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Avenue Montaigne
ThinkFilm

Avenue Montaigne reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 64 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.3 out of 10
based on 25 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 13 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some strong language and brief sexuality

Starring Cécile De France, Valérie Lemercier, Albert Dupontel, Laura Morante, Claude Brasseur, Christopher Thompson, and Sydney Pollack

This film centers around Jessica (de France), a beautiful young woman from the provinces who comes to Paris and lands a job waiting tables at a chic bistro on famed Avenue Montaigne, the city's nexus for art, music, theater and fashion. (ThinkFilm)


GENRE(S): Comedy  |  Drama  |  Foreign  |  Romance  
WRITTEN BY: Christopher Thompson
Danièle Thompson
 
DIRECTED BY: Danièle Thompson  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: July 17, 2007 
Theatrical: February 16, 2007 
RUNNING TIME: 106 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: France 
LANGUAGE(S): French (with English subtitles) 

Original title "Fauteuils d'orchestre"; Also known as "Orchestra Seats"; Selected as France's Official Entry for the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar.

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
A thoroughly enjoyably and wistfully charming ensemble drama carried off with an irresistible Gallic flair.
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83
Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan
While this sort of thing can easily devolve into bourgeois comfort food, Thompson, a veteran of the genre, knows how to serve it up just about right.
Read Full Review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Avenue Montaigne is not a film to be taken too earnestly, but it would be a mistake to miss its bittersweet undertones. The movie is as airy as a spun-sugar dessert, but Thompson's observations on the artistic life are both affectionate and knowing: Beauty and wealth, though inevitably compelling, are appreciated as means to humane ends, not goals in themselves.
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75
Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Director Daniele Thompson gets the point across so airily and pleasantly, in a film cast to perfection, that it's no problem accepting the message with a shrug, while profoundly enjoying the messenger.
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75
San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
That the film succeeds as well as it does despite a series of coincidences that strain credibility is a credit to a fine cast and a joie de vivre that pervades even the most implausible moments.
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75
ReelViews James Berardinelli
The film uses effective acting, deft dialogue, and a sly wit to entertain, if not educate.
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75
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Thompson's stories are familiar, but she weaves them together with such assurance and good humor that they're equally soothing and thoroughly enjoyable.
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75
Premiere Ethan Alter
All of the actors are on point (Dupontel and Morante are particularly good), the individual story arcs are involving, if not exactly complex, and Thompson keeps the proceedings moving along at a comfortable clip.
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75
New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Rarely has Paris seemed more enchanting than in Danièle Thompson's optimistic ode to Gallic romance.
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70
Washington Post Desson Thomson
Avenue Montaigne transforms an overwhelming metropolis into a user-friendly village with quirkily appealing characters.
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70
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Avenue Montaigne may not be a centimeter deeper than it needs to be, but you also won't be feeling that your pocket was picked when it's over.
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70
Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
Avenue Montaigne, is a delicious French pastry, tart and sweet, steeped in Parisian glamour.
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70
The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Avenue Montaigne is a bonbon, not a bouillabaisse. But because this is finally a film about desire, it carries a bittersweet tang.
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70
Chicago Reader Ronnie Scheib
Effortlessly interlinking the stories through the jaunty perambulations of a fresh-faced waitress from a local cafe, Thomson's crowd-pleaser makes up in refined schmaltz what it lacks in innovation or profundity.
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70
The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Bookending the film is the relationship between Jessica and the grandmother who raised her. This role is delightfully played by Suzanne Flon, who recently died at age 87. The film is dedicated to the veteran actress.
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70
Variety Lisa Nesselson
A well-oiled script is nicely served by a multigenerational cast, a bittersweet and consistently entertaining mainstream comedy that tackles the big themes of Life and Art with unpretentious brio.
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70
Village Voice Ella Taylor
Not that Thompson's films lack for romance. She shoots Paris like Woody Allen shoots New York--ritzy, golden, and packed with chance meetings between highly strung arty types.
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67
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
For Yank color in her soap-bubbly movie, director Daniele Thompson has her pal Sydney Pollack appear as...a famous director.
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67
Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt
With her lithe frame and insouciantly boyish mop of blond hair, De France is a particularly French sort of film heroine.
Read Full Review
63
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Originally titled "Orchestra Seats," Montaigne takes a page from the "Amelie" playbook, without the fancy visuals or magical realism.
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63
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Has a breezy, Altmanesque air, as it tracks the mini-dramas of its crisscrossing characters.
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50
Boston Globe Ty Burr
Aside from pretty people behaving cutely, there's just not much here, and even devoted Francophiles may nod into their cafe crèmes.
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50
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
It's formula stuff, to be sure, but full of feeling for the sweep of the past as well as for the unsettled, yearning present.
50
New York Magazine David Edelstein
Avenue Montaigne would be difficult to stomach if it weren't so light and uninsistent, and if its actors weren't so charming. I still rolled my eyes--but sometimes I do that when I get a really good croissant.
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38
New York Post V.A. Musetto
A lightweight French comedy worth watching only for Cecile de France. The gamine actress - decked out in short reddish hair, black tights and a thigh-high mini - is charming as Jessica.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 13 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Bruce C. gave it a9:
Unmistakably French but delightfully full of surprises this unpretentious piece set in the most stylish part of Paris covers a range of people and their personal struggles. Fine acting performances superb photography and music and tasteful moments of pathos balanced with warmth. Ultimately an uplifting and enjoyable experience thanks to some imaginative writing and direction by Daniele Thompson.

