Le Dernier Melodrame (1980)
Directed by Georges Franju
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Synopsis by Eleanor Mannikka
Whether or not the title of this well-wrought film was intentional, this was indeed, the last melodrama made by director Georges Franju (1912-1987). The nostalgic story looks at the last days of a theatrical troupe as it travels around the French countryside performing in small towns in the 1950s. The old-style theater get mixed reactions from its audiences, yet the troupe manages to keep on going. But fate intervenes in their road schedule as they are finishing up in one village. They reject an aspiring actress, the wife of an innkeeper intent on leaving her husband, and the results are disastrous.