713-719 The Essential Jacques Demy

[domino harvey]

The Essential Jacques Demy



French director Jacques Demy didn’t just make movies—he created an entire cinematic world. Demy launched his glorious feature filmmaking career in the sixties, a decade of astonishing invention in his national cinema. He stood out from the crowd of his fellow New Wavers, however, by filtering his self-conscious formalism through deeply emotional storytelling. Fate and coincidence, doomed love, and storybook romance surface throughout his films, many of which are further united by the intersecting lives of characters who either appear or are referenced across titles. Demy’s films—which range from musical to melodrama to fantasia—are triumphs of visual and sound design, camera work, and music, and they are galvanized by the great stars of French cinema at their centers, including Anouk Aimée, Catherine Deneuve, and Jeanne Moreau. The works collected here, made from the sixties to the eighties, touch the heart and mind in equal measure.


Lola



Jacques Demy’s crystalline debut gave birth to the fictional universe in which so many of his characters would live, play, and love. It’s among his most profoundly felt films, a tale of crisscrossing lives in Nantes (Demy’s hometown) that floats on waves of longing and desire. Heading the film’s ensemble is the enchanting Anouk Aimeé as the title character, a cabaret chanteuse; she’s awaiting the return of a long-lost lover and unwilling to entertain the adoration of another love-struck soul, the wanderer Roland (Marc Michel). Humane, wistful, and witty, Lola is a testament to the resilience of the heartbroken.

Bay of Angels



This precisely wrought, emotionally penetrating romantic drama from Jacques Demy, set largely in the casinos of Nice, is a visually lovely but darkly pragmatic investigation into love and obsession. A bottle-blonde Jeanne Moreau is at her blithe best as a gorgeous gambling addict, and Claude Mann (Army of Shadows) is the bank clerk drawn into her risky world. Featuring a glittering score by Michel Legrand, Bay of Angels is among Demy’s most somber works.


The Umbrellas of Cherbourg



An angelically beautiful Catherine Deneuve was launched into stardom by this glorious musical heart tugger from Jacques Demy. She plays an umbrella-shop owner’s delicate daughter, glowing with first love for a handsome garage mechanic, played by Nino Castelnuovo. When the boy is shipped off to fight in Algeria, the two lovers must grow up quickly. Exquisitely designed in a kaleidoscope of colors, and told entirely through the lilting songs of the great composer Michel Legrand, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is one of the most revered and unorthodox movie musicals of all time.


The Young Girls of Rochefort



Jacques Demy followed up The Umbrellas of Cherbourg with another musical about missed connections and second chances, this one a more effervescent confection. Twins Delphine and Solange, a dance instructor and a music teacher (played by real-life sisters Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac), dream of big-city life; when a fair comes through their quiet port town, so does the possibility of escape. With its jazzy Michel Legrand score, pastel paradise of costumes, and divine supporting cast (George Chakiris, Grover Dale, Danielle Darrieux, Michel Piccoli, and Gene Kelly), The Young Girls of Rochefort is a tribute to Hollywood optimism from sixties French cinema’s preeminent dreamer.


Donkey Skin



In this lovingly crafted, wildly quirky adaptation of a classic French fairy tale, Jacques Demy casts Catherine Deneuve as a princess who must go into hiding as a scullery maid in order to fend off an unwanted marriage proposal—from her own father, the king (Jean Marais)! A topsy-turvy riches-to-rags fable featuring songs by Michel Legrand, Donkey Skin creates a tactile fantasy world that’s perched on the border between the earnest and the satiric, and features Delphine Seyrig in a delicious supporting role as a fashionable fairy godmother.


Une Chambre en Ville



In this musical melodrama set against the backdrop of a workers’ strike in Nantes, Dominique Sanda plays a young woman who wishes to leave her brutish fiancé (Michel Piccoli) for an earthy steelworker (Richard Berry), though he is engaged to another. Unbeknownst to the girl, the object of her affection boards with her no-nonsense baroness mother (Danielle Darrieux). A late-career triumph from Jacques Demy, Une chambre en ville received nine César Award nominations and features a rich, operatic score by Michel Colombier.


