| Welcome to In The Balcony. We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Plus, you'll be eligible for the monthly $1 million prize. (Not really.) Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| Jacques Demy; The REAL Hero of the New Wave | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Oct 21 2005, 04:20 PM (519 Views) | |
| panzer the great & terrible | Oct 21 2005, 04:20 PM Post #1 |
|
Mouth Breather
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
There has been a lot of talk about Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Alain Resnais, Jacques Rivette and even for some reason Eric Rohmer -- all of them have made interesting movies, but for my money the great New Wave director is Jacques Demy, because all of his movies fit together into one big work, the way John Ford's do. We now have five Demy movies on DVD, and I suppose they are his best-reviewed ones, but I also guess I'd like the rest just as well. Some people are good even when they're bad. LOLA was his first picture. Obviously made super-cheap, it's still a dazzling debut. First, all the actors are attractive, headed up by ravishing Anouk Aimee in the title role. She's a dime-a-dance girl just trying to get by until her sailor comes home. And we know he's back from the first shot of the film, so all we're doing is waiting for the happy ending we know will come. What a beautiful structure for a movie; it can ramble all over the map, but the audience is satisfied because they know all will end well. To my delight there was a quote from this movie in the last episode of SEX AND THE CITY. The second film, BAY OF ANGELS, is more serious. It's about love and addiction, the love of addiction, and how love can overcome addiction. Jeanne Moreau in a blonde wig plays the woman our hero falls for even though he's fully aware that she's the worst thing that could happen to him, but then their love straightens them both out in the end, if you buy that. It all happens suddenly, like the end of PICKPOCKET, so some find it hard to swallow. I think it's beautiful myself. His third picture you've probably seen, THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG. Young love and loss. The hero ends up with the right girl, the heroine with the wrong man. Bittersweet masterpiece. His first color film and one of the best color films ever. Great score too. THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT was the sequel the success of CHERBOURG demanded, and Demy sort of shuffled LOLA and CHERBOURG together into another musical, this time with dancing. Trouble was, nobody knew how to make a dance movie -- Gene Kelly was on hand, but not for enough days, it seems. The official choreographer, whose name I forget, didn't know how to do it for the movies. Still, for a Demy fan, a treat to find all his themes in one place. PEAU D'ANE (DONKEY'S HEAD) is the most recent DVD release. A straight retelling of an old French fairy tale without Disneyfication, it propels us into the strange world of folk tales with their primal emotions. Children accept it without question, but adults find it strange. This one I didn't like the first time -- it kept doing things I didn't expect -- but the second time, when I knew what was coming, I loved it. I think a lot of good things are like that. Rolling Stones songs are. Has anybody seen any others? Demy's wife, Agnes Varda, herself a New Waver, made a movie about him, JACQUOT DE NANTES, with clips from most of his pictures. It was pretty much fun. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
![]() |
|
| ZenArcher | Oct 23 2005, 07:00 PM Post #2 |
|
Charter Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I'm a big fan of Truffaut, especially 400 Blows,Shoot The Piano Player,Jules and Jim, and The Bride Wore Black. I'm also love musicals, but I had a really hard time with Umbrellas of Cherbourg. I might have just been in a funk or something that day. I'll give it another spin. I've got a NetFlix account so I'll give Lola and Bay of Angels a look later in the week. They feature a couple of my favorite actresses, Anouk Aimee and Jeanne Moreau, so if I like them well enough, they'll probably end up in my collection. Thanks for the recommendations. I'll be back with a synopsis in a few days. >>---ZA--> |
|
>>---ZA---> "The Oxen Are Slow, But The Earth Is Patient." | |
![]() |
|
| Black Tiger | Oct 23 2005, 07:42 PM Post #3 |
|
Charter Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Peau D'ane is also known as Donkey Skin. The great Michel LeGrand did the music for this as well as Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Young Girls of Rochefort. |
![]() |
|
| panzer the great & terrible | Oct 24 2005, 01:57 PM Post #4 |
|
Mouth Breather
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Did I say Donkey head? I meant Donkey Skin. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
![]() |
|
| ZenArcher | Oct 24 2005, 05:27 PM Post #5 |
|
Charter Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Hey, I resemble that remark.
|
|
>>---ZA---> "The Oxen Are Slow, But The Earth Is Patient." | |
![]() |
|
| ZenArcher | Oct 27 2005, 06:41 PM Post #6 |
|
Charter Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I watched Lola this afternoon and it was a treat. I thought the plot was just a smidgen on the thin side, but the cast made up for it. But then it may just be me. I'm so accustomed to the convoluted plots of foreign films,this one seemed almost too straightforward. The character of Roland was very humorous, trying to play himself up as the anti-hero, as if he had watched the Maltese Falcon a few times too many. The character development was excellentthroughout the film. Anouk Aimee was delightful, as usual. The movie had a lot going on but the editor must have been a crackerjack, because it all works well. I thought the cinematography looked a little familiar and sure enough, it was Raoul Cotard, who did Jules and Jim and Breathless(which I mentioned in my earlier response in this thread), Le Mepris with Bardot and Les Caribiniers. An hour and half well spent. Thanks, panzer. I'll let you know when Bay Of Angels makes it in and I give it a look. >>---ZA--> |
|
>>---ZA---> "The Oxen Are Slow, But The Earth Is Patient." | |
![]() |
|
| panzer the great & terrible | Oct 28 2005, 08:04 AM Post #7 |
|
Mouth Breather
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
BAY OF ANGELS is one of my favorite films ever. It's about being in love with the worst possible person. This is a subject I can understand. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
![]() |
|
| ZenArcher | Oct 28 2005, 08:37 PM Post #8 |
|
Charter Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Yes, like the moth to the flame are we drawn.
>>---ZA--> |
|
>>---ZA---> "The Oxen Are Slow, But The Earth Is Patient." | |
![]() |
|
| ZenArcher | Nov 1 2005, 06:52 PM Post #9 |
|
Charter Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I received Bay Of Angels and it was damaged, so I'll have to wait for it to be shipped again. More then. >>---ZA--> |
|
>>---ZA---> "The Oxen Are Slow, But The Earth Is Patient." | |
![]() |
|
| Black Tiger | Feb 6 2007, 08:46 PM Post #10 |
|
Charter Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I love Demy's collaborations with Michel LeGrande and Catherine Deneuve. Umbrellas of Cherbourg has a special resonance and I find it deeply moving and touching. LeGrande actually popped up with a jazz trio recently at the Alliance Francaise in NYC and they had a really great concert. I was fortunate enough to win a trio of dvds that were given as door prizes. In addition to Umbrellas and Donkey Skin, they gave me one I never heard of before, much less seen - A Slightly Pregnant Man. Marcello Mastoianni stars but with Demy/LeGrand/Deneuve, it is probably at least interesting. |
![]() |
|
| « Previous Topic · Dans le Balcon · Next Topic » |





![]](http://z2.ifrm.com/static/1/pip_r.png)



The character development was excellent
12:47 AM Jul 11