Three Seats for the 26th (French: Trois places pour le 26) is a 1988 French romantic musical film, written and directed by Jacques Demy to music by Michel Legrand. Set in Marseille, it shows the singer and actor Yves Montand returning to the city where he grew up and looking up old friends, including his first love Mylène, who had been a prostitute and is now the wife of a jailed baron. The purpose of his visit is to rehearse a stage musical based on his life, where he falls in love with the female lead named Marion. It was Demy's last picture.
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Plot
Famous singer and actor Yves Montand arrives in Marseille, where he grew up, to rehearse a new musical based on his life. From his years as an unknown, including the loss of his first great love, the show moves on to his artistic and amorous links with stars like Édith Piaf and Marilyn Monroe.
In his free time, he looks up old friends, hoping in particular to find Mylène, his first love who worked as a prostitute. At his hotel, a card is left by Baroness de Lambert, who asks to see him. While in his dressing room, he is entranced by a fan called Marion, who asks him for three seats on the 26th so that she and the two girls she works with can attend the sold-out opening night. Though trained in acting, song and dance, she works in a perfume shop.
When the leading lady has to leave the cast because of pregnancy, Marion volunteers and is hired. When Yves rings up the mysterious baroness, he recognises from her voice that she is Mylène and the two have a tender reunion in the bar where they first met. She is living with the daughter she had after they parted but will lose her home as her husband has been sent to prison for five years.
The opening is a great success, and the show is booked to run in Paris. Yves and Marion celebrate with a kiss, and the two have sex and spend the night together. As they talk about each other's lives over breakfast, she realises Yves' descriptions of his former lover matches her own mother, and realizes that she is his daughter. Unshaken in her love for him, she goes home to get her mother, who is Mylène. Yves is stunned to see Marion arriving with Mylène, whom she reveals is her mother, and realizes Marion is his daughter. Now a complete family happily reunited, Yves, Mylène, and Marion leave to board the train to Paris.
Cast
Yves Montand : Yves Montand
Mathilda May : Marion de Lambert
Françoise Fabian : Marie-Hélène, Baroness de Lambert (formerly Mylène Le Goff)
Jean-Claude Bouillaud : the captain
Antoine Bourseiller : Fonteneau
Christophe Bourseiller : Serge
Geoffrey Carey : Michael
Sophie Castel : receptionist
Katy Varda : Alice
Marie-Dominique Chayze : Nicole
Raoul Curet : hotel manager
Mathieu Demy : Derderian
Danielle Durou : Miss Destain
Patrick Fierry : Toni Fontaine
Paul Guers : Max Leehman
Bertrand Lacy : Steve Larsenal
Catriona MacColl : Betty Miller
Pierre Maguelon : Marius Ceredo
Christiane Minazzoli : Mrs Simonot
Carlo Nell : Berlingot
Jacques Nolot : Marcel Amy
Reception
From the reviewer of Le Monde, "after the dark tragic passion of Une chambre en ville Demy returns with this final film to love as the supreme force in his art. Love in this case not only surmounts the age gap between Montand and his unknown daughter Marion but also survives the discovery that the two have unknowingly committed incest. Her sexual power over Montand is not idealised or ambiguous but in a bold and surprising fashion goes hand in hand with the feelings the two have for each other. Strong though her hold over Montand seems, her still very attractive mother exerts an even greater pull."