Avenue Montaigne

This richly layered slice-of-idealParsian-life confection wafts with the smell of fresh croissants and Coco Chanel. At the advice of her inspiring grandmother, twentysomething Jessica (Cecile di France) rubs shoulders with the artistic and famous on the most glamorous street in Paris while working at a café on Avenue Montaigne. Jessica gets a crash course in the pop idiom of classical music from disaffected concert pianist Jean-Francois (Albert Dupontel). She goes behind the scenes with a television actress (Valerie Lemercier) performing in a play when she isn’t trying to impress a film director (Sydney Pollack) that she’s perfect to play Simone de Beauvoir for his next film. Writer/director Daniele Thompson has devised a mature and light comedy to transport you away to the orchestra seats on Paris’ most chic boulevard.

Rated PG-13. 100 mins. (B) (Three Stars)