464. Le Demoiselles de Rochefort/The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967)

Running Time: 124 minutes
Directed By: Jacques Demy
Written By: Jacques Demy
Main Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Francoise Dorleac, George Chakiris, Jacques Perrin, Michel Piccoli
Click here to view the trailer

A DOUBLE SHOT OF DEMY: 2 of 2

THE BOOK lists Agnes Varda as a co-director on this, but I can find no evidence of that ANYWHERE else, so I'm choosing to omit it. It also doesn't help that THE BOOK is occasionally wrong, so I'm more prone to believe, say IMDB, than the 1001 text. Anyway, another Demy movie and a worse one at that. Read on...

While The Young Girls of Rochefort doesn't spend the ENTIRE duration in song, like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, it does use the majority of it. The story revolves around twin sisters, Delphine (Deneuve) and Solange (Dorleac), dance teachers who reside in Rochefort and who are both single. They're both pretty dreamy, staring out windows, hoping that Mr. Right comes soon to whisk them off their feet. They sing songs about being twins (the main theme of the whole film) and are just hap-hap-happy to be alive, apparently - except for the whole lack of men thing, that's a downer. Enter...a lot of people actually. First up, there's Etienne (Chakiris - the leader of the Sharks!) and Bill, two out of towners who also happen to operate a traveling fair, that just happens to be setting up shop for a weekend in Rochefort. Then there's a sailor (was Demy a lovesick sailor or something) named Maxence (Perrin), who has drawn a picture of the girls of his dreams, but has yet to find her. Coincidentally, the picture bears a striking resemblance to Delphine and the picture hangs in the town art gallery, which is run by Delphine's boyfriend, Guillaume. However, Delphine dumps him early on and spends the rest of the film wondering if she'll ever meet the mysterious painter of the picture. The thing is, the painter/sailor hangs out frequently at the twins' mother's french fry stand, but the two always seem to just miss each other (this whole movie is full of "one guy walks in a room, just as his dream girl is exiting" type scenarios). Meanwhile, Solange runs into Andy (Gene Kelly), literally and rushes off in a hurry. Andy realizes that Solange is HIS dream girl and spends the rest of the film wondering what she's like and looking for her. The twins' mother is also lovesick, as she separated from her Mr. Right because she didn't like his last name (Dame - meaning his name was Mr. Dame; or Mr. Woman) and now regrets the choice.

Man, I just couldn't settle into this one. I've really dug Demy so far (the other two I've seen anyway) and so with a blow away cast like this lined up, I was expecting an all cards on the table type of production. However, I think THE BOOK nails it on the head when it gives it's assessment: the film is almost non-stop joy. There's not really any sadness or blue characters and perhaps it's all those smiles that just got to be a little nauseating. I'll say that the musical numbers got to be a bit much too, especially when one song would begin mere moments after one just ended. I was begging for a character to just deliver their dialogue with a straight voice. The whole affair is pretty pointless too. We have this handful of characters who are all single and yearning love, they all belly ache about it for two hours and then when we get down to the nitty gritty, we quickly wrap everyone up in their nice bow (except Guillaume, because dicks don't get to love!) and send us home just as happy as the vomit inducing characters in the movie. Well, not this viewer. I would've much preferred the film be kept closer to ninety minutes, cut a big chunk out of all the singing and the "I need love"/"where oh where is Mr. Right"/"my dream girl rushed off on me and now I'll spend the rest of my life looking for her" crap and just cut to the chase!

Okay, okay I'm being a tad harsh. It's not THAT bad, but it does get tedious after a while and seriously, a ninety minute running time would have and could have done wonders for the flow. Also, a little less singing and a tad more acting (you got the actors, use 'em) wouldn't have hurt matters either. As it is, the film, as per usual with Demy, is gorgeous. All the colors of the rainbow are on display and if they ever restore this and put it in IMAX, may God have mercy on our retinas. On the subject of Demy, I'm still overall impressed with his body of work (just judging on three films, mind you) and I'd be all for taking in even more of his films and trying to find that definitive one that suits me to a tee. I really liked Lola and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, but I feel there's a better one out there, one that I liked all around. If you dig musicals and don't mind lots of smiling, lovesick, good looking people, then blind buy this puppy and deliver it to your DVD player ASAP. Otherwise, take a pass and rent the previously mentioned Demy films instead.

