I <em>love</em> French films!

I have a good friend, Julie, who is a member of SIFF. She gets free tickets to early film screenings and I’m lucky enough to be invited quite often to fill her guest seat.

Anyway, we saw Avenue Montaigne tonight at the new SIFF theatre at McCaw Hall and it was a magnificent film. I think the lead actress, Cécile de France, is going to be the next Audrey Tatou.

Directed and co-written by Danièle Thompson (La Bûche, Jet Lag), and selected as France’s Official Entry for this year’s Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar, Avenue Montagne
centers around Jessica (Cecile de France) a beautiful young woman from
the provinces who comes to Paris and lands a job waiting tables at a
chic bistro on fabled Avenue Montaigne, the city’s nexus for art,
music, theater and fashion. Jessica’s customers include a popular TV
actress (Valérie Lemercier) who is courting a major Hollywood director
(Sydney Pollack) for her first serious film role; a wealthy art
collector (Claude Brasseur) who is about to liquidate a lifetime’s
worth of treasures at auction; and an illustrious classical pianist
(Albert Dupontel) who is at odds with his manager/wife (Laura Morante)
as to where his career is headed. Precisely because Jessica doesn’t
know how celebrated these people are, her guileless and completely
unintimidated engagement in their lives has a transforming effect on
them – and ultimately her.

Hmmmm, a SIFF membership…another birthday gift idea, perhaps?