<DIV>The situation could not be simpler: two men, both in advancing years, conversing in a garden deep in the French countryside. One is an artist, the other his gardener. On finishing his work, the gardener enters the studio and looks over the artist's shoulder. As the artist draws, the gardener talks?about his youth, his family, his travels, his health, and of course, the pleasures of gardening. Sometimes the artist responds, sometimes he just listens; but all the while, the bond between these two very different men is deepening. Their friendship produces many moments of dry humor, such as when the gardener visits the artist in Paris and brings an anvil along in his luggage. There are also moments of profundity as the two friends reflect on their own mortality?and the equally taxing question of whether a lettuce can be as beautiful as a painting.</DIV>