Lola (1961)

Directed by Jacques Demy. Starring Marc Michel, Anouk Aimée, Alan Scott, Elina Labourdette, Annie Duperoux, Jacques Harden, Margo Lion.

Demy’s first film, a tribute to Max Ophüls, builds an indolent fantasy world version of coastal France in which blasé Roland (Michel) reconnects with his titular ex-flame (Aimée), now a cabaret dancer, after a chance encounter; she still pines for a former lover (Harden) who knocked her up years ago, while an American (Scott) struggles with his unreciprocated lust for her, but c’est la vie. Residing on the feathery fringes of the French New Wave, Demy’s style and atmosphere are well-regulated, and there are moments of bliss that commingle with moments of ennui in delightful ways, but the airy sentiment needs more flavorful, robustly-defined characters to skate through such wispily-manufactured, idealized predicaments. Aimée’s charms and screen presence negate her shortcomings as an actress, but the men are all carved out of basswood. The first chapter of a loose “trilogy” of films from Demy (followed by The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort); Michel would go on to reprise his same role in the first of those.

66/100