In 1961, three years before Jacques Demy directed Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg), he wrote and directed Lola. As with Umbrellas, Michel Legrand wrote the music, which largely consisted of variations on his Recit de Cassard, or Watch What Happens. As fans of Umbrellas know, this song also plays a dominant and recurring role in Umbrellas. [Above, the Polish poster for the 1961 film]
Lola centers on a group of aimless escapists who are eager for love and a new location where they are certain their luck will change. The title character, Lola, is played by Anouk Aimée (above), who is stunning and suitably upbeat and vulnerable here. Co-starring is Marc Michel as Roland Cassard, a handsome loser, who went on to play the same character with the same name in Umbrellas.
Also starring is Alan Scott, who plays the blonde American sailor (above) who had a brief affair with Lola, and Jacques Harden as Michel, Lola's long-lost love and father of her son who abandoned them seven years earlier. The three men orbit Lola in the French seaside town of Nantes, where she lives and works as a cabaret dancer, without ever meeting each other.
Demy referred to Lola as a musical without music, which is apt. One might also think of the film as the black-and-white demo for Umbrellas of Cherbourg, right down to Legrand's theme. Also coincidental, three of the characters in Lola wind up in Cherbourg. In all, Demy and Legrand worked on eight films together. Lola was their first. [Photo still above of Marc Michel and Anouk Aimée]
Here's Anouk Aimée in Lola. Please note that in three different places, the sound disappears for about 30 seconds. Just read the subtitles until the sound returns...
