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Une chambre en ville
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Wikipedia article
'Une chambre en ville' (also known as 'A Room in Town') is a 1982 French musical drama film written and directed by Jacques Demy, with music by Michel Colombier, and starring Dominique Sanda, Danielle Darrieux and Michel Piccoli. It is set against the backdrop of a workers' strike in 1955 Nantes. Like Demy's most famous film, 'The Umbrellas of Cherbourg', it is an operetta-musical in which every line of dialogue is sung. However, unlike 'Cherbourg', 'Chambre' is closer to tragedy, with a darker, more explicitly political tone.
The film won the Prix Mlis, and was nominated for nine Csar Awards: Best Film, Best Director, Most Promising Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Music, Best Production Design and Best Sound.
Plot
The story is set during a workers' strike in Nantes in 1955. Young shipyard worker Franois Guilbaud is one of the strikers, and he rents a room from Madame Langlois, a widow who sympathizes with the strikers although she is herself upper-class, born a baroness. His girlfriend Violette Pelletier, who works in a shop and lives with her mother, wants to get married but he is unwilling, partly because they have no money and nowhere to live.
In the street Franois is accosted by a beautiful woman wearing only a fur coat. This is dith Leroyer, unhappily married to the owner of a television shop, who has taken to part-time prostitution. The two have a blissful night together in a cheap hotel and fall in love.
In the morning Violette comes looking for Franois because she has learned she is pregnant, but he tells her he loves another woman. Meanwhile, dith, going back to her husband's shop to collect some things and leave him, has a terrible row with him during which he cuts his throat. She flees back to her mother, who is Franois' landlady. Next morning, Franois joins a demonstration which is broken up by the police and is fatally injured. His workmates carry him up to the flat of the baroness, where he dies in the arms of dith. Unable to live without him, she shoots herself.
Cast
*Dominique Sanda - Edith Leroyer
*Danielle Darrieux - Margot Langlois
*Richard Berry - Franois Guilbaud
*Michel Piccoli - Edmond Leroyer
*Fabienne Guyon - Violette Pelletier
*Anna Gaylor - Madame Pelletier
*Jean-Franois Stvenin - Dambiel
*Jean-Louis Rolland - Mnager
*Marie-France Roussel - Mme Sforza
*Georges Blaness - Chef des CRS
*Yann Dedet - Ouvrier
*Nicolas Hossein - Ouvrier
*Gil Warga - Ouvrier
*Antoine Mikola - Ouvrier
*Marie-Pierre Feuillard - Femme l'enfant
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