Lola (1961)

Finally, finally, Jacques Demy's "Lola" is available on DVD!!!! Considering the brilliance of Demy's movies, it is strange to notice that he is seldom remembered nowadays, and his movies are very hard to find, both on DVD and inclusively on the internet. The exceptions, are, off course, his Palm D'Or winner "Les Parapluis de Cherbourg (1964) and the masterpiece-one-of-the-best-movies-of-all-time (and a personal favorite of mine) "Les Demoiselles of Rochefort" (1967). The rest are seldom shown and mostly neglected. His widow and also filmmaker Agnes Varda has been restoring his films, and now, his first film, which I had been looking for years literally everywhere, and the one which starts a sort of trilogy with the two above mentioned, is finally available. I quickly bought it and watched it eagerly, as it was reviewed everywhere as a masterpiece. I was somewhat disappointed at first, because a film by Demy is a lavish over-the-top fairy tale treatment of colour and song, with a concise and clear down-to-earth approach to life and love. But in "Lola" he had no money nor reputation, so he had to trade colour for a black and white photography (which he used nonetheless as a master), and to deprive the movie of songs and musical numbers, relying solely in a fabulous score by Michel Legrand (who would become his musical companion for all his masterpieces), and a single silly song routine by Lola (c'est moi... c'est moi Lola!). Yet, cheaply done, it has all Demy's themes. Here his object is very purely treated. Without the songs and the grandiouse treatment, "Lola" becomes a delicate piece, which may not appeal at first, but then, gradually, when everything comes together, the depth of the simplicity is so great that one awes in the site of every scene. Demy was learning his art, and at the end one may be disappointed of "that being only it?", but at the core, "Lola" is simple, direct, and delicate, a tale of first love and of hope. Lola (lovely Anouk Aimée, who balances her silliness with her greater depth like a master) is a cabaret dancer who has a 7 year old son of a very young pregnancy. Her sailor lover, Michel, left for America and never returned. She lives in hope of his return and of happiness with him. While she waits infinitely, she gets involved with another sailor, Frankie (Alan Scott), but she knows it will not last. She then meets Roland Cassard (played with restraint by Marc Michel) a childhood friend who wanders aimlessly through life, and who falls in love with her. There is also a young girl and her mother, who become friends with Cassard. The young girl almost relives Lola's story with sailor Frankie. These 5 characters colide in Nante during 3 days, expressing their dreams, hopes and desires. Like I said, the movie shows them all in turn, and their encounters, and one may wonder what is the point and where all that is headed, and also how does Lola fit in all this. But everything centers on Lola eventually (at the expense of losing track of some of the characters), as she neglects both wanna-be lovers, for the memory of Michel. And here, all of a sudden, everything made sense to me. The hour build up suddenly made me realize the true nature of the film and its mastery. Without dramatic scenes, without emotion, and a light touch, Demy conveyed the essence of love, the essence of wanting and needing love, the essence of the first love, of the hopes and dreams it produces, and of the failures and the glories associated. The end, like every Demy film, is both fairy-tailish and heart-felt, not so magic as others though, but with strong undercurrents of hope. Cassard's story and the events in Cherbourg would be depicted in "Parapluis" 3 years later to huge success. One can only wonder how much magnificent "Lola" would have been had Demy money, colour and music, but as it stands "Lola" is a strip down of the Demy universe to its bare essence, and a quaint and nice 85 minute love-story of masterful simplicity, yet masterful meaning, that paves the way perfectly for the magic spectacles Demy would produce in the following years. I am not sorry at all of having bought the DVD!