An infusion of French film culture makes its way to Toronto this weekend as TIFF Cinematheque presents a series devoted to Jacques Demy, a Parisian master of sight and sound.
While the term “French New Wave” has various connotations, Demy fuses his French style with a Hollywood sensibility. His films are narratives, driven and inspired not by politics or experimentation but a love for the whimsical and the capricious.
Starting June 27 and running through July 20, TIFF Bell Lightbox will showcase a complete retrospective of the famed auteur’s works, featuring song and dance, love and heartbreak, and a beautiful swath of colours. The films have an uncanny ability to challenge the viewer, as his dramas are filled with humour, and his comedies possess something darker underneath.
With that, here are our top picks from the series.
Lola
Yes, there is a much sought-after woman named Lola, and yes she is a showgirl, and there are plenty of diamonds, but this romantic drama comes well before the song of fame and takes place in Nantes, France. As Demy’s first feature film, this 1961 effort follows the out-of-luck Roland as he looks to gain success in love and business. Lola catches his eye, but she also earns the notice of others — and Roland looks to prove his worth. Demy’s debut presents very realistic problems that don’t necessarily have convenient and easy endings.
June 27, 6:30 p.m.
Bay of Angels
Demy’s second film deals with vice and temptation as this black-and-white feature finds a gambling banker making a chance encounter with a divorced mother named Jackie. Blonde and seductive, Jackie is a compulsive gambler, and she enchants the banker who quickly falls in love with her. She claims to love him, but her love for gambling seems stronger, and the idealistic Jean slowly realizes truths about love.
June 28, 6:30 p.m.
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
A follow up of sorts to Lola, we find a very similar tone and style in Demy’s 1964 romance. An auto mechanic and a young woman who owns an umbrella boutique fall in love, but war and uncertainty are soon to tear them apart. Geneviève gets pregnant and Guy is drafted, and their relationship is tested, especially when Roland (the same Roland from Lola), enters the picture and meets Geneviève. The complexities of relationships and the strains of love run throughout this film — a musical, mind you, in which everything is sung.
June 29, 6:30 p.m.
The Young Girls of Rochefort
The final film in Demy’s romantic trilogy is another musical, though this one is a bit more whimsical and upbeat. Set over the course of a weekend on the coast of France, and mostly in a single café, the film follows twin sisters and their encounters with various men. Time plays a factor here, as the men the girls meet — sailors, carnies, travelers — are transient, while their mother Yvonne longs for a man who slipped away. Once again, life here is full of bittersweet moments.
June 30, 6 p.m.