Most of our customers associate the Nouvelle Vague with names such as Godard-Truffaut-Chabrol etc etc. One name that rarely comes up in discussions at the counter of our video store is that of Jacques Demy. Yet Demy also made his best-known films during the heyday of the Nouvelle Vague. Unlike the relevant representatives, however, many accuse him of being too dependent on Hollywood themes. Demy is rather mentioned as the husband of Agnes-Varda. Sometime in the 90s, however, the world of geeks changed its view of Demy and finally he was ennobled by the Criterion Mammoth Box "The Essential Jacques Demy". If you now look at his films (very successful at the time, by the way!), you'll notice how out of step they are with the rest of his Nouvelle Vague colleagues. After all, their work revolves primarily around the question of HOW films were made. They always question the stories they tell. Demy, on the other hand, is content to create a universe all his own. In the Demy universe, everything is more exaggerated, more colourful, more kitschy than in real life. A universe full of deeply felt fantasies, underpinned with lots of music. Demy loves such stylised genres as the musical or the fairy tale. He loves colours and emotions that can only be expressed by singing them. Contemporaries and some of our clients would probably dismiss this as the work of someone incapable of dealing with reality. And who would deny that Demy's favourite genre, the musical is the most surreal representative of all genres? His debut Lola will probably still correspond most closely to what we think of as Nouvelle Vague. The film is set in Demy's native Nantes and features Anouk Aimee in the title role. Lola is a nightclub singer who longs for her lovers - but is also not averse to an adventure. And then there is Roland (Marc Michel), who returns to Nantes and gets involved in a shady diamond business to get Lola out of the whole swamp around her. Even today, Lola is rarely rented. But if you watch the film anyway, is it hard to understand why this never became one of the great classics of the New Wave? Lola features vivid, realistic actors and a shaky camera that takes us through the streets of Nantes. There are numerous allusions to great classics, just as is a preference of the Nouvelle Vague! But there is one big difference: Demy has choreographed his action with such virtuosity as we only know from Hollywood musicals! Nothing here is due to chance (unlike in so many Nouvelle Vague classics). Lola is just as romantic as the love films of Godard-or-Malle - but much more pessimistic. Are his characters allowed to find happiness? Demy takes a big step towards darkness here, and his contemporaries preferred to refuse...
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