Review of Avenue Montaigne (2006) by Gary H — 04 Aug 2007

Director Daniele Thompson has made a French Robert Altman film, with a luminous ensemble, multi-generational cast. Buoyant and satisfying, Avenue Montaigne does rely on a manufactured, contrived script, but it never seems to affect the film?s narrative or emotional momentum.

With a Beethoven-heavy classical score and a jaunty French soundtrack, Avenue Montaigne is a bittersweet and consistently entertaining mainstream French comedy that has just enough existential angst to satisfy Francophiles but not too much to turn off the more squeamish American viewers.