1979 - LADY OSCAR, a film late in the career of Jacques Demy

 A film made towards the end of Jacques Demy's career and not really one of his best.  Lady Oscar is based on a Japanese manga originally called The Rose of Versailles. Set in the 1700's as France heads towards their revolution. A French nobleman with a whole lot of daughters declares that the next daughter will be raised as a male and trained as a soldier.  If you think you are going to be watching some film about cross-dressing and male/female sex roles forget it.  Lady Oscar is sort of about the uprising and finally attack on the French Aristocracy particularly the end of the monarchy.  The character of Oscar is the personal guard to Marie Antoinette so she gets a front row seat on all of this but doesn't seem very affected by all the upheaval.

The film was funded by the Japanese and it's certainly elaborate with opulent sets and costumes in about every scene.  However the actors don't seem to bring much passion to their roles considering all that's going on around them.  Demy manages to stage a few scenes of interest but it seems like the old passion for making films just isn’ here with this film.  Even the tragic ending is indifferently filmed.

 

It's hard to believe this is the same director whose resume includes Lola, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Donkey Skin and The Young Girls of Rochefort.  All films that were really charming and quite beautiful to look at.  Even a misfire like Demy's remake of Cocteau's Orpheus called Traffic is more interesting than this film

 

The film was written by  Jacques Demy and Patricia Louisianna Knop, the running time is 124 minutes.

1982 - UNE CHAMBRE EN VILLE or A ROOM IN TOWN

Jacques Demy's film about a 1955 workers strike in a French town called  Nantes is a musical.  Like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg every single word of it is sung by every single member of the cast.

It looks like Demy's concept of dramatizing the strike and the love affair by one of the strikers and a married woman somewhat exceeded his ability to actually put what is essentially an intimate opera on film.  Still you have to give Demy credit for attempting something so audacious.  You just don't see films like this every day if at all. 

Demy must have worked very carefully to get the cast to seem as natural and unaffected as they are considering they are constantly singing, it's very tough to build a character in a film that has such an unusual approach to story.

Worth a look and doesn't overstay it's welcome.

90 minutes.

1963 - BAY OF ANGELS, has Jeanne Moreau in full European Diva mode

Jeanne Moreau's the show in this French drama from romantic fatalist filmmaker Jacques Demy.

Moreau plays Jackie, a very compulsive gambler throwing her life and her money away.  Moreau's hair is about the blondest I've ever seen and she's really got the "rode hard and put up wet," thing going.  This is the kind of film that in America would have starred Bette Davis or Joan Crawford in the 1940's but Moreau is a little more subtle when it comes to taking on this kind of character.

Moreau was always kind of the favorite of the French new wave directors and worked with Truffaut, Malle, Bunuel and Welles to name a few.  She also had romantic relationships with a lot of directors and actors one of who was apparently Lee Marvin of all people, go figure. 

Bay of Angels has great on location photography on the French Riviera and a very lush and maybe a little over the top piano score from Michel Legrand.  Still, Jeanne Moreau's really the reason to watch this.

89 minutes.