Spring 1936 - in a working-class district in the north of Paris, a neighborhood that probably had a name once but that everyone now simply calls the Faubourg. At the top of the hill, a view over Paris to one side and, to the other, the burgeoning suburbs of the city. A small square, a few shops, lopsided buildings, cobbled streets and the peeling façade of the neighborhood music hall, the Chansonia.
In this blue-collar neighborhood, the triumphant election of the Popular Front government is greeted with enthusiasm and hopes for a brighter tomorrow, yet stirs up all kinds of extremism. Among the new government's promises, the famous law on paid holidays that will allow numerous workers to see the sea for the first time.
In early May, three inhabitants of the Faubourg, show-business workers and close friends, do not share other people's wild hopes, the Chansonia, the music hall that employed them, closed down four months earlier, leaving them all unemployed.
Pigoil (Gérard Jugnot), a stage-hand, thirty years with the Chansonia.
Without a job, he could lose custody of his 12-year-old son, JOJO (Maxence Perrin)and have to give up his plans to take him to see the sea.
MILOU (Clovis Cornillac), a hotheaded electrician and a skirt-chaser. Symbol of the "workers aristocracy," spokesman for every kind of demand, he is determinded to "change the world."
JACKY (Kad Merad), former sandwich man at the Chansonia. After carrying aroundthe names of stars on his sandwich board for years, Jacky has started dreamingthat he will be the king of the music hall himself one day.
Convinced that he has a talent for imitation, he continually seeks engagements that he never finds.
Supported by the locals who live to the rhythm of Monsieur TSF's (Pierre Richard) radio, the three friends decide to take hold of their destiny: they try to force the hand of fate by occupying the Chansonia and producing the "hit" musical that will allow them to buy the place. Each one of them has different motives but they all share the same goal: finding new balance in their lives.
In addition to their lack of experience, they have to deal with the hostile antagonism of the neighborhood "godfather", Galpiat (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu), and come to terms with the arrival of a mysterious and attractive young singer, Douce (Nora arnezeder).
The dream of a whole neighborhood, can the Chansonia "rise from its ashes" in this joyous month of June?
--© Sony Pictures Classics
10/19/09
9/18/09
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