Une chambre en ville (1982)'s comments

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Siskoid

Jacques Demy returns to the Nantes of Lola, but the style of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg decades after those films in 1982's Une chambre en ville (A Room in the City), and if you'd told me it was made in the same era as those films, I would have believed you. Only some synthetic-sounding notes at a certain point betray its later origins (and of course, if you know French actors). If Umbrellas had a tragic quality, Une chambre goes full Shakespeare, set during violent clashes between police and strikers in 1955 Nantes (big This Is Happening Today vibes), dooming all the characters in love in some way, and an oracle sees it all. But if you're going to go over the top, you need a heightened reality to make it work, that's where the musical comes in. Demy without Legrand on music could have been a worry, but it isn't. The movie sounds (and looks) as great as Demy's better-known films. He remixes elements from his earlier musicals, like a mother-daughter relationship, a surprise pregnancy, and the plight of the working class, but Une chambre en ville stands on its own. The strike creates a specific theme, with "star-crossed love" a kind of protest itself, a rebellion that meets as much opposition as the strike itself, may explode into violence, and ultimately may prove fruitless if not pointless.

3 years 10 months ago

Hippiemans

Another great Demy musical although the ending is a bit over the top.

9 years 9 months ago