A Room in Town

'Une chambre en ville' was thoroughly underrated from the start. In 1982 audiences no longer favoured tragic movies. BUT WHY? A generation earlier television had strongly reduced the audience of the cinemas. But television had NOT changed the taste. Video had a more profound influence. Take a standard situation. A group is watching a video which may evoke strong emotions in some of the spectators. Suddenly another catches the remote control, rewinds the movie and makes some comment (e.g., 'Girls should never have such a coiffure'). Repeated exposure to experiences of this kind may reduce the capacity for becoming emotionally aroused by movies. - Note that this is a recent development. It is easy to assemble a list of 100 very tragic movies produced 1935-1965, which at that time were highly appreciated by the average film-goer. I am even convinced that the average film-goer of this period would have loved contemporary movies such as 'Stormy Weather' (by Solveig Anspach) and 'Les diables' (by Christophe Ruggia).

If your aim is not emotional experience, you are likely to be disappointed by 'Une chambre en ville', despite its excellent merits. But please note that my review is one-sided and might be misleading. I intend to say much about the music, and shall reduce all other aspects to the bare minimum. What is the plot? Workers are striking. During a demonstration one of them (Francois) is shot by the police. He dies in the arms of his beloved (Edith). But only one day earlier he had abandoned his pregnant girlfriend (Violette), because he had met a very beautiful over-class girl. Francois and Edith were immediately overwhelmed by genuine and reciprocal passion.

Even among film musicals it is infrequent that every line is sung. Hence, it is natural to compare 'Une chambre en ville' with 'Les parapluis de Chèrbourg'. Jacques Demy directed both. But different composers (Michel Colombier and Michel Legrand) wrote the music. I think both got the manuscript most suitable for their specific talent.

The music of 'Une chambre' differs from that of 'Les parapluis' foremost in three respects. Without ceasing to be real film music, it is more introverted, and it is closer to opera music. But the largest difference is the director's relation to the singers.

Whenever two persons sing simultaneously in 'Les parapluis', you can clearly perceive the words of each. Also, simultaneous singing never transgresses the kind of dialogues that may be found in purely spoken theatre. By contrast, 'Une chambre' contains a real duet: the loving couple sings the same text together in parallel sixths; a device clearly borrowed from the opera. - - - To avoid misunderstanding as regards my next point: numerous great composers have borrowed melodies or other things from each other. Borrowing is not a fault if the borrowed thing is used for new purposes. Since 'Une chambre' finishes with a love scene in which one of the couple dies, it is not far-fetched to associate to Wagner's 'Tristan and Isolde'. During the final scene of the movie the main musical theme is presented for the fourth time, and this time with new accompanying melodies played by the orchestra. Rightly or wrongly, I think that these melodies are to some extent inspired by Wagner's opera (bar 63-73 of the overture).

Any competent musical conductor would tell the singers to take some impression of the mood of the text. But the soundtrack of 'Les parapluis' never differs much from a neutral performance. Hence, it is hardly possible to decide whether or not Jacques Demy actually directed the singers before the soundtrack was made. But in 'Une chambre' it could hardly be more manifest that Demy has devoted as much direction to the singers as to the actors seen on the screen. From Violette's singing voice alone, no one could mistake her distress when Francois abandons her, and her feeling of being treated unjust when Francois tries to excuse his behaviour. - - - Suppose you do not understand French, and that you are listening to the soundtracks of both movies without seeing the pictures. You will nevertheless have a fair chance of correctly perceiving the emotions of many scenes of 'Une chambre'. You will be much less successful with 'Les parapluis'.