RATING: 5/10  Call it down the middle and a disappointment, considering I was looking forward to this one. Can't win 'em all, I guess.

MOVIES WATCHED: 891
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 110

January 10, 2015  5:38pm

372. LOLA (1961)

Running Time: 90 minutes
Directed By: Jacques Demy
Written By: Jacques Demy
Main Cast: Anouk Aimee, Marc Michel, Jacques Harden, Alan Scott, Elina Labourdette
Click here to view the trailer

A DOUBLE SHOT OF DEMY: 1 of 2

It seems that I probably should've watched these Demy, BOOK movies in chronological order, as most reviewers will tell you that they sort of intertwine and that both The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort draw, at least a little bit, from Lola. Well, I've already done "Cherbourg" and I'll be reviewing "Rochefort" next, so hopefully it won't make that much of a difference. Anyway, this installment of Demy's tale - his first feature - was pretty good!

The whole movie is one big love pentagon (or maybe even hexagon), intertwining different broken hearts and found romances. The film begins with a blonde man, arriving into the French town of Nantes, driving a white Cadillac. He nearly runs down a platoon of American sailors, who are having a short stay over in Nantes, before moving onto Cherbourg, then home. One of the sailors is Frankie (Scott), a Chicagoan who speaks French quite fluently, has a fiance back home and a mistress in Nantes. The mistress? None other than the title's Lola (Aimee), a single mother and cabaret dancer waiting for the father of her son and AWOL lover to return to her, knowing someday he will. Turns out the lover in question - Michael - didn't think he could properly provide for a family, so he went on the lam until such time that he was able to do so. Meanwhile, there's Roland Cassard, a romantic and a depressive, who's just lost his job. Luckily it only takes him about thirty minutes of screen time to find a new one - delivering a mysterious, leather briefcase to Johannesburg and then bringing a second one back to Nantes. While perusing a bookstore (Roland - an avid reader), Cassard meets Cecile, a teenage girl and her mother. Cecile is looking for a French to English dictionary and while the bookstore doesn't have one, Roland offers up his personal copy, which he offers to drop off. Cecile's mother takes the opportunity to gussy herself up, as gentleman callers have become less frequent since Cecile's father is out of the picture.

SPOILER ALERT!

Were there supposed to be connections made between Lola (whose real name is Cecile) and young Cecile here? I didn't pick up on any, but oversaw a post mentioning it. I didn't read it, but instead decided to come here and ask the rhetorical question. I honestly can't think of any that would be that relevant, but perhaps it's all going over my head. In fact, I didn't really watch Lola as a film that was filled with underlying ideas and hidden meanings, instead simply viewing it as a story of love and love lost, beautifully shot in a breath taking black & white. Plus the whole thing is a big downer and I'm a sucker for sad stories. Sure, things end up well for Lola, whose long lost Michael finally returns, but did anyone else's heart break for Roland, whom we last see frantically walking along the road, probably on his way back to Lola's, unknowingly passing the white Caddy as he marches? That shot of him from Lola's point of view, as he walked rapidly got to me for some reason - a man letdown, a man broken, nothing else to live for. On the other hand, there's Frankie, a man who didn't seem to have any use for Lola other than a good time and a bragging story for his sailor buddies. A man who was already engaged back home and whose long term future with Lola was nonexistent, seeing as how he was leaving soon. I was definitely a Roland supporter here and viewed Frankie only as "in the way". Also, poor Cecile's mother (can't recall her name), who tries so hard to look good for Roland, who pays her almost no attention. Perhaps we're to view it as love being in Roland's lap, yet him being blind to it, because of his feelings for Lola.

Anyway, what a great, dialogue driven film that really pleased me as a moviegoer and one that was really tired and going in, would've preferred his bed to motion pictures. I have to hand it to Lola for pulling me out of my exhaustion, reviving me and giving me a fine movie to chew on. What a beautiful movie too, not just the cinematography, but also the actors - all good looking chaps and ladies, especially Anouk Aimee who is breath taking and opposed to Leslie Caron, deserves to have multiple men vying for her heart (see An American in Paris review). Another thing I got to thinking about - I really think I short changed The Umbrellas of Cherbourg! I vividly remembered that movie as I was watching this and even going back to check out the review, I was reminded of the colors, again eye popping cinematography on display from Demy and crew. I'd call Umbrellas at least a '7' and probably due a rewatch, seeing as how I only handed it a '6.5'.

