Life-long film buff, husband of Agnès Varda & one of the first successful directors to emerge from the broadly defined milieu of the French New Wave, Jacques Demy’s (1931-1990) personalised reworking of prized Hollywood conventions made him a unique auteur amongst his peers.

Demy’s films are mostly tender, capricious stories of love found, lost & then, fleetingly, regained, that are told with an exhilarating command of film rhythm matched with an outrageous decorative elegance & a strong sense of nostalgia.

This season of specially imported 35mm prints features most of the director’s key works including his first film, the Max Ophuls-dedicated masterpiece, Lola, the conceptionally groundbreaking hugely successful Les parapluies de Cherbourg (winner of the Cannes’ Palme d’Or in 1964), & its eye-popping follow-up, Les demoiselles de Rochefort. This season also includes Demy’s return to form in the early 1980s, the little seen Prix Méliès winner Une chambre en ville, Varda’s homage to the life & cinema of her husband, Jacquot de Nantes, started before & completed just after his death, and his first properly released short, Le sabotier du Val de Loire.

7:00 - LES PARAPLUIES DE CHERBOURG
Jacques Demy (1964) 91 mins PG

A perfect combination of setting (the chilly seaside town of Cherbourg), costume & hyper-real décor, Demy’s perennial, bittersweet, all-singing love story tells of a young shop assistant (Catherine Deneuve) who, on discovering she is pregnant after her boyfriend is drafted to fight in the Algerian War, marries another man. Jean Rabier’s sumptuous cinematography & Michel Legrand’s truly memorable score intensify the characters’ emotional states, helping create the ultimate European tribute to the Hollywood musical of the ’40s & ’50s. Palme d’Or, Cannes 1964.

CTEQ Annotation:
'Stingin' in the Rain: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg' by Peter Kemp

Trailer @ Youtube

Preceded by

Le sabotier du Val de Loire
Jacques Demy (1955) 26 mins

A key early documentary study of the life of a clog-maker.

Both 35mm prints courtesy of CULTURESFRANCE

9:10 - LA BAIE DES ANGES
Jacques Demy (1963) 90 mins

Jeanne Moreau stars as an aging, striking ash-blonde Parisian gambler with a blind spot for roulette in Demy’s spontaneous & dazzling second feature, “a magical, whirling little film, a triumph of style” (Pauline Kael). Upon her arrival at the casino town of Nice she strikes it lucky & simultaneously picks up a handsome young man (Claude Mann) who she comes to regard as her talisman despite her later heavy losses. Demy masterfully creates a contrastive world that combines a lyrical storyline of love, loss & addiction, with a harder-edged, sun-kissed, almost pulpy sensibility. Lush score by Michel Legrand.

CTEQ Annotation:
'La Baie des Anges' by Lindsay Henderson

35mm print courtesy of CULTURESFRANCE

Trailer @ Youtube

7:00 - LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT
Jacques Demy (1967) 125 mins G

Pink champagne is the beverage equivalent of this euphoric pastel-coloured musical. Demy’s bubbly, dreamy filmmaking results in a heady mix containing sweet (but not syrupy) song & dance numbers (scored by Michel Legrand), meticulous art direction, & effervescent performances. Real-life sisters Catherine Deneuve & Françoise Dorléac are the “young girls” of the title & are joined by Danielle Darrieux, George Chakiris, Michel Piccoli & Gene Kelly, all of whom light up the small town of Rochefort with their romantic musings & escapades.

35mm print courtesy of CULTURESFRANCE

Trailer @ Youtube

9:15 - UNE CHAMBRE EN VILLE
Jacques Demy (1982) 90 mins

Nantes, 1955. A striking worker rents a room from a rich widow (Danielle Darrieux). His relationship with his pregnant girlfriend already foundering, he falls in love with a callgirl (Dominique Sanda), setting the stage for a tragic last act. The dialogue, delivered entirely in song, matches the often unsettling visuals & haunting score by Michel Colombier David Thomson praised the film’s “fascinating application of the operatic technique to an unusually dark story”. Demy’s film received 9 César nominations & won the Prix Méliès. With Michel Piccoli.

7:00 - LOLA
Jacques Demy (1961) 90 mins

Anouk Aimée gives the performance of her career as a charismatic cabaret artist who dreams that her first love will return to claim her & their son. Musically interweaving a variety of characters, Demy’s enchanting, bittersweet first feature film magically transcends time & features stunning black-&-white Franscope photography by Raoul Coutard & a dreamy score by Michel Legrand. Dedicated to Max Ophuls, Demy’s opus was described by David Thomson as “among the greatest debuts in 100 years of cinema”.

35mm print courtesy of CULTURESFRANCE.

Trailer @ Youtube

8:45 - JACQUOT DE NANTES
Agnès Varda (1991) 118 mins

The first of Varda’s moving tributes to her late husband is a wistful, emotional & eloquently joyous valediction for a much-loved filmmaker & soul mate, focusing on his boyhood & adolescence (1939-48) & featuring poignant reconstructions of his early film work. Shot just prior to Demy’s death but released after, this evocation of the director’s youth (based on his own recollections) is a Proustian memory-work that summons & situates his formative experiences. One of the most beautiful, eloquent & loving tributes by one filmmaker to another.

35mm print courtesy of CULTURESFRANCE.

CTEQ Annotation:
'Jacquot de Nantes' by Peter Kemp

Trailer @ Youtube