13 DISC SET

• New 2K digital restorations of all six films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-rays of Lola and Bay of Angels and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 surround soundtracks on the Blu-rays of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Young Girls of Rochefort, Donkey Skin, and Une chambre en ville
• Two documentaries by filmmaker Agnès Varda: The World of Jacques Demy (1995) and The Young Girls Turn 25 (1993)
• Four short films by director Jacques Demy: Les horizons morts (1951), Le sabotier du Val de Loire (1956), Ars (1959), and La luxure (1962)
• Jacques Demy A to Z, a new visual essay by film critic James Quandt
• Two archival interviews from French television with Demy and composer Michel Legrand, one on The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and the other on The Young Girls of Rochefort
• French television interview from 1962 with actor Jeanne Moreau on the set of Bay of Angels
• Once Upon a Time . . . “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” a 2008 documentary
• French television program about the making of Donkey Skin
• “Donkey Skin” Illustrated, a video program on the many versions of Charles Perrault’s fairy tale
• “Donkey Skin” and the Thinkers, a video program on the themes of the film, featuring critic Camille Tabouley
• New video conversation with Demy biographer Jean-Pierre Berthomé and costume designer Jacqueline Moreau
• New interviews with author Marie Colmant and film scholar Rodney Hill
• Q&A with Demy from the 1987 Midnight Sun Film Festival, as well as an audio Q&A with him from the American Film Institute in 1971
• Archival audio recordings of interviews with Demy, Legrand, and actor Catherine Deneuve at the National Film Theatre in London
• Interview with actor Anouk Aimée conducted by Varda in 2012
• Interview from 2012 with Varda on the origin of Lola’s song
• Video programs on the restorations of Lola, Bay of Angels, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and Une chambre en ville
• Trailers
• New English subtitle translations
• PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critics Ginette Vincendeau, Terrence Rafferty, Jim Ridley, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Anne Duggan, and Geoff Andrew, and a postscript by Berthomé

[criterion10]

This is a thing of beauty. I saw The Umbrellas of Cherbourg for the first time a few months ago and fell in love with it, so I most definitely will be purchasing this box set. Hopefully, it will be included as part of the B&N sale (I'm afraid that the release date falls after the time frame.)

[Moe Dickstein]

They always make it so the July releases are included in the sale (same for November)

[The Narrator Returns]

This is a thing of beauty. I saw The Umbrellas of Cherbourg for the first time a few months ago and fell in love with it, so I most definitely will be purchasing this box set. Hopefully, it will be included as part of the B&N sale (I'm afraid that the release date falls after the time frame.)

Lucky for you, it appears to be the week before the sale normally ends (and that's if it isn't extended, like it was the last few times).

[domino harvey]

I have the French box with its share of exclusive titles and extras, but I'll gladly upgrade. If Criterion is using the same master as the French Blu-ray for Rochefort, look out as it's a stunner. Shame they couldn't wrestle Lola-sequel Model Shop from Sony (Or didn't try?)

[knives]

I have the French box with its share of exclusive titles and extras, but I'll gladly upgrade. If Criterion is using the same master as the French Blu-ray for Rochefort, look out as it's a stunner. Shame they couldn't wrestle Lola-sequel Model Shop from Sony (Or didn't try?)

They should have been able to due to it being owned by Sony. I'm curious of the missing shorts.

[ryannichols7]

I have the French box with its share of exclusive titles and extras, but I'll gladly upgrade. If Criterion is using the same master as the French Blu-ray for Rochefort, look out as it's a stunner. Shame they couldn't wrestle Lola-sequel Model Shop from Sony (Or didn't try?)

this is pretty surprising, especially given their relationship with Sony. maybe a later individual release? materials may not have been up to par.

that being said, this box is more than any of us could've ever dreamed of, right?

[domino harvey]

It does indeed look like a lovely package. I wish it wasn't called "The ESSENTIAL Jacques Demy" though, as that is a little more debatable...

[knives]

Yeah, making it nameless or giving it a William Klein type name would have been less frustrating given the lack of some pretty great films.

[jindianajonz]

Pardon my ignorance, but

2.0 surround soundtracks

is this a typo, or some weird thing I've never heard of?

[EddieLarkin]

Pardon my ignorance, but

2.0 surround soundtracks

is this a typo, or some weird thing I've never heard of?

Some weird thing you've never heard of:

Dolby Stereo

The optical soundtrack on a Dolby Stereo encoded 35 mm film carries not only left and right tracks for stereophonic sound, but also—through a matrix decoding system similar to that developed for "quadraphonic" or "quad" sound in the 1970s—a third center channel, and a fourth surround channel for speakers on the sides and rear of the theater for ambient sound and special effects. This yielded a total of four sound channels, as in the 4-track magnetic system, in the track space formerly allocated for one mono optical channel.

The vast majority of 2.0 stereo tracks should be played with Pro Logic engaged to replicate the original matrixed surround (and centre channel) effect.

[zedz]

I have the French box with its share of exclusive titles and extras, but I'll gladly upgrade. If Criterion is using the same master as the French Blu-ray for Rochefort, look out as it's a stunner. Shame they couldn't wrestle Lola-sequel Model Shop from Sony (Or didn't try?)

this is pretty surprising, especially given their relationship with Sony. maybe a later individual release? materials may not have been up to par.

I suspect the ship has sailed on Model Shop. It's a weak film that would only really make sense in a box like this, and it would be astonishingly perverse for Criterion to release big titles like Umbrellas as box set exclusives and have a film like that as their only standalone Demy offering. It's not his worst feature, but that's only because few major directors have unleashed anything as awful as L'événement le plus important depuis que l'homme a marché sur la lune on the world.

I'd say the best films that have been left out of the set are Le bel indifferent and La Naissance du jour - and maybe The Pied Piper. Most of the rest are curios of varying degrees. I'm very pleased to see that Un Chambre en ville made the cut! I thought for sure that it would be left by the wayside.

