Quick takes on 5 Jacques Demy films

Up today is another director associated with French New Wave, Jacques Demy. Though he was a contemporary of Jean-Luc Godard, Demy’s films are much different (especially Godard post-1970), with more optimism, and frequently about love, though usually with a melancholic feeling, like a lost love. The word most often used to describe Demy’s films is bittersweet.

Lola is one of those films where all of the characters’ lives intertwine, usually without their knowledge. Roland is a young, aimless man, who can’t hold a job and doesn’t know what he wants. One day he stumbles upon a childhood friend, Cecile, who has grown up to become a cabaret dancer and goes by the name Lola. She is Roland’s first and true love, but she doesn’t return his affections now as an adult. Instead, she misses her first love, Michele, who abandoned her as a pregnant young woman 7 years ago. Lola is pursued by Frankie, and American sailor, who is the focus of infatuation of a young girl named Cecile (the same name is obviously not a coincidence), whose mom is attracted to Roland, etc, etc. Obviously the film is about love, and particularly, how strong our “first love” can be. The film is much less esoteric than Godard’s stuff, and is a great date film if you want to try to dip your toes in the French New Wave without getting all wet.

I didn’t like Bay of Angels much at all, in fact the only thing that really sticks with me is its visual style. The movie is about a young man, Jean, who is introduced to gambling by his friend. Jean earns half a year’s salary on his first day at the casino, and goes on a vacation. You think he is going to cut with his winnings and be happy, but he finds himself at a casino again in the Riviera, where he meets a slightly older woman who is definitely addicted to gambling. Together the duo spend the rest of the film winning a lot, and losing it all, a couple times. Very little plot that I could tell, and I wasn’t impressed with the acting of the lead guy; I couldn’t make up my mind if we were supposed to like him or not. The one thing that was done well was the visuals. You could tell Demy was going for the starkness of black or white, right or wrong, etc. Everything is black or white, from the walls of the hotel to the dresses worn by the woman to the furniture in the buildings. Other than the visual appeal, the film was a dud.

Demy redeemed himself with his next film, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, his first major hit, and the one that launched Catherine Deneuve’s career. A musical, it is completely sung-through. It was his first color film, and he made good use. The bright, bold colors are beautiful, as is the jazzy music. Guy is a local mechanic, and he is in love with Genevieve, who works at her mother’s umbrella shop. The mother does not approve, because Genevieve is just 16, but she isn’t too worried because Guy is only 20 and hasn’t served his compulsory time in the French army yet. When Guy is called up, he and Genevieve “say their proper goodbyes” and leaves, and of course, shortly afterwards, she finds she is pregnant. She decides to not to continue to wait for Guy’s return, and instead marries a man who has had his eye on her, none other than Roland, who has finally moved on from his first love, Lola. This film is often cited as an inspiration for the recent hit La La Land, and it is easy to see why. Though the stories are different, there is still that bittersweet, longing feeling, and ultimately both are about a young couple who fall in love but are separated by real life. Other similarities such as the bright and beautiful colors (remember the deep blue sky, Emma Stone’s yellow dress, etc) are shared across both films. And even the opening tune of Umbrellas is musically very thematically similar to the main song of La La Land, City of Stars.

The Young Girls of Rochefort followed, and from the opening scene when a group gets out and stretches from what looks like a long car trip, and the stretching suddenly becomes a dance number accompanying the opening music, we know this will feel more like a traditional American musical than the previous film. Twins Delphine and Solange (real-life sisters Catherine Deneuve and Francoise Dorleac) are each seeking love, and the film plays out in as a series of missed opportunities and near-misses. Delphine wants to marry an artist, and it just so happens a young artist has painted a picture of her as his vision of the ideal woman. Solange wants to marry someone talented in music like she is, and it so happens a composer is in the area (a surprising French role by the talented American legend Gene Kelly). The twins’ mother runs a local restaurant, and she reminisces about her first true love, whom she fled years ago, and he happens to be a musician friend of Solange. These are just a few of the cosmic-level coincidences that the viewer watches play out in this colorful and beautifully shot movie. A lighthearted film, it was dismissed as fluff when it was first released, but I think it is much better than that.

Donkey Skin is Demy’s adaptation of the famous (or infamous?) French fairy tale of the same name. A king’s wife dies, but on her deathbed, she makes him promise that he will not marry anyone less beautiful than she was. The king decides that the only person suitable in his kingdom is his own daughter. This incestuous plot is probably why the story is less well known here in the west. To flee her father, the princess has his prized donkey killed and skinned, and wears the skin as a cloak. This causes people to think she is ugly and smelly, and she moves to a new kingdom to live as a scullery maid. The prince of this new kingdom sees through her disguise though, and seeks to marry her. The movie isn’t perfect, for instance, the princess’s father disappears from most of the film once she flees, despite his supposed insistence on marriage, but it is a very enjoyable movie. Was also Demy’s most successful commercially.

Demy’s other films weren’t as successful, but there are some worth watching. Model Shop is an American-made film which serves as a semi-sequel to Lola. In it, Lola finds herself in the USA after Michele has left her to run off with the woman gambler from Bay of Angels. A film made in the 80’s, Une chambre en ville, is also sung-through like Umbrellas, but is a much darker film, and was nominated for 9 Cesar awards when it was released. Definitely worth watching. Demy is definitely one of those directors who doesn’t have the name recognition, but has some real treasures.