Doug F. gave it a9:
A warm, enjoyable film - not being a film critic I'm not jaded and so loved it - youth, optimism, and open-heartedness cross paths with age, experience, and benevolence, and who wouldn't like to see them come together in mutual appreciation? The worst thing that happens is the heroine gets caught in the rain - the best things are the mutual reinforcemnt by the characters in each other's continued joie de vivre -- the US attempts at random-coincidence encounter movies seem to be straining for high-voltage ironic/Zen significance (Magnolia, Crash) or schtick and schmalz. But this film - ah, it was the best cinema experience I've had in several years, and it makes me want to brush up on my high-school French and emigrate to la belle France. I recommend it, subtitles and all.

Mary B. gave it an8:
My friend and I figured that this would be more of a travelogue on Paris. We were wrong! It was a funny, wise and very enjoyable movie. Viva la France!

Enrique gave it a3:
A less than mediocre 'feel-good' French export. Thompson--its writer director also responsible for "Jet Lag"-should make TV commercials instead. C. De France is not only a bad actress: she is absolutely intolerable.

Helene H. gave it a9:
I am French, and this may be the reason I so thoroughly enjoyed the playfulness and superb wit of this exquisite jewel of a movie. Valerie Lemercier is brilliant as usual and the rest of the cast is almost equally talented... As for the soundtrack, for someone like me who grew up to the sound of Juliette Greco, Gilbert Becaud and Charles Aznavour, it was a rare treat... Art, classical music,and French culture are offered on a silver platter to connaisseurs.... Bravo, bravo to the Thompsons (mother and son) for such a treat... Ffinally, as a French philosophy major who openly despised Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, I found it simply delicious to witness the scenes in which American film maker Pollack learns from the French comedienne Lemercier a different perspective and how to treat their story. The encounters between the two are pure delight, like a flute of champagne raised with a wink to insure that Sartre and Beauvoir will never be taken seriously again.... I highly recommend this movie to anyone with a fondness for Parisian comedy.

Heather P. gave it a10:
Endearing, intelligent, beautiful, Joyful, and the soundtract is superb

Marge B. gave it a9:
Charming, well-made film with excellent acting. It transported us to Paris for an afternoon from wintry NY and left us with a glow.

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