Lola is a 1961 romantic drama film written and directed by Jacques Demy (in his feature directorial debut) as a tribute to director Max Ophüls, described by Demy as a "musical without music". Anouk Aimée stars in the titular role. The film was restored and re-released by Demy's widow, French filmmaker Agnès Varda.
The names of the film and title character were inspired by Josef von Sternberg's 1930 film The Blue Angel, in which Marlene Dietrich played a burlesque performer named Lola Lola.
Contents
Plot
In the seaside French town of Nantes, a young man, Roland Cassard, is wasting his life away until he has a chance encounter with Lola, a woman he knew as a teenager before World War II, who is now a cabaret dancer. Although Roland is quite smitten with Lola, she is preoccupied with Michel, who, seven years earlier, had got her pregnant before abandoning her. Also vying for Lola's heart is American sailor Frankie, whose affection Lola does not return.
Struggling for work, Roland gets involved in a diamond-smuggling plot with a local barber. Cécile, a 13-year-old girl, crosses paths with Roland; in many ways she reminds him of Lola, whose real name is also Cécile. In the end, Michel returns to Nantes, apparently very successful and hoping to marry Lola, just as she is leaving for another job in Marseille. She goes away with Michel as she always said she would.
Cast
Anouk Aimée - Lola
Marc Michel - Roland
Jacques Harden - Michel
Alan Scott - Frankie
Elina Labourdette - Madame Desnoyers
Annie Dupéroux - Cécile Desnoyers
Production
Filming took place from 7 June to 17 July 1960 in Nantes and La Baule-Escoublac.
Critical reception
Lola received moderate reviews from critics. Chicago Reader's Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote it was "among the most neglected major works of the French New Wave" and "in some ways [Demy's] best feature."
Variety noted that "the mixture of melodrama, satire and poetics does not entirely jell. It is offbeat, with shafts of tender feeling and truth. But trying to touch on too many subjects makes the film uneven. Anouk Aimee has a pathetic quality as the mythomaniacal dancer who finally finds happiness, while Marc Michel is properly aimless as the boy. Lensing has the proper gray quality for this pleasant, unusual pic."
Travis Hooper of Film Freak Central gave it three-and-a-half out of four stars, stating that he believed that it "doesn't have the intellectual rigour of those other films". He went on to write that it "is stronger for feeling, showing that we need more than the confirmation of the worst if we intend to make it through our lives intact."
Not Just Movies gave Lola an A rating, mostly for Demy's "New Wave-cum-classical style", which "creates a self-contained world that gives a softly lit haze to reality as characters constantly aim for each other and miss, sometimes passing within mere inches of each other before carrying on or being redirected."
Wong Kar-Wai cited Lola as a primary influence on his film Chungking Express (1994), in inspiring that film's second half.
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 95% based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10.
Awards and nominations
1963 BAFTA – Nominated for Best Film from Any Source and Best Foreign Actress for Anouk Aimée
2001 New York Film Critics Circle Awards – Won the Special Award (also for the re-release of Demy's second film Bay of Angels)