STAGE STRUCK

REVIEWED - ORCHESTRA SEATS/FAUTEUILS D'ORCHESTRE:ORCHESTRA Seats is struck from that conventional mould of French movie in which most of the characters are steeped in culture, trying to resolve their problems, and spending a lot of time sitting and talking in restaurants. It's a world familiar to director Danièle Thompson, the daughter of the late actor and director Gérard Oury, and the mother of Christopher Thompson, who co-wrote the screenplay with her and acts in the movie.

That world is viewed through the eyes of a perky, gamine outsider, Jessica (rather over-eagerly played by Cécile de France). She arrives in Paris and lands a job as a waitress at the bustling Bar des Théâtres. The manager tells Jessica that the bistro's clientele is a microcosm, although all the faces at the tables are conspicuously white.

It's three days to go before one of the busiest nights of the year. Catherine (Valérie Lemercier) is a soap star rehearsing a Feydeau farce at a theatre across the road and coveting the role of Simone de Beauvoir in a biopic by a US director (played by US director Sydney Pollack). Jean-François is a celebrated pianist preparing for a concert and feeling suffocated by his wife, who organises every detail of his life.

Jacques is a millionaire who is selling off the vast art collection he and his late wife acquired down the years. Their son is a Sorbonne lecturer and author who has broken up with his wife. And Claudie is the bubbly theatre concierge who is about to retire on the same night as the art auction, the concert recital and the Feydeau opening.

The title comes from an observation made by Catherine that theatre audiences always want to be as close as possible to the stage, but that being too close could mean missing the bigger picture. That wisdom is applied to the characters in a movie that neatly juggles and intersects their destinies with low-key discretion and without any significant dramatic surprises.

Orchestra Seats received five César award nominations and collected one, for Lemercier's spirited portrayal of the ambitious actress. A pleasant soufflé of a movie, it is dedicated to the splendid Suzanne Flon, who died at the age of 87, shortly after completing her cameo in it.