“Avenue Montaigne”
Director Danièle Thompson
Thinkfilm
4 Paws
Would you sympathize with someone who laments the high costs of maintaining their fleet of Ferraris? Essentially, that’s what “Avenue Montaigne” asks of its viewers.
The official French submission to this year’s Oscars, “Avenue Montaigne” is a lighthearted mosaic of the lives of several highly privileged Parisians whose lives revolve around art. Each has had a great deal of success, but all yearn for a true sense of fulfillment.
Catherine (Valérie Lemercier), known for her role in a long-running soap opera, is a household name. But no matter how lucrative her television work is, she yearns to be respected as a true thespian.
Jean-François (Albert Dupontel) is a brilliant concert pianist who tires of the rigid formality of his endless recitals. What he truly desires is to cast off his fame so that he might enjoy his music as he once did, unburdened by others’ expectations.
Jacques (Claude Brasseur) has spent a lifetime cultivating an expansive art collection. He counts down the days until his life’s work will be auctioned off, while maintaining a strained relationship with his grown son.
Tying these individual threads together is young Jessica (Cécile De France), a new waitress at a high-profile cafe at the crossroads where the main characters’ lives converge.
De France imbues her role with the kind of contagious glee and effervescence that audiences found so charming in “Amelie,” another French film. Fortunately, “Avenue Montaigne” doesn’t get bogged down by excessively focusing on her youthful giddiness.
Lemercier, Dupontel and Brasseur each instill in their characters a healthy sense of schadenfreude, allowing us to identify with and laugh at their melancholy in equal measure.
The time spent with each story line is rather brief, given the film’s surprisingly short 100-minute runtime. Nevertheless, the tight screenplay ensures that very little screen time goes to waste.
Virtually every interaction helps the audience glean better insight into the protagonists’ struggles to find satisfaction in their admittedly fortunate lives.
It is a testament to the talent of the leads that the audience can suspend disbelief and empathize with their quandaries in spite of the great fortune they have already been clearly blessed with.
The supporting cast does a commendable job as well, fleshing out the idealized Paris of the film, a place where art is an intrinsic component of everyday life.
From Jean-François’ distressed wife/manager to Claudie, the aging theater concierge who has seen several generations of talent pass through her doors ““ every person has a story behind them, each just as compelling as the leads’ themselves.
The only major fault to be found is the sudden lack of grace apparent toward the end, as the film tackles the characters’ dramatic epiphanies.
As each thread follows its course toward resolution, the levity so prevalent throughout the majority of the picture evaporates all too quickly to be replaced, at times, by awkward melodrama.
However, the merits of the film far outweigh what imperfections may exist. At its core, “Avenue Montaigne” is an enjoyable fairy tale tinged with an awareness of the fact that life doesn’t always work out as planned ““ but it’s never too late to change that.