Lola (1961)

A bored young man meets with his former girlfriend, now a cabaret dancer and single mother, and soon finds himself falling back in love with her.

Director:

Jacques Demy

Writer:

Jacques Demy

Stars:

Anouk Aimée, Marc Michel, Jacques Harden

Nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Anouk Aimée	...	Lola / Cécile
Marc Michel	...	Roland Cassard
Jacques Harden	...	Michel
Alan Scott	...	Frankie
Elina Labourdette	...	Madame Desnoyers
Margo Lion	...	Jeanne, Michel's Mother
Annie Duperoux	...	Cécile Desnoyers (as Annie Dupéroux)
Catherine Lutz	...	Claire, the bar owner
Corinne Marchand	...	Daisy
Yvette Anziani	...	Madame Frédérique
Dorothée Blanck	...	Dolly (as Dorothée Blank)
Isabelle Lunghini	...	Nelly
Annick Noël	...	Ellen
Ginette Valton	...	Hair Stylist's Mistress
Anne Zamire	...	Maggie

Storyline

Roland Cassard is a young man with no job and seemingly no prospects. By chance, he runs into his former girlfriend Cecile, who works as a dancer at a cabaret under the stage name Lola. She is now a single mom and works hard to provide her young son with all of the necessities of life. Lola still hopes that her son's father Michel, the true love of her life, will someday return to them. Seeing Lola again confirms to Roland that he's still in love with her, but she doesn't return his feelings. He has also met Madame Desnoyer and her 14-year-old daughter, also called Cecile. Madame Desnoyer, a widow, is quite taken with Roland but he has little interest in her. Roland sees no future if he stays in France.

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Plot Keywords:

character name as title | one word title | cabaret | dancer | widow | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Italy France

Language:

French English

Release Date:

14 October 1962 (USA)

Also Known As:

Лола

Filming Locations:

La Baule, Loire-Atlantique, France

Box Office

Gross USA:

$103,951

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$103,951

Company Credits

Production Co:

Rome Paris Films

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

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Connections

Featured in The World of Jacques Demy (1995)

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Soundtracks

Le Clavier bien tempèré
Music by Johann Sebastian Bach (as Bach)

User Reviews

If you knew your geography...

...You would know that,in Chicago,there are no sailors but gangsters.That's what the mother tells her daughter who became friend with an American!This is one of the funniest lines of a wonderful movie.

There's a tight connection between "Lola" and Demy's following movie "les parapluies de Cherbourg":

-Lola is an unmarried mother,Genevieve becomes one too. Both are waiting for a lover,in a harbor .(Nantes for Lola,Cherbourg for Genevieve)

-Marc Michel's character,Roland appears in both movies!In love with Lola,he is rejected.In "les parapluies",his memories come back for a very short while: a flashback displays pictures of Nantes,where Lola's story took place .And he told Genevieve's mother about his long lost love.

-In "Lola" ,Roland wants to marry the heroine and to become her(not his) son's father.In "les parapluies",he marries Genevieve and becomes her (not his) son's father.

-Both movies display ordinary people,whose ordinary life is shown with emphasis but not without taste ,as if all this were written in verse.What's the matter if "Lola" is a "normal" movie and "les parapluies " an entirely sung one.Demy's touch makes both winners.

-Both movies -and it was to continue with "les demoiselles de Rochefort" and the marvelous "Donkey Skin"- favor the scenery:the black and white shots in "Lola" are at least as unreal and as dreamlike as the vivid colors in "les parapluies"(influenced by American musicals of the fifties)

-Both movies feature families without a father figure:the mother and the daughter I mention above ,we find them back in "les parapluies.." and even later in "les demoiselles de Rochefort".But in this latter work,it's the mother who's an unmarried mother.

"Les parapluies de Cherbourg" is praised and loved everywhere,but "Lola"'s still crying to be seen.Like Roland ,Lola will come back in another Demy's movie ,made in America: "Model Shop"(1968).Leonard Maltin says that "Demy's eye for LA is striking ,but overall feel to story is ambiguous".It's not on a par with Lola,though.