Paris Can Wait

Eleanor Coppola stepped behind the camera for the first time at age 80 with this gentle comedy-drama about a woman rediscovering joy. Diane Lane plays Anne Lockwood, an American wife who has settled into comfortable routine alongside her film-producer husband Michael (Alec Baldwin). While Michael works the Cannes festival, Anne ends up on a spontaneous road trip with his French business associate Jacques (Arnaud Viard). What should be a seven-hour drive from Cannes to Paris stretches into a two-day culinary and cultural tour through the French countryside. Shot on location in Cannes, Lyon, the French Alps, and Paris, the film cost $5 million and earned over $13 million worldwide. Lane carries the movie with her natural warmth, and the easy chemistry between her and Viard makes even the smallest moments feel alive.

Coppola based the story loosely on her own travels through France with husband Francis Ford Coppola. The character of Jacques was inspired by a real French associate who took her on a similar meandering road trip. The film features over twenty food and wine scenes, each carefully chosen to represent a different region. A food stylist was brought in to make sure the cheese, wine, and pastries looked authentic. The soundtrack, composed by Laura Karpman, mixes classical piano with light jazz, while French chanson classics from Édith Piaf and Charles Trenet pop up along the way.

Released in 2017 by Sony Pictures Classics, the film earned a 62% Tomatometer score and a 54 on Metacritic. Critics praised Lane's performance and the gorgeous scenery but found the plot too thin. The movie has since developed a small cult following, especially among fans of travel romances like Under the Tuscan Sun. It remains Coppola's only narrative feature, a quiet testament to late-career ambition.[edit]

Anne Lockwood is a middle-aged American woman who has settled into a comfortable but passionless routine. Her husband Michael, a successful film producer, spends most of his time working the Cannes Film Festival circuit. Anne accompanies him to Cannes, but while Michael is consumed with meetings and schmoozing, she wanders the festival grounds alone, feeling invisible. Her loneliness is palpable. After a minor ear infection prevents her from flying to Paris for a planned rendezvous with Michael, she finds herself stranded in Cannes with no clear plan.

Enter Jacques Clement, Michael's charming French business associate. He offers to drive Anne to Paris, a journey that should take about seven hours on the autoroute. But Jacques is not one for direct routes. He believes the journey matters more than the destination. What follows is a two-day road trip that becomes a culinary and cultural tour of the French countryside. Jacques insists on stopping at a small cheese shop where he lectures Anne on the proper way to taste Comté. They visit a historic silk museum in Lyon. They linger at a roadside café where Jacques orders a perfect omelette and a glass of wine, explaining that the best meals are the simplest.

Anne is initially resistant to Jacques's meandering pace. She is a planner, a woman who has spent years managing her husband's life. But as the hours pass, she begins to relax. She tries foods she has never tasted. She laughs at Jacques's absurd stories. She starts to ask questions about herself, what she wants, what she misses, what she might have forgotten. The film never states whether Anne is falling in love with Jacques or simply falling back in love with life. That ambiguity is the heart of the story.

The road trip takes them through the French Alps, past lavender fields (though not in bloom), and into small villages where time seems to stand still. They visit a church where Anne lights a candle. They share a meal with Jacques's eccentric friend. They get lost, laugh about it, and find their way again. The film is episodic, almost like a travelogue, but held together by Lane's nuanced performance and the easy chemistry between her and Viard. The central question is not whether Anne will have an affair, but whether she will rediscover the person she used to be before she became Michael's wife.[edit]