Review of Avenue Montaigne (2006) by Michael T — 12 Sep 2010

[center][color=black][font=Century Gothic][size=3]I spend a lot of time in the foreign film sections of movie rental places. They always hold, for the majority, an odd assortment of typically horror and/or R-rated films, with some off-beat films thrown in. Mainly, they're east Asian or Latino. I keep hoping gems will pop up, movies that spark my attention (and taste) and then stick with me after I watch them. I hit one with [u]Avenue Montaigne[/u] (or [i][u]Fauteuils d'Orchestre[/u][/i], in the original French). The dialogue is funny and pointed (though in French, with subtitles - perfect for a language geek like myself). There is also a lovely aspect of symbolism woven in.[/size][/font][/color][/center].

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[center][/font][/color][size=3][u][color=black][font=Century Gothic]Avenue Montaigne[/font][/color][/u][color=black][font=Century Gothic] is, briefly, the story of a young woman called Jessica, who leaves her town and comes to Paris hoping to involve herself in the life there with only the clothes on her back and her inherent charm and frankness to help her along the way. Jessica is such an open person that the artists she meets on the title's Avenue Montaigne inevitably come to trust her as she almost accidentally affects their lives. Avenue Montaigne is an actual road in Paris, incredibly important in the fashion scene, though depicted in the film as more of a Broadway-type street, with a famous theatre, an equally famous restaurant, a concert hall, and an auction museum.[/font][/color][/size][/center].

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[center][/font][/color][color=black][font=Century Gothic][size=3]Each of the characters Jessica encounters has reached a huge climax in his or her life. There is the prodigious pianist Jean-François Lefort, who has seen his career blossom but wants something more, and the D-list soap actress Catherine Versen who also has become restless with her less-than-stellar place in the entertainment industry. Also running into the bubble of energy that is Jessica are the fatigued art collector Jaques Grumberg and his pained son Frédéric (or, familiarly, Fred). The former is stepping up to embrace his advancing years and all they encompass, while the latter is finding that he must also embrace the life he?s living at his younger age, and let some bitterness he?s had at his father go. [/size][/font][/color][/center].

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[center][color=black][font=Century Gothic][size=3]The dialogue between all these characters and the various outer circles that surround them is continuously poignant and amusing, particularly when the same situation recurs later on. For example, when Jessica gets hired on trial at a prestigious, though homey, restaurant, the maître d', Marcel, says, "Never say 'they're all coming at once!'" Jessica gets hired because "on the seventeenth," Lefort will have his concert, Catherine will have a dress rehearsal for her play, and Grumberg will auction off all of his collection. When that day arrives, people crowd into the little café, and Marcel can be heard to exclaim the exact phrase which, only days before, he had expressly forbidden. Actually, though, most of the dialogue is psychological in direction: there is a scene where Lefort is being interviewed about his upcoming concert, after he has been influenced by Jessica not having known anything about classical music, even who wrote "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"(which, incidentally, has entirely different lyrics in French). Jessica was able to sing it right along with Lefort ? sounding something like this:[/size][/font][/color][/center].

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[center][/font][/color][/i][size=3][color=darkorchid][font=Century Gothic]Ah! vous dirais-je, Maman [/font][/color][font=Century Gothic]([i]I would tell you, mother)[/i][/font][/size][color=black][font=Arial][/center].

[center][/font][/color][size=3][color=darkorchid][font=Century Gothic]Ce qui cause mon tourment [/font][/color][font=Century Gothic]([i]What causes me torment.)[/i][/font][/size][color=black][font=Arial][/center].

[center][/font][/color][size=3][color=darkorchid][font=Century Gothic]Papa veut que je raisonne [/font][/color][font=Century Gothic]([i]Father wants me to reason)[/i][/font][/size][color=black][font=Arial][/center].

[center][/font][/color][size=3][color=darkorchid][font=Century Gothic]Comme une grande personne [/font][/color][font=Century Gothic]([i]Like an adult.)[/i][/font][/size][color=black][font=Arial][/center].

[center][/font][/color][size=3][color=darkorchid][font=Century Gothic]Mais je dis que les bonbons [/font][/color][font=Century Gothic]([i]But I say that candy)[/i][/font][/size][color=black][font=Arial][/center].

[center][/font][/color][size=3][color=darkorchid][font=Century Gothic]Valent mieux que la raison. [/font][/color][font=Century Gothic]([i]Is worth more than reason.)[/i][/font][/size][/center].

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[center][font=Century Gothic][size=3]But when Lefort asks her about the song, she has no clue that Mozart wrote the melody. He apologizes to her on behalf of all concert-goers and pianists, because they have created a snob world that she has no interest in being a part of because it seems, well, snobby. It is in this conversation that Lefort begins to see the pointlessness of his efforts and to feel restless. So he[color=black] says in his interview, "I believe in God, but I think religion keeps us from God. Just like concerts keep us from classical music." Lefort still loves the classical music, but he wants more people to appreciate it, and he thinks the concert-going crowd is ruining it for everyone else.[/color][/size][/font][/center].

