Fri August 2, 2013
Model Shop, Jacques Demy (France/U.S., 1969)
SEE EVENT DETAILS
at Pacific Film Archive (PFA) Theater
(see times)
Vault Print!
As beautiful and moving as any of Demy’s films, Model Shop updates the fate of Lola (Anouk Aimée), the French prostitute who gave his first film its name in 1961, who has moved to Los Angeles and works in a “model shop,” where lonely men go to snap photos of beautiful women. 2001’s Gary Lockwood plays a would-be architect who pursues Lola like some holy grail through the City of Angels. Misunderstood or dismissed upon its release, Model Shop was Demy’s only American film, and it shows a fine outsider’s sense of atmosphere: L.A.’s fractured topography of beach, canyon, and low-rise metropolis, the pastel model shop with its labyrinth of back rooms, the lambent languor of the Sunset Strip at twilight. Aimée is supernal as the lost and longing Lola, Lockwood surprisingly fine as the architect who admires urban geometry but cannot find a design for his inchoate emotion.
—James Quandt
• Written by Demy. Photographed by Michel Hugo. With Anouk Aimée, Gary Lockwood, Alexandra Hay, Carol Cole. (92 mins, Color, 35mm, From Sony Pictures)
Preceded by:
Lust (France, 1961). (La luxure). Demy’s contribution to an omnibus film, The Seven Deadly Sins, is set on the streets of Nantes and features a young Jean-Louis Trintignant. (14 mins, In French with English electronic titling, B&W, 35mm, From Cine-Tamaris)
Total running time: 106 mins
show less
As beautiful and moving as any of Demy’s films, Model Shop updates the fate of Lola (Anouk Aimée), the French prostitute who gave his first film its name in 1961, who has moved to Los Angeles and works in a “model shop,” where lonely men go to snap photos of beautiful women. 2001’s Gary Lockwood plays a would-be architect who pursues Lola like some holy grail through the City of Angels. Misunderstood or dismissed upon its release, Model Shop was Demy’s only American film, and it shows a fine outsider’s sense of atmosphere: L.A.’s fractured topography of beach, canyon, and low-rise metropolis, the pastel model shop with its labyrinth of back rooms, the lambent languor of the Sunset Strip at twilight. Aimée is supernal as the lost and longing Lola, Lockwood surprisingly fine as the architect who admires urