Trois Places Pour Le 26 (1988)

The renowned singer and actor Yves Montand (Yves Montand) returns to the city where he grew up and look up people from his past including an ex-prostitute (Francoise Fabian) who is now a Baroness. The purpose of his visit is to rehearse a stage musical based on his life. Written and directed by Jacques Demy in his final film. He returns to his love of musicals and this film has bits and pieces of both UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG and YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT. It's not as good as those movies but it's still a lovely musical full of color, romance and nostalgia. The music is by Demy's musical alter ego, the great Michel Legrand. While the film is a fictionalized view of Montand's life and career (at least I hope it's fictionalized, the incest angle is creepy), names are bandied about like Marilyn Monroe, Edith Piaf, both of whom had affairs with Montand and Simone Signoret, Montand's wife who had passed away three years before this film's release. Demy's love of the film musical is in every frame and I suspect judging from some of the scenes that Damien Chazelle was influenced by it for LA LA LAND as Mathilda May's (as Fabian's daughter) number AU CONCERT was visually replicated in the SOMEONE IN THE CROWD number in LA LA LAND. The lively choreography is by Michael Peters. With Jean Claude Bouillaud and Antoine Bourseiller.