Model Shop

This film is not the worst. Gary Lockwood as lost young architect George Matthews and Anouk Aimee as Lola, a stage name for a lost french model who works at a cheesy photo shop for erotic models.

The street scenes from 1969 are quite interesting. The actress who plays Gloria died at a young age from arteriosclerosis. She also is good as a rather direction-less actress, she wants to act, but George tells her ..."I will just see you naked in a bathtub, more soap commercials"... .

The sets are odd in that L.A. was still a relatively undeveloped city....its fun to see the old cars, the oil well and cheap housing George and Gloria live in right on the beach no less. Wonder where that was, in actuality, filmed. It would be interesting to compare how it looks today.

George basically meets up with some friends, tries to get interested in a newspaper his friends are running, he mostly needs a distraction to prevent himself from thinking about the draft, as his father informs him that he must return to San Francisco after the weekend to be entered in to the military for Vietnam. Vietnam and its cease-fire is hinted at here by a radio broadcast, but overall you get the sense of the pointless war, the young men trying to avoid the draft.

He eventually meets up again with Lola and tells her he wants to love her. She, a few years older, simply smiles. They eventually wind up at her friends nearby apartment though she is already packing to return to Paris to see her estranged son. They spend the night, and it gives George a slight sense of hope. He allows his former relationship with Gloria to evaporate, debates deserting the army, but eventually realizes, it is what it is.

Aimee is good, understated here, as a rather lost and empathic character who just wants to afford a flight back to Paris. Not an intricate theme here, but worth seeing for older scenes of L.A. 8/10.

Gary Lockwood cuts an amusingly masculine presence on the screen: dressed in T-shirts and blue jeans, chain-smoking and driving a revamped jalopy--his hair combed down over his forehead like a teenage car mechanic--he's a walking centerfold out of Tiger Beat. Lockwood plays an unemployed denizen of Los Angeles who follows peculiarly glamorous Anouk Aimée one afternoon down the city street and into a model shop (where men can photograph girls--look but don't touch). She's a French immigrant who'll be returning home soon (something to do with her papers), and he's been drafted and about to have his car repossessed. Certainly a one-night-stand is all these two lovelies can afford, but the things they talk about, the connection they make, may last a lot longer. Director Jacques Demy seems to have fallen in love with late-'60s L.A., and much of the movie is spent just following Lockwood around from place to place. It isn't right to say the picture meanders (it hasn't got the agenda to meander from!), though it does feel mighty thin. Films based upon character and conversation are apt to tire some viewers' patience, but those in the mood for a low-keyed, would-be love story could certainly do worse. Lockwood is boyish but solemn, perhaps a loner, and of very few words; still, he connects with viewers on an intrinsic level (you trust him) and his final scene on the telephone is a winner. **1/2 from ****

People who know Demy's work will notice the connection between "Lola" "les parapluies de Cherbourg" and "model shop":the first and the third feature Lola ,both played by Anouk Aimée ,and the first and the second one feature Roland ,Lola's unfortunate lover.They will notice how Gary Lockwood ,who plays the male lead in "model shop" resembles Marc Michel,the FRench actor who plays Roland.In "les parapluies de Cherbourg" ,Lola is a memory,and we can hear Roland talk about her to Deneuve's mother.And,how strange,in "model shop",Lola opens her photo album and she begins to recall people from the past,actually the characters of "lola":Michel,the gambler whom she married ,and Frankie ,the marine who died in the war since.Unwarranted nohow:Lockwood's character is to leave for Vietnam very soon.... as Deneuve's fiancé was fighting in Algeria in "les parapluies de Cherbourg".The phone call between Lockwood and his father reveals a lot about the late sixties zeitgeist .

That said,"model shop" is not among Demy's best and might put off a lot of viewers because it's more "nouvelle vague" than any of this director's works.The first thirty minutes are sometimes boring and it's difficult to feel Demy's touch .There was something magic in the towns of Nantes and Cherbourg ,which does not operate here except maybe during the cast and credits ,where the American town seems terribly depressing .The characters are not as interesting as in "Lola" or "les parapluies" and sometimes seem like relics from a long gone past (eg the hippies,Spirit pop group).The movie really takes off during the Aimée/lockwood scenes but they are few and far between.

"Model shop" was a commercial fiasco .I remember that when it was released it only stayed one week in the movie theater where it was shown in my town.I did not see it at the time.So I had to wait 24 years to catch it on one of its very rare TV broadcastings.Afterwards ,Demy made "Peau d'Ane " (Donkey Skin) and it was a return to former glories. I will recommend "model shop " to Demy's fans but Demy's fans only.

The time and the setting (late 60's LA) seem among the most authentic of any movie from that period, probably owing to the director who wasn't trying to exploit the culture like so many American directors of the time did. The film transcends nostalgia, and is very worth seeing for the style, authenticity, and music (provided by one of LA's greatest bands, Spirit). The main character played by Gary Lockwood (lots of TV credits over the years) is under great direction by Demy, who helps to make him into an American version of someone out of French New Wave. And into the wave comes Anouk Aimme, whom he meets in an LA "model shop", about as cool and detached a woman as ever graced the screen.

The Model Shop which was made in 1969, is not out-dated today. Gary Lockwood plays a 26 year old who spends an entire day driving about town looking for something meaningful, as the threat of being drafted looms in the background. Clearly a somewhat typical 1960s film in the category of Summertree or Hail Hero, Lockwood has everything, but has nothing. Symbolism abound, and a great take on the American Dream. The film is low-key, as is Lockwood's performance. Unable to feel, or numbed by life's surroundings. Only after receiving his draft notice does Lockwood's character finally admits for the first time that he's afraid of what the future holds. The "Head in the Sand" feelings of many Americans in the 1960s who felt the war in Viet-Nam had nothing to do with them, is exposed here, until it's too late to feel, too late to care, and too late to love. The Model Shop is a "model" of modern film-making.