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Avenue Montaigne (2007)
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Reviews Counted:92
Fresh:68
Rotten:24
Average Rating:6.5/10
Consensus: A cute and bubbly French comedy that carries no deeper lessons or agendas than to have a little fun for 90 minutes.
Runtime: 1 hr 46 mins
Genre: Television
US Box Office: $1,933,592
Synopsis: The charming Cecile de France sizzles as a waitress with a dream in the French romantic comedy AVENUE MONTAIGNE. Directed by Daničle Thompson (JET LAG) and written by Thompson and her son,... The charming Cecile de France sizzles as a waitress with a dream in the French romantic comedy AVENUE MONTAIGNE. Directed by Daničle Thompson (JET LAG) and written by Thompson and her son, Christopher (who also plays a major role in the film), AVENUE MONTAIGNE takes place on the fashionable Paris street from which the film takes its name. People from a theater, an auction house, and a concert hall gather in and around a central bistro where Jessica (de France) has wiggled her way into a temporary job, having just moved to the big city. At the auction house, Jacques Grumberg (Claude Brasseur) is selling off his lifelong art collection and trying to reconnect with his son, Frédéric (Christopher Thompson). At the concert hall, classical pianist Jean-François Lefort (Albert Dupontel) is tired of being on the road and wants to settle down into a more easygoing lifestyle, much to the consternation of his manager/wife, Valentine (Laura Morante). Meanwhile, at the theater, soap opera star Catherine Versen (Valérie Lemercier) is trying desperately to impress director Brian Sobinski (Sydney Pollack) in order to play Simone de Beauvoir in his next film. And in the middle of it all is wide-eyed Jessica, who has an innocent love of life that captures the heart of just about everyone she comes into contact with. Reminiscent of such fine French films as LOOK AT ME and VA SAVOIR, AVENUE MONTAIGNE features unique, interesting characters, excellent acting, and a lot of fun and fascinating talk about art, music, theater, food, and other cultural delights. [More]
Starring: Cecile de France, Claude Brasseur, Valerie Lemercier, Albert Dupontel
Starring: Cecile de France, Claude Brasseur, Valerie Lemercier, Albert Dupontel, Laura Morante, Christopher Thompson, Dani, Sydney Pollack, Annelise Hesme, Francois Lepine
Director: Daniele Thompson
Director: Daniele Thompson
Screenwriter: Daniele Thompson, Christopher Thompson
Composer: Nicola Piovani
Studio: ThinkFilm
Reviews for Avenue Montaigne
Daniele and Christopher Thomson's marvellously crafted script brings all the characters to life as they struggle to shake the worlds in which they live
a frothy confection that, much like its characters, often seems at odds with its own ambitions.
While a Feydeau farce fits well, and the salute to a Brancusi sculpture is sweet, Beethoven piano passages overload the souffle.
The ultra-thin characterizations do not lend themselves to audience empathy.
Filled with sentimentality, pretensions, unfulfilled ambitions and a host of dull characters faced with life threatening problems that verge on the ludicrous.
It is entertaining, but beady-eyed in its efforts to please audiences attracted to the idea of an old-fashioned Gay Paree.
While [director] Thompson's version of [Paris] as a democratic microcosm, where artist and audience mingle, is instantly familiar, it feels more dramatic device than genuinely inviting.
Without any change to its essential cosiness, it could surely have been more surprising in its emotional scenes and funnier in its comic ones.
Love is in the air, obviously, and so is the smell of mothballs. Fans of Diane Johnson's books (Le Divorce) may fetishize the Paris depicted in Avenue Montaigne, but at times it feels like a diorama of bourgeois natives.
Una comedia simpática y pintoresca, si bien peca de algo de ingenuidad, cierta superficialidad dramática y una indefinición de tono que le quitan interés y credibilidad.
The actual Avenue Montaigne may deserve a visit, but the movie celebrating its artsy glamour isn't quite worth leaving home for.
Director Daničle Thompson tries vainly to make a larger point, but the thin effervescence of the film bubbles away any such attempts.
Paris looks stunning in the film, but even the City of Lights can only do so much for a poorly-written script. C'est dommage.
Outside of some lovely encounters between Jessica and her beloved grandmother, the film seems mostly obvious and two-dimensional. And with subtitles.
Latest News for Avenue Montaigne
April 26, 2007:
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