Hi friends! It’s time for this month’s Blind Spot entry. I had planned on reviewing Jacques Demy’s hidden classic A Room in Town but Manda couldn’t find it on streaming (it’s a Criterion Channel exclusive evidently.) She hadn’t seen The Umbrellas of Cherbourg so we decided to just cover that so I’ll give you my thoughts on Room here but make sure to listen to our discussion on Umbrellas here:
A Room in Town is an interesting contrast to Umbrellas. While both are sad love stories Umbrellas is more innocent and youthful where Room is older and more cynical. Room is about a man named Francois (also a name in Umbrellas) who is unhappy in his life and struggles to get invested in any causes including his fellow shipyard worker’s strike. He has a beautiful but naive girlfriend named Violette but then falls madly in love with a mysterious woman/prostitute named Edith.
I don’t think Jacques Demy ever made an ugly film and they all are a joy to watch even though they are sad because it’s clear a true artisan is working here. Just the colors and the backgrounds that he works into shots are breathtaking. Like I said, Room is a lot darker with Edith having an abusive husband and Violette getting pregnant to a man who does not love her. It’s sad stuff but at only 90 minutes it never becomes too overbearing or frustrating.
The music is perhaps less memorable than Umbrellas but especially as it builds to the climax with the workers it becomes like a true operatic tragedy. If you have Criterion Channel I definitely recommend watching their entire Jacques Demy collection including A Room in Town. What a master of his craft he was!