RATING: 7/10  At this point, I can't wait to tear into The Young Girls of Rochefort and hope it holds up to the standards I've set for Demy films. In fact, it'd be nice to see Rochefort blow the other two out of the water and give me a definitive Demy favorite.

MOVIES WATCHED: 890
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 111

January 8, 2015  4:34pm

417. Les Parapluies de Cherbourg/The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)

Running Time: 91 minutes
Directed By: Jacques Demy
Written By: Jacques Demy
Main Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo, Marc Michel, Anne Vernon, Ellen Farner
Click here to view the trailer

TASTE THE RAINBOW

I was halfway through "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" when one of the characters started to talk about a girl named Lola and I said to myself, "I wonder if this film is some sort of sequel to Demy's 1961 film Lola?" Well, it sort of is. But, thankfully it's referred to as an "informal trilogy" and the films do stand on their own merits, so it wasn't essential that they be watched in order. For the interested, there's also a third part to the trilogy called "The Young Girls of Rochefort" and all three films are in THE BOOK.

The actual plot of the film is as simple as it gets, but what makes "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" stand out and what probably gained it entry into the pages of THE BOOK, is the fact that every bit of it's dialogue is sung. Deneuve is seventeen-year-old Genevieve Emery and she's head over heels in love with Guy (Castelnuovo), a twenty-year-old auto mechanic who has mutual feelings for Genevieve.  Genevieve's mother isn't pleased with the union and tells Genevieve that she's acting irrational when she hears her talking about marriage and children. However, this is that kind of "West Side Story" love where no one else's opinion matters but the two in love. The strength of their love makes it all the more difficult when Guy is summoned to attend his two year, mandatory military service. He promises to write and the two have a very emotional goodbye at the train station. The next segment of the film reveals that Genevieve is pregnant with Guy's child and that a family friend, Roland Cassard (Michel) has the hots for Genevieve and wants her hand in marriage. Scared that she'll be an all alone, single mother, Genevieve accepts Cassard's request and marries him, relying on his promise to raise the child as his own. This makes things all the more difficult and emotional during the third and final segment when Guy returns home.

Watching "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" is literally like watching a bag of Skittles come to life and sing you song! I've rarely seen a more gorgeous film and the colors here are truly mesmerizing. The shots are crisp, the angles are perfect and even with the volume turned off, this is a stand out picture. In fact, it may even be better with the volume turned off, because to tell you the truth, the music kind of got on my nerves after a while. THE BOOK praises the incessant singing, while I condemn it for holding the movie back and I really could have done with a break in the music and some regular speaking from the characters. Is it possible that the French singing dialogue doesn't come across as well to an English speaking viewer? I mean, I couldn't really sing along with them, because they were singing in a different language and as the words came across the bottom of the screen, I couldn't sing them in my head and had no choice but to simply read them. Therefore, my inner voice was hearing spoken word, while my ears were hearing song and it all got a bit muddled and annoying. It was certainly a great idea and obviously people took to it in droves and I understand that this film's signature is the 100% singing dialogue, but I wasn't crazy about it. I guess I wouldn't be your first choice if you had an extra opera ticket.

The plot was insanely melodramatic and was as simple as pie. Girl falls in love with boy, he leaves, she falls in love with another in his absence, he returns...and beyond that there have been different variations of the climax over the years. I liked the ending here, as it didn't seem to sensationalized and more down to earth. What happens to these characters is what would probably happen to a real world couple who went through this same situation. Deneuve is gorgeous, innocent, pure and perfect as Genevieve and the rest of the cast is just as wonderful and what sports they are for signing on for a film that was entirely sung. Their pipes must have been burning before the the shooting was over and I can't even imagine how many flubbed lines there must've been.

RATING: 6.5/10  Can't go TOO high, but it wasn't bad and it was damn gorgeous to feast your eyes on, so there's that. I'll get to "Lola" and "The Young Girls of Rochefort" someday down the road, but this was currently streaming on YouTube and I wanted to watch it before it disappeared, as there's nowhere else to find it.

MOVIES WATCHED: 562
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 439

October 26, 2012  6:00pm