In this musical melodrama set against the backdrop of a workers’ strike in Nantes, a young woman wishes to leave her brutish husband for an earthy steelworker, though he is involved with another. Unbeknownst to the girl, the object of her affection boards with her no-nonsense baroness mother.

With The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, A Room in Town is Jacques Demy’s other “sung” film, in which he depicts a political, local crisis alongside a personal one, in which pressure and desperation lead to fatal acts. A twirling and dark drama starring Dominique Sanda, Michel Piccoli and Danielle Darrieux.