At the end of this delightful, charming and classy film there's a moment just before the End Credits when we fade to black and two words appear in the bottom right hand corner: a Suzanne. I suppose if you ARE going to die in harness at the age of 87 and have the last film on which you worked dedicated to you then you could do far, far worse than choose this for your swan song. Suzanne Flon doesn't have a lot to do here - unlike, say, La Fleur du Mal - but her smile and warmth light up the screen as she tops and tails this gem. In her third At Bat Daniele Thompson hits one out of the park but then after La Buche and Declage Horaire we don't expect less. Three stories are linked by Cecile de France, the grand-daughter of Suzanne Flon's character, who journeys from the Provinces to Paris and secures a waitress job at a restaurant adjacent to both a theatre, concert hall and Auction Room where, in the fullness of time she meets an actress, a concert pianist and a millionaire so jaded that he is selling off the items he's spent a lifetime collecting. Valerie Lemercier scores heavily as a soap queen adored by millions but longing to go 'legit' and play Feydeau on the boards, meanwhile Albert Dupontel's classical pianist is suffocating beneath the weight of his formal dress and equally formal lifestyle but torn between rebellion and the loss of his wife. Thompson's son Christopher is, as usual, on hand as co-writer and actor and as the distant son of the millionaire he gets to romance Cecile. Rounding things out is Dani, a concierge who, over the years has met everybody in show business worth meeting and her karaoke versions of French hit songs punctuate the action nicely. If 'entertainment' pure and simple (not to say Stylish and Classy) lights your fire then run, don't walk to catch this one.
Review of Orchestra Seats
