Lola, a Flor Proibida

The work of Jacques Demy (1931-90) has been called more approachable than that of many other French New Wave directors. His most famous and beloved film is most likely the 1964 musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg which is the second film in Demy's informal "romantic trilogy" that was started in 1961 with his feature debut Lola and finished in 1967 with The Young Girls of Rochefort. While Lola is less melodramatic than Umbrellas, it is an interesting portrayal of complexities of romantic love in its own right.

The story is set in Demy's hometown of Nantes near the Atlantic coast. A daydreaming young man Roland Cassard (Marc Michel) drifts from job to job until suddenly stumbling upon a cabaret dancer called Lola (Anouk Aimée), a childhood friend of his. Lola has a young son and gets a lot of attention from men, including an American Navy sailor named Frankie (Alan Scott), but only longs for her first true love Michel who left the town when she was pregnant and hasn't shown up since. Besides his newfound infatuation with Lola, Cassard also becomes acquainted with a single mother Mrs. Desnoyers (Elina Labourdette) and her teenage daughter Cécile (Annie Duperoux) who strongly resembles a younger Lola.

While watching the film, it soon becomes evident Demy is more interested in atmosphere than a strictly defined plot. The streets and locations of the coastal city of Nantes make a very pleasant-looking environment for the romantic feelings that are thrown around, sometimes requited, sometimes not. The effect of the not very distant World War 2 is still evident in the city: American soldiers frequent cabaret bars, people have their missing loved ones in fresh memory and many have had their lives changed significantly. Times can be tough for a dreamer like Cassard who appears to get involved in a shady smuggling operation, thus starting a crime subplot in the movie, but again, only feelings are what really matter in the world of Lola.

I liked especially the black and white photography of the street views as well as the cheery songs at Lola's cabaret bar. The use of music in general is pretty varied in the movie: a recurring piece is the beautiful Allegretto part from Beethoven's 7th Symphony, but the hectic jazz tunes never feel out of place either. With regard to the acting, the heart and soul of the movie is of course the eponymous Lola whose lively, emotional and energetic antics are memorably brought to life by Anouk Aimée. The young girl Cécile is also well portrayed by Annie Duperoux in her first (and penultimate) role. The men are hopelessly overshadowed by the women, although certain amount of detachedness suits Michel's character well. Alan Scott's heavily accented French (perhaps phonetically memorized?) doesn't sound very convincing though, considering Frankie's somewhat fluent grasp of grammar and casual conversation.

I am sure Lola will feel the most powerful to those who have been in love themselves and know the feeling of first love that is remembered even after many years. Demy's film seems to suggest such a feeling is something that life cyclically repeats for so many people, but to each person it is once new. Well, that is what I got out of it anyway but in any case, I would say Lola is recommended viewing for Nouvelle Vague beginners and anyone who likes The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. There may not be as much singing in Lola (described by Demy as "a musical without music") as in Umbrellas, but the two films have a lot in common, such as the theme of lasting love and the Roland Cassard character. Fans of more atmospheric romance cinema should also give Lola a look.

It's impossible to talk about "lola" without mixing ideas and, in most cases, without getting speechless. It's a movie that meets everything what a movie has to meet. Poetry, glamour, great music, dazzling photography, daily and real dialogs; but overall, "Lola" is the master of human sensibility. And that is what is "Lola", a story which is focused on sensations, love and hopes. Maybe I'm a bit exaggerated and little objective when i talk about this masterpiece, but when I see Lola crying because of Roland's happiness watching him through a the window of a bar, i can't avoid thinking "this is life, a mixture of magic and pain" Demy is a poet. He could collect poetry and reality, resulting in charming, elegant and fresh movie. Watch Lola without expecting anything, but be sure that, at the same moment you turn off the TV after watching it, you will be, as me, speechless. Just plenty of emotions.

Jacques Demy's effervescent romance is one of the best and most enduring examples of the stylistic explosion since called the French New Wave, but compared to Resnais' often-tortured exposition and Godard's turgid socio-political cul-de-sacs this playful look at the mysteries of first love is alive with an almost irresistible vitality. Demy pursues with tongue-in-cheek determination the idea that life can be a series of happy accidents, weaving several interlocked plot threads into a delicate web of chance and coincidence to illustrate the casual symmetry of life and love. At the heart of the film is a young cabaret dancer waiting (against reason) for her American sailor to return, whose sometimes sad, sometimes comic story is oddly echoed in the lives of everyone around her. It's as if the world were an endless progression of dancers and sailors, destined to mingle and mix in a never-ending attempt to rekindle that first, unforgettable spark of passion.

This film, which sets up many of the story lines and themes that are taken up in "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg," is as charming and seductive as the latter, even in black and white and without the musical numbers. In fact, the black and white is quite spectacular--the camera loves Anouk Aimée in particular--and the film seems as if it is going to turn into a musical at almost every moment. While watching the film, one thrills to see the first statement of director Demy's beautiful and poignant cinematic universe. "Lola" is at once a splendid homage to the classic Hollywood film, and at the same time, through its expression of complex, mostly tragic themes, and quotidian--if not ugly--realities, something much more intriguing than a conventional film romance. Yet, such harshness is tempered, even transformed, by the dreamscape of cinema, both in what is depicted on-screen as well as through the characters' own processes of dreaming. You needn't resist the temptation to call it sublime.

This director is ROMANTIC! I think he rightly shows the astonishing contrast between love being generated by complete chance and fleeting encounter - with its lasting consequence and possibly enduring devotion. I just loved it.

One of the things that is so winning about this movie (also true of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) is how very modest the characters -- and the movie - are.

The characters are sincere - if they lie, they apologize later - and unafraid to say when they are greatly moved -- and when they aren't.

I think both movies wonderfully portray mother - daughter relationships - and both are quite sympathetic to men as well as women.

How often do you see movies that show the truth of men's emotions wracked by romantic feelings (rather than solely lust) - sometimes returned and sometimes not? Very seldom.

In some ways, I prefer Lola to Umbrellas because the plot is more ingenious, the vividly drawn characters more numerous - so there is more to engross one. (On the other hand, by concentrating on just the love for one woman, Umbrellas creates an agony in the viewer that is more powerful than any feeling in Lola).

Just see it - and you'll see many disparate pieces pull together in a wonderfully satisfying, utterly charming, wonderful romantic tale.

Lola and Umbrellas make me anxious to see the Young Girls of Rochefort.