Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Fantastic!

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Whether or not you enjoy "Lola", the disc from Criterion includes a surprisingly large number of extras--including several of Demy's early short films.The story is named for the main character, Lola (Anouk Aimée) who is a cabaret dancer who is either very promiscuous or a prostitute--you really don't know whether or not she charges for her services or is just incredibly friendly! She is, at the same time, hoping a lover from seven years ago returns to claim her and her child fathered by him. At the same time, several others in the film are also looking for love...such as an old friend of Lola's who is infatuated with her, an older lady who wants to capture this man for herself and her very, very stupid daughter who just turned 14 and is looking for love in all the wrong places.The film is technically well made but is very little like his later masterpiece, "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg". It's competently made and mildly interesting but for me that was really all there was to it.

Before musical film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, its director Jacques Demy (The Young Girls of Rochefort) made this French film, so it was only right I saw the predecessor film, also in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Basically in the Atlantic coastal city of Nantes, France, until a chance encounter young man Roland Cassard (Marc Michel) (he returned as the same character in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg), he meets a woman he knew previously as a teenager before World War II, now cabaret dancer Lola (BAFTA nominated Anouk Aimée). Though he has feelings for her, she is trying to reconnect with the man who abandoned her and her seven year old son years ago, her former lover Michel (Jacques Harden), but she also has the attention of American sailor Frankie (Alan Scott), but he is failing to win her heart as she does not share the same feelings for him. Unable to find work in the city Roland resorts to crime and gets involved in a plot with the local barber to smuggle diamonds, and he later crosses paths with teenage girl Cécile Desnoyers (Annie Duperoux), she is very similar in her life to Lola, who coincidentally shares the same real first name. Michel, apparently now very successful, returns to Nantes hoping to marry Lola, but she is leaving for Marseille for another job, Roland is also leaving town for his reasons, they do not cross paths again. Also starring Elina Labourdette as Madame Desnoyers, Margo Lion as Jeanne, Michel's Mother and Yvette Anziani as Madame Frédérique. The acting of Aimée as the innocent and bored single mother is memorable enough, and Michel as the character I remember from the follow up film was almost as charming as he becomes later, the story was a little slow and hard for me to keep up with a little, and I didn't laugh all that much, but the satirical and realistic 1930's setting and imagery is great, I prefer the follow up more, but this is a watchable romantic comedy drama. It was nominated the BAFTA for Best Film from any Source. Very good!

If Jacques Demy is famous for anything - and by anything I mean The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg and The Young Girls Of Rochefort - it's the ability to magic fairytale and fun out of the grey-grind of parochial French life. Admittedly he achieves this in the first place by simply splashing colour over everything. But in this black and white film of 1961, that particular synaesthetic channel isn't open.Instead we get an energetic tale of loves lost and found, missing one another - and, with great care and nuance, reflecting one another. Lola is like Robert Altman or even PT Anderson but before their kookiness or romanticism ironed it out a little.The performances are all strong - even Alan Scott's Frankie; I spent the first half of the film trying to work out whether he's a French playing an American with a bad accent or just an American... The stratified, wistful non-conclusion to the film is a payoff worth pursuing, though the rest of the film is fine. 7/10

The modern mainstream movie-goer will probably react negatively toward this wonderful little film, an early Demy masterpiece. Meetings and love, what I like most in life in this moment, are the most wonderful aspects of human life. It takes longer for some people to realize this. Maybe if they fall in love they will understand what surely brings happiness, and it is not about things or stuff. Simple meetings between people. Human interaction. I miss nothing in this film, it has the elements I want from a movie. The score is wonderful; Mozart, Legrande (who uses the same tune in Parapluies de Cherbourg) and especially Beethoven's 7th symphony that is well fit in the finale. Maybe what I like so much about movies is the combination of photo and music. And the photo by Raoul Coutard (my favorite cinematographer) is amazing. The beautiful and detailed outdoor scenes, the light, the compositions.The little affair between the American sailor and the 14-year old French girl would probably be classed as soft pedophilia today, btw.5/5