(2005) A light-hearted comedy from Daniele Thompson. After listening to her dear grandmother reminisce of her love of the luxury of Paris as a young woman - which she couldn't afford, so she went to work in it - Jessica (Cecile de France), with her goldie punked locks, attempts something similar, getting a job as a waitress in Bar des Threatres on Avenue Montaigne. Tradition has been at the restaurant only to hire males, but since two waiters are out ill with a week full of events, she's given a trial opportunity.

Across the street at the Ritz is concert pianist Jean-François Lefort (Albert Dupontel) preparing for his performance; in the theatre is soap-opera actress Catherine Versen (Valerie Lemercler) rehearsing in a Feydeau play; and next door Jacques Grumberg (Claude Brasseur), who went from being a cabbie to a museum guard, is arranging his art collection for auction. During the course of the next few days, coming into contact briefly with Jessica, will have a significant impact upon each of these individuals.

When she brings refreshments to Jean-François's room, he realizes that to her he is from another world, one of snobbery and snootiness. Later in an interview with a Japanese journalist, he says that classical concerts keep us from music as religion keeps us from God. He would prefer playing for cancer patients, children, and those who wouldn't otherwise attend a classical-music concert. However, he is afraid of losing his wife, Valentine (Laura Morante) - who has been his manager, dresser, secretary - if he abandons his career.

When Jessica brings refreshments to director Brian Sobinski (Sydney Pollack) while he's watching Catherine's soap-opera performance on a television screen, she spontaneously expresses her admiration for the actress: "She's every woman all at once." Afterward Sobinski meets with Catherine to discuss his new project of a film about Simone Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, during which she offers numerous surprising insights into Simone's character.

There are artists and then there are investors in the arts. When Jessica sees Brancusi's 1925 sculpture The Kiss, she says to Jacques, who with his wife like a couple of beavers had constructed a dam of art works twig by twig, that the sight makes her wish she were in love. Afterward she meets his son, Frederic (Christopher Thompson), who teaches at the Sorbonne; he's critical of his father's infatuation with a young woman, Valerie, whom he takes to be a gold-digger. In the Ritz lobby Jessica overhears a conversation between Frederic and Valerie, discovering their secret of a previous love affair.

Unable to afford a place to sleep in the expensive district, Jessica - an orphan since the age of four, dismissed from midwifery school, discarded by her boyfriend, nearly raped by her doctor - makes do as best she can, searching for "a nice orchestra seat," neither too close nor too far away from the rich, the talented, and the famous.

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Copyright © 2008 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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