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[center][/font][/color][color=black][font=Century Gothic][size=3]Catherine, another main character, has a couple of psychological conversations. The first is with her director where they discuss the modernity of the words of the play they are doing. Catherine insists that they must address the psychological issues, although her director wishes to stick to the script and won't allow her to change it. Later, she is interviewing for a part in an American-made film and she gets on her soap-box about the psychology of [i]that[/i] (after having been told that her play is entirely cut-and-dry, and there [i]is[/i] no psychological turns) talking about how the character she wants to play was the diabolical one, the insane one, the one who is in her own blood. She says, "[i]je suis toutes les femmes à la fois" [/i]or, "I'm every woman all at the same time!" Jessica had earlier affirmed this to the film director in the exact same way - and that is why Catherine is loved. In the end, Catherine shows she is totally in control and that she was right on the idea of the psychology of her play: she unexpectedly improvs in the midst of the scene she had fought about earlier and gets her own message out in a few short lines, while flinging her hat and wig across the stage. The fact of the matter is, she simply hates the hat! She had been going on about the hat at the same time she had been ranting about what her play means earlier; when the showing comes, Catherine makes what had been a question of incest in the play into a question of wardrobe, taking the first question in the direction she wanted and condemning the object of the second all at once.[/size][/font][/color][/center].

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[center][color=black][font=Century Gothic][size=3]Frédéric Grumberg (hence Fred) is really the only character who has repeated, meaningful conversations with Jessica. The first time they speak intentionally, he tells her of a chronic back problem he has. Later, they are both found at the same restaurant, Fred with a woman he had had an affair with, Jessica alone. She is plainly eavesdropping on their conversation, and Fred all of a sudden has pain. His ex-lover remarks on his "ulcer". Once she leaves, he joins Jessica, and we see that it was actually his back. This shows how much Fred trusts Jessica, even in comparison with someone he was once so intimate with. They also turn to discussing the psychology of cell phones when his rings. "Who the hell is that?" He says, refusing the caller. Jessica remarks, "There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who say, when their phone rings, 'Who the hell is that?' and those who say, 'Hey, who can that be?'" It's evident - not only in this moment, but throughout the film - that Jessica is the second type. It's another sort of optimism.[/size][/font][/color][/center].

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[center][color=black][font=Century Gothic][size=3]Throughout the movie, an important symbol is a statue in M. Grumberg's collection called The Kiss. When Jessica first sees it, she says, "It makes you want to fall in love." Fred has also always loved the statue, and the fact that the elder wishes to sell it begins to cause some strife between the Grumberg gentlemen, because it symbolizes a nostalgia Fred holds for his life when he was young. The picture of it cut from the collection catalogue passes between Jessica and Fred throughout the movie, symbolizing a growing relationship between them and perhaps some mental action before the man finally asks her out. Also symbolic about the statue is that it's of stone, signifying strength and perseverance and solidity.[/size][/font][/color][/center].

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[center][/font][/color][color=black][font=Century Gothic][size=3]Jessica's grandmother, Mémé, continuously tells the story of how she came to be part of luxury ? by shoving her way in. This is how the film opens, and then we hear it once more before the story gets going, and then as Jessica sets off herself to Paris, Mémé tells it once more, giving us a good clue as to what will happen to Jessica by the end. In fact, the first time, the audience is led to believe that it is Jessica talking, many years later. The story is a powerful spoken symbol that supports the plot all the way through, and we see the main point manifested in many characters: Marcel, in his unobtrusive business that all his customers depend on; Catherine, as she pushes her way into the American film; Claudie, a maid in the hotel and close friend of Catherine, who most closely resembles the story of Mémé because though she has no talent, she has made her place in luxury; and, of course, Jessica, embodying each part, from leaving where she lived and going to Paris to getting herself a job in the industry to making the friends she did.[/size][/font][/color][/center].

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[center][/font][/color][color=black][font=Century Gothic][size=3]A final symbolic moment is during Lefort's concert. He is dressed in a full tuxedo, doublet and everything. In the middle of his finale, he finally comes to terms with what he's been struggling with and the fact that he really could pursue everything he wants to. The tuxedo symbolizes how trapped he feels - he doesn't really even want to wear it. So he removes his waistcoat, his bowtie, his doublet, and his suspenders, in the middle of his finale, and finishes his piece relatively comfortable, with just his pants and his undershirt to keep him decent. This is a very strong statement, much like Catherine's during her play, of his reconciling him to himself.[/size][/font][/color][/center].

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[center][/font][/color][color=black][font=Century Gothic][size=3]The whole plot of the story, with all the symbols and all the dialogue, is really about finding your place among the lives and business of everyone else and being content in it. It all boils down to one line by Jessica, which makes [u]Fauteuils d'Orchestre[/u] really make sense as a title. When asked if she's found what she's been looking for, she says, "Yes. It was a [i]fauteuil d'orchestra[/i], not too close, but not too far away." [i]Fauteuil d'Orchestre:[/i] seat in the theater. She was looking for her place.[/size][/font][/color][/center].