★★★★★ 5
Totally unique and enchanting
A bittersweet and all too believable story of young love, simplified and stylized, but with a lot of emotional truth at its heart. Every frame is a visual delight, Catherine Deneuve is hypnotic, and the equally gorgeous Nino Castelnuovo plays his part with a sweetness and grace that are totally disarming.
I knew it was a musical, but I did not realize going in that all of the dialogue is sung. There's a lot of humor in hearing even the most prosaic interactions -- saying good afternoon to the mailman, an argument between a mother and her teenage daughter -- set to music. And the soundtrack serves to amplify the joy and excitement of certain quotidian pleasures, as in the first scene when the mechanics are leaving work and discussing their plans for the evening.
This is a totally unique and enchanting movie. It has the heart of a French movie from the 60's, with a dash of the frothy artifice of a Hollywood musical. The result is a little slice of perfection.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2020
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