Thursday, July 27 | 7:30 pm
Set against the backdrop of a violent worker’s strike in Nantes, France—and featuring only sung dialogue, like the director’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg— Demy’s late-career masterpiece surely is one of the most original musicals in the history of cinema. The beautiful young Edith (Dominique Sanda, The Conformist) dreams of leaving her brutish and possessive husband Edmond (Michel Piccoli, Contempt) for strapping steel worker, François. However, little does Edith know that the object of her affection boards with her highly judgmental baroness mother (Danielle Darrieux, The Young Girls of Rochefort). Combining the filmmaker’s exquisitely rich, detailed set design and jewel-like color palette with an unprecedentedly dark tone, the deeply romantic Une chambre en ville is “considerably closer to opera than to any conventional musical,” according to the British Film Institute’s Geoff Andrew. Featuring a score that embraces both symphonic orchestration and electric instrumentation attuned to pop musical forms, Une chambre en ville is one of the most oddly beautiful miracles of the seventh art.
Director Jacques Demy | 1982 | In French with English subtitles | 93 minutes | NR (graphic nudity, violence) | DCP
