CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

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.

Roland E. Zwick Just how much you'll enjoy "Avenue Montaigne" - a lighter-than-air comic soufflé set in a picture-postcard-perfect Paris - may well depend on your level of interest in all things French and continental.Our tour guide for the occasion is a perpetually upbeat, pixie-haired waitress named Jessica who becomes both an observer of - and occasional participant in - the lives of some of the more colorful patrons who frequent the café at which she works. These include two people who produce art and one who consumes it: an unhappy concert pianist who has grown weary of playing music to elite audiences and yearns to rip off his tuxedo and tickle the ivories for the general public; a neurotic actress who is desperate to get off the popular primetime soap opera on which she appears and to land a role in a more "serious" movie (Sydney Pollack plays the American director who may just give her the chance to do that); and a terminally ill art collector who is slowly divesting himself of his massive collection, and who doesn't realize that his new "gold-digging" young girlfriend is, in fact, the former lover of his own semi-estranged son (ah, those French!).The first story cuts the deepest in terms of thematic richness and character development; the second is played mainly for broad laughs, while the third comes across as sketchy and underdeveloped despite the fact that it is the one that most directly involves the central character of the movie.Like many Gallic comedies, "Avenue Montaigne" often seems a bit too impressed with its own preciousness - a trifle too smug in its innate "Frenchness" - to be completely enjoyable. The characters often talk in annoyingly portentous terms about art, philosophy and love, even though they have nothing much new to say about any of those items.Still, the city itself is enchanting, the performers endearing, and the tone so lighthearted and playful that, even though the disparate elements of the story never coalesce into anything particularly meaningful or memorable, the movie goes down as smoothly as a glass of vintage Bordeaux on a moonlit cruise along the Seine.

Galina Avenue Montaigne aka Fauteuils d'orchestre or Orchestra Seats is the second movie directed by Daniéle Thompson and written by her and her son Christopher Thompson that I have seen. I like her work very much and look forward to see her Jet Lag (2002), another romantic comedy or rather light drama with Juliette Binoche and Jean Réno. Few months ago I saw my first Thompson's movie, La Bûche (1999), the stories of three sisters, the Parisians with the sweet Russian names, Sonya (Emmanuelle Béart), Lyuba (Sabine Azémaand), and Milla (Charlotte Gainsbourg), and their parents who have been divorced for 25 years but still have a lot to say to each other. I was charmed by the clever, funny, touching and poignant Christmas dramedy in Paris. I expected to like "Avenue Montaigne" as much as La Bûche and I was not disappointed. The story of a young provincial girl Jessica, a waitress at the legendary café which has been frequented by the rich, famous, and talented for many years is linked with the stories of an actress, a piano player and an art collector. All three are successful, wealthy, talented, and...unhappy. Jacques, an art collector is determined to sell the priceless pieces he and his late wife had collected for 30 years. Jean-François (Albert Dupontel), internationally renowned concert pianist is suffocating in the life where every day is scheduled for many years ahead by his wife, who is also his manager. He adores music and he is madly in love with his wife whom he may lose if he quits his career. Valerie Lemercier as Catherine steels the film as the hugely popular and wealthy TV star who dreams of playing in the Art movies. Her scene with the American film director, Sobinski (Sidney Pollack) who came to Paris looking for an actress in his biopic about Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre elevates the nice stylish comedy to the higher level. Lemercie was incredibly passionate, riveting, and yes, sexy when she gave Sobinski her vision of the celebrated author, philosopher, feminist, who was a muse and inspiration, friend and lover to some of the most brilliant men from the last century. I would run, not just walk to see the movie about Simone de Beauvoir with Lemercie as Simone.Set in always captivating Paris, filled with the thoroughly chosen soundtrack that features Beethoven's Finale de la sonate 'La Tempête' ( my favorite Beethoven's sonata), "Consolation N°3 en ré bémol majeur" composed by Franz Liszt, and the songs of such French singing legends as Gilbert Bécaud, Juliette Gréco, and Charles Aznavour, the latest Danièle Thompson's film is a charm and delight. Daughter of director Gérard Oury has inherited her father's talent and I will be waiting for her every new movie.

Red-125 Fauteuils d'orchestre (2006) directed by Danièle Thompson, was shown in the U.S. with the title "Avenue Montaigne." The U.S. title refers to the location of a bistro in Paris at which the protagonist, Jessica (Cécile De France), finds a job as waitress. Avenue Montaigne is the hub of the Parisian theater and art district. Naturally, the bistro serves actors, musicians, and artists, and Jessica (who is new to Paris) interacts with all of them .The movie contains three major plot lines, and some sub-plots as well. Jessica weaves into and through all of the plots, because her charming and disarming manner--and her waiter's uniform--give her access to everyone's world and, ultimately, everyone's life.The acting is solid enough, but not outstanding, with one exception. Valérie Lemercier plays a TV actor who stars as the mayor in a soap opera set in a small town. However, she's a serious actor, and wants to star in a serious play. Most directors would cast a classically beautiful actor in this role, but Ms. Thompson has chosen an actor who looks like a middle-aged provincial mayor. Casting against type like that takes courage, and I think the director's decision was a good one.The film isn't painful or unpleasant, but it's not worth a special trip either. You can't help liking Jessica, who looks and acts like a young Jean Seberg. Whether the other characters would react to her in life in the same way they do in the movie is debatable. Still, it's not biography--it's a fairy tale set in a magical street in Paris. You'll probably enjoy it if you see it for what it is. Just don't expect the movie that Robert Altman would have made using the same basic plot.