Lola – Jacques Demy, 1961

Her name is Lola, she is a showgirl...in Nantes...where sailors seek a good time on the town...and there’s even one called Frankie. He’s engaged, but that doesn’t prevent him from falling prey to the charms of Lola, who still carries a torch for her first love, and cannot return the depth of feeling Roland has for her...ah, Lola...naive, sentimental, seductive Lola...
   And then there is Cecile, just 14 and besotted with Frankie, who takes her on a fairground ride during which the cover rolls over and for a moment, in the darkness, she can fantasise that he is all hers. She is raised by her mother, who looks as if she has just stepped out of Vogue magazine circa 1955...she too has high hopes for love in the middle of her life, and the object of her affection is Roland, for whom Nantes has nothing to offer. He is made redundant, preferring a good book to punctuality. He will do anything to escape, even if it means taking a dubious assignment carrying a bag across continents...but he meets Lola, a childhood friend, and everything changes, so he hopes...
   But who is the stranger in a Stetson driving a flash American car into the opening frame? He appears again, but doesn’t interact with any of the characters until the story is almost over...
   As fate interweaves the live of these people Lola may be central to the story, yet Demy does not lessen the impact she has on others, never reduces them to mere extras. The sight of Roland’s solitary walk, suitcase in hand towards the harbour, is as powerful as anything else we see...so too is the yearning felt by Cecile’s mother...and of course, that magical fairground ride for Cecile...
   Lola’s song, Legrand’s music, American sailors...it feels like a rehearsal for the films that would follow. As the characters yearn for fulfilment we see Demy’s dream of what cinema can be beginning to take shape...his romance with Hollywood will blossom into a vision very much of his own making...unlike Cecile’s American dream...