Une Chambre en Ville

I fail to recall if I’ve ever seen a movie that is so dramatic in the most purely classical sense of the word and have actually gone along with the premise without viewing the proceeding events through the lens of a healthy cynicism. Une Chambre en Ville, Jacques Demy’s last great film, operates on two levels. At the most basic stage, Une Chambre is a film about a worker’s strike in the port city of Nantes and the made and missed connections of the characters that inhabit that setting. The music of the film, however, elevates the plot to Shakespearean heights, creating a world in which each word is sung and yet what is not said hurts the viewers in equal measure to the fiery power of the movie’s best songs; when characters have simple misunderstandings, the music creates tragedy, simple twists of fate are made grander by their consequences and mode of delivery.

If you’re a Demy fan, you’ll love Une Chambre en Ville. My a-ha moment in this viewing happened when the camera reveals that a key character’s store is in the enclosed shopping area that Demy’s Lola (the titular character of his first film) walked through, and that his Roland from both Lola and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg reminisces about later on. My heart leapt in remembrance of those films and added the sweet sorrows of Une Chambre en Ville to the treasured moments that Demy has given to me through his work. If only the world was as bright as his settings and half as sad as his plots.