Arriving in Paris with her doddery gran, country girl Jessica (de France) blags her way into a waitressing job at the café in the middle of Avenue Montaigne, a Mecca for culture vultures.

It’s hard to believe that this gap-toothed cutie and the chainsaw-wielding banshee of Switchblade Romance are one and the same. Nobody is going to accuse Cécile de France of being typecast.

Yet typecast is what actress Catherine Versen (Lemercier) is desperate to avoid after completing the 100th episode of her popular TV soap. She yearns for classier fare, unlike the frothy farce she’s rehearsing at the theatre opposite the café.

At the neighbouring concert hall, celebrated pianist Jean-Francois Lefort (Dupontel, who also did unspeakable things in Irréversible) is also ready for a change. He wants to bring classical music to the masses, but his engagements are almost exclusively for the rich and intellectual.

The frustration is straining his relationship with his manager... who's also his wife (Morante, The Dancer Upstairs).

Another rift is developing between art enthusiast Monsieur Grumberg (Brasseur) and his son Frederic (Christopher Thompson, who co-wrote the film with his mum Danièle, the director).

The old man is selling his entire collection, but wants to keep his latest acquisition – a pretty trinket called Valerie. He knows that she’s a gold-digger but not that she has a history with Frederic.

With the play, the concert and the auction due to begin at the same time, Jessica is able to observe the drama from close range. In Frederic’s case, very close.

Epiphanies are reached and decisions are made. The theatre’s lady concierge retires. Sydney Pollack appears as an American movie director (stretching himself, then). Cake is eaten. People laugh. And cry. Etc.

Agreeable, inconsequential fluff; you’ll have forgotten it by the time your next cappuccino arrives.

Elliott Noble