[Minkin]

Very happy to have this finally released (after my speculating a few years back) - though it still seems odd to box everything up - when most people will only be interested in Umbrellas (guess its a good way to get them to see other Demy films/pay more). Ecstatic for Donkey Skin (my favorite Demy film) and glad it made it to Blu-ray.

Perhaps either a "non-essential Demy" set (hopefully not Eclipse) will come out later - since the few other Demy titles are either with Janus or easy enough to get.

All I can say is: Thank God for the dual format decision, otherwise I'd be having to buy this set twice.

[Calvin]

I have not yet seen all the films included but I'm sold! Provided there's no mishaps, it's a surefire contender for release of the year with a lineup of extras like that though I half expected Varda's Jacquot de Nantes to be included with any Demy set that Criterion released. Hopefully it gets a release of its own as it's a delightful film.

It's not his worst feature, but that's only because few major directors have unleashed anything as awful as L'événement le plus important depuis que l'homme a marché sur la lune on the world.

Though Criterion do appear to have the rights to that one, so maybe we're due an Inessential Jacques Demy set in the future.

[knives]

Model Shop is actually one of my favorite and I only add the one because I know seeing it first has made me insanely biased. I can't think of a thing not to love in it.

[Drucker]

So can anyone give a quick primer on what to expect for these films for those of us unfamiliar? The only thing I've come to expect from the French New Wave is the surprising diversity many of the filmmakers offer (amongst one another), and I expect Demy will make me feel the same way.

[zedz]

So can anyone give a quick primer on what to expect for these films for those of us unfamiliar? The only thing I've come to expect from the French New Wave is the surprising diversity many of the filmmakers offer (amongst one another), and I expect Demy will make me feel the same way.

If you think of the virtues of old MGM musicals, most of those can be found in these films, even the ones that aren't musicals. There's an elegance and exuberance to the filmmaking that, at its best, offers sheer movie-movie delight. However, in almost all cases Demy tempers the films with darker (sometimes much darker) subtexts. They're films that straddle Nouvelle Vague 'realism' and Hollywood fantasy but manage to do so without feeling strained or ironic.

[knives]

Just expect exciting beautiful odes to classic Hollywood. I suppose with his most famous film it's easy to call him MGM's answer to Chabrol's Hitchcock, but he's so much more than that. There's a pretty clear Demy essence, but he shifted with surprisingly great variety within it and that's without me having only seen three of the contained films. I guess I mean just expect to be pleased.

[Shrew]

Demy's definitely his own guy. He shares with the French New Wave (though he's not really part of the Young Turks from Cahiers) an appreciation of old Hollywood, though his interests lean more toward romance and musicals than noir, gangsters, or Hitchcock. He also has a much greater interest in how narratives work, and how themes of fate/destiny within genres like romance and musicals can produce tragic as well as happy endings.

If you want a quick comparison to fit him in with the New Wave, he's probably furthest away from Godard. I'm not sure I could say he's "like" anyone though. Maybe most to his own wife, Varda?

[PfR73]

Isn't there an alternate English language version of The Young Girls of Rochefort?

[tenia]

I hope they won't have to use what Arte use for Lola, the restoration and subsequent BD is far from good.

[knives]

Isn't there an alternate English language version of The Young Girls of Rochefort?

There might be a dub, but the film was exclusively shot in French with even Kelly speaking the language on set.

[giovannii84]

Isn't there an alternate English language version of The Young Girls of Rochefort?

There might be a dub, but the film was exclusively shot in French with even Kelly speaking the language on set.

Does Gene Kelly perform his own voice in the dub? If he does it would be good to have. That said, I'm pleased to see one of my favourite stars Gene Kelly finally in the collection.

[Yaanu]

I wonder what the packaging will be like. Thirteen discs across six films; I'm guessing one DVD and one BD, plus an extra DVD for other supplemental features.
So five two-disc holders and one three-disc holder, I'm guessing. Hopefully it works out well.

[Dylan]

Isn't there an alternate English language version of The Young Girls of Rochefort?

From Jonathan Rosenbaum's review of The Umbrellas of Cherboug:

There are English-dubbed versions of both Umbrellas and Young Girls; I haven't seen the latter, but the English version of Umbrellas is so unrelievedly awful that I'm happy to have missed the dubbed Young Girls.

I've only known of one or two other people who claim to have seen an English dub of Umbrellas, which I'm guessing was pulled from circulation shortly after its debut (whenever that was) seeing as there's nothing else written about it outside of Rosenbaum's review (that I can find). The English dub of Rochefort, however, is well-known and the complete soundtrack to the English version was released on LP at the time and is also included on the recently released (and marvelous!) 11 CD box set of Michel Legrand's complete scores for Demy films (a box set that also includes alternates, covers, demos, concert versions, etc. but it doesn't include the alleged English version of Umbrellas beyond cover versions of certain songs recorded after the film's release). Speaking of which, I'm curious as to why there isn't a new interview with Legrand on this. He's still alive & very active (though I know he's been busy touring for the last few years).