JACQUES DEMY

Jacques Demy, a prominent French filmmaker of the French New Wave, stands out from his peers through his visual and sound design, camera work, and music which incorporate deeply emotional storytelling. Common elements in his features include storybook romance, fate and coincidence, and doomed love. These elements are sometimes further united by the intersecting lives of characters in the films. Some of his best works are further embellished by some of the greatest stars of French cinema, such as Anouk Aimee, Catherine Deneuve, and Jeanne Moreau.

Born on June 5, 1931 in Pontchateau, France, Demy spent his childhood in Nantes where he studied fine arts and directed animated and live-action shorts. He began experimenting with his own style of work, drawing on musicals, fairytales, and elements from the golden age of Hollywood. After working with the famed animator Paul Grimault and filmmaker Georges Rouquier (the latter of whom he produced his first documentary short “Le Sabotier du Val de Loire” with), he directed his first feature film, Lola (1961). Lola showcased many elements and themes common to subsequent Demy films, including songs, musical style, Hollywood imagery, chance encounters, fate, and long-lost love. The songs were by composer Michel Legrand, who collaborated with Demy in his other films as well. The setting for Lola was the French Atlantic coast where Demy spent his childhood, in this case the town of Nantes.

Demy's second feature, La Baise des Anges (1962) starring Jeanne Moreau and Claude Mann, was a gambling melodrama exploring the theme of fate and love at the roulette tables. Next Demy brought out his original musical, Les Parapluies de Cherbourg in 1964, a project he had been cultivating since Lola. Les Parapluies included the role of the Lola protagonist in a new form, with the dialogue being entirely sung. This feature saw the emergence of Demy's trademark visual style, shot in saturated supercolour, with every detail selected for maximum visual impact. The film opened to worldwide critical acclaim, and it was said that none of Demy's future films, although original and attractive, managed to captivate the audience and critics in the way that Les Parapluies did. Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967), although another musical, differed from its predecessor through the alternating use of music and spoken dialogue. Rochefort was nominated for an Oscar for best musical score.

In 1967, Demy landed a contract with Columbia Pictures, and he and his spouse Agnes Varda (whom he married in 1962) left for Hollywood. His first American film Model Shop (1969) concluded the Lola story. His subsequent films (1971 onwards) are less highly regarded, although after years of neglect his strengths have been recognized. “A Slightly Pregnant Man” is said to be an interesting look back at the pressures of second-wave feminism in France and the fears it elicited in men. Les Parapluies de Cherbourg was digitally restored and reissued to great acclaim in 1998. Jacques Demy died of AIDS in 1990 at the age of 59, and was interred in the Montparnasse Cemetery.

Selected Filmography:
Lola (1961)
La Baie des Anges (1962)
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (1964)
Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967)
Model Shop (1969)
Peau d'Ane (1970)
The Pied Piper (1972)
The Slightly Pregnant Man (1973)
Lady Oscar (1979)
Une chamber en ville (1982)
Parking (1982)
Trois places pour le 26 (1988)