LOLA Movie Review

Jacques Demy's audacious first feature—a pioneering work of the French New Wave—is every bit as startling and fresh as it was when it captivated worldwide audiences in 1961. Lola is a romantic fable with music and dancing but it is in no way the conventional movie musical we've come to know. Lola (Anouk Aimée) is the dancer who was left with a baby in her home in Nantes seven years before; she always believes the baby's father will come back to her—and will, of course, be wealthy. The romantic encounters that happen in Lola are a part of life's own erotic choreography; it's no coincidence that the film is dedicated to Max Ophüls, whose La Ronde gave us a carousel of love that eventually took us back to where we began, as does Demy's whirling, magical Lola. Aimée is enchanting as the unashamedly trusting dancer whose faith carries her along to the conclusion she knew would come. Demy's first choice was to film Lola in color, but he didn't have the budget; that turned out to be a turn of events as miraculous as those in his film. Raoul Coutard's glistening black-and-white widescreen images allow Demy's sweetly imagined fantasy to remain delicately alive; the burden of realistic color could have crushed it. The Michel Legrand score includes Bach and Mozart as well.

NEXT STOP … On the Town, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Jaquot

1961 90m/B FR Anouk Aimee, Marc Michel, Elina Labourdette, Jacques Harden; D: Jacques Demy. VHS INT, TPV