This evening I watched my first film in a foreign language to me: Avenue Montaigne (2006).
It’s a French film with English subtitles centering around a younger woman named Jessica. She is wide-eyed dreamer– the kind of girl that is interested in everything and everyone and when she answers the phone she says “Hey!” instead of, “Who the hell is calling me?” She has broken up with her boyfriend and finds herself in Paris, working at a cafe that serves the rich and poor alike. She ends up inserting herself into the lives of some high profile artists– a high concert pianist, who no longer wants to perform for high society, a beloved soap opera star who has her eyes set on a specific movie role, and an art collector– finally auctioning off the collection he has been building all his life.
Jackie was an endearing and lovable lead– my only complaint was she was almost too perfect– always happy and always able to manage to worm herself into the lives of these high profile actresses. But I’m not sure if Jackie’s role was meant to be anything more than a vehicle to tell these other stories. Those other stories were what I found the most enthralling. It was interesting to me to see all the stories contrasted and see how they intertwined or didn’t intertwine.
This was light, breezy, funny, and thoughtful. It’s about four very different people trying to break out of the roles they have been placed into by themselves and by society. It dealt a lot with art and luxury in a way that seemed to anchor the movie and give it a really strong foundation to stand on.
Overall? I think this was the perfect world language film to try out! This summer I am going to be doing some exploring, so you mighhhht end up seeing 1) more blog posts here in general and 2) more blog posts about things that aren’t books.
Jenny Likes Books 