JACQUOT Movie Review

Jacquot de Nantes

Filmmakers Jacques Demy and Agnès Varda had been married for nearly 30 years when Demy was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Their life together had been based on their mutual passion for the cinema, and it was only natural that Demy's last project should be a cinematic portrait of how the love for movies developed in him as a child growing up in Nantes. It wasn't, however, to be his project alone. Varda scripted and directed, based on the stories he told her of his childhood, and together—through his failing health—they shaped this eloquent and heartfelt love letter to a life in the movies, which would be simply titled Jacquot de Nantes. Reenactments of Demy's childhood—which included the Nazi occupation—take us up to the period of his young adulthood and his realization that movies are his destiny. Clips from some of Demy's most well-remembered films, including The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Lola, and Donkey Skin, are used to enrich and widen the meaning of these childhood anecdotes, as are interview segments with the aging and ill director. Demy never lived to see the finished film, but he must have sensed what a personal and almost private memoir Varda was creating. A showman as well as an artist, however, Demy would have been proud that his wife invited all the moviegoers of the world to celebrate his life with her. (The title was shortened simply to Jacquot for American release.)

NEXT STOP … Lola, The Young Girls of Rochefort, Vagabond

1991 (PG) 118m/C FR Philippe Maron, Edouard Joubeaud, Laurent Monnier, Brigitte de Villepoix, Daniel Dublet; D: Agnes Varda; W: Agnes Varda; C: Patrick Blossier. M: Joanne Bruzdowicz. VHS COL