Avenue Montaigne September 14, 2007

Avenue Montaigne Dir. Danièle Thompson, France, 2006, 106 min, PG-13

Avenue Montaigne, French titled "Orchestra Seats", offers an outsider's perspective of an insular world. After bidding adieu to her grandmother, sunny Jessica moves from Mâcon to Paris. Upon securing a job as a waitress in a popular café, she meets high-strung soap star Catherine , burnt-out pianist Jean-François, and secretive art collector Jacques, who comes equipped with a pretty girlfriend and a handsome son. Though the tousled Jessica has little in common with these posh Parisians, she affects each of their lives in ways both big and small. Though the idea of a sympathetic look at the upper class will surely strike some as off-putting, director Thompson makes it work. The genuine affection she feels for her characters-privileged and underprivileged alike-and the grace with which she keeps several plot strands going at once proves that the spirit of Robert Altman lives on in the most unlikely of places.

In French with English subtitles

Catherine, hugely popular (and wealthy) from her long-running television soap opera, longs for glory on the big screen. She prepares to star in a Feydeau farce about to open on the 17th, but despite all her success she wonders if her work has any value or meaning. Jean-François, piano prodigy with an international reputation, is preparing for a major Beethoven recital on the 17th, yet he basically just wants to be alone. Jacques, a businessman turned art connoisseur, has amassed an extraordinary, highly personal art collection, but on the 17th it will all be sold off. Catherine, Jean-François and Jacques have all devoted their lives to art, yet what kinds of lives has art given them? They sometimes cross paths and nurse their neuroses at a café where they are waited on by Jessica, recently arrived in Paris on her own quest for fame and fortune.

Single tickets are $5. Season cards are $50.

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