Orchestra Seats
French writer-director Daniele Thompson’s Orchestra
Seats, which she co-wrote with her son, Christopher (who also
plays a role in the film) was France’s entry for the best
foreign-language film in the Academy Awards last year.
It’s a lightweight work, although it tackles some potentially
weighty subject matter; its principle tone is a kind of wistful
yearning. Its location is a Paris street in the theatre district
where several people cross paths at crucial moments in their lives
as they endure crises about art, love, ambition and
expectations.
A concert pianist desperately wants to change direction, to the
distress of his wife who has dedicated herself to furthering his
career. A popular soap star (the always disarming Valerie
Lemercier) longs to shed her image and play Simone de Beauvoir in a
new film to be made by a US director.
A self-made man puts his valuable art collection up for sale to
the chagrin of his resentful son, and an elderly theatre manager
prepares for her retirement. Flitting chirpily between them is a
young woman, Cecile de France from The Singer, looking for
a job and a place to stay. Rental only.
