is complicated by the father's very successful habit of collecting great art; A very high-strung, experienced and intelligent aging actress, who is terrified that her greatest opportunities may lie behind her (Catherine - Valerie Lemercier), and others.Jessica's elderly and somewhat senile grandmother, who raised her, plays a pivotal, but largely behind-the-scenes role in all of this. In a sense Jessica comes to Paris to allow her grandmother to vicariously live on through Jessica just as much as she does so in order to find her own path.The stories implied above are very nicely juxtaposed and the overall structure of the film is reminiscent of other excellent French and Italian melodramas. Avenue Montaigne, as most mainstream melodramas do, pays off with resolution, but does not challenge believability (often a problem for modernistic melodrama) and is, like the complex characters it examines, not entirely predictable.Uplifting, but honest and realistic, the film is very well acted all-around, excellently scripted and nicely directed and edited. I found Ms DeFrance, Valerie Lemercier and Albert Dupontel particularly outstanding. The soundtrack is also quite nicely integrated into the action of the film, sometimes giving the film a sometimes-needed touch of magical fantasy.Highly recommended for the romance/melodrama crowd. Recommended for others.
MartinHafer
"Avenue Montaigne" is the English language title to this film though the French title is totally different. Why studios completely redo titles, I have not idea.The film is about a young woman who obtains a job at a restaurant directly across from an auction house and a performing arts center. Through the course of this film, this woman of humble origins manages to meet and get to know people who are the cream of the arts world. How she wanders into their lives and does tiny little things to help them reminds me a lot of the French film, "Amélie"--though in this case, often the help wasn't done intentionally and the humor far more subtle. It's exceptionally difficult to summarize or describe this film other than it's about this woman meeting others who are at crossroads in their lives.The acting, direction and production overall is lovely and subtle--not the sort of film most American audiences would like since there are no special effects or excitement, per se, but the film is fascinating and excellent for those who favor acting and substance over glitz. A nice film well worth a look.By the way, that IS Sydney Pollack as the American director "Brian Sobinski"--and why they didn't use his real name is beyond me since he was essentially playing himself.
Bob Taylor
I left the theater smiling. I'd had a really good time in a film that celebrates human diversity and the possibilities for contact between people in a big city. I found the performances really good, particularly Albert Dupontel as the pianist, Sydney Pollack as the American director, Dani as the theater concierge and Claude Brasseur as the aging art collector. Daniele Thompson has made two other films (which I haven't seen) and she must be one of the more talented filmmakers in France today.The film abounds in wonderful set pieces which serve to reveal the character's qualities. When Catherine Versen meets Sobinski by chance in the restaurant, it's a deliciously comic encounter that shows her insecurity about playing in mediocre TV soaps. There she is, talking to the famous director, and she can't get the names of his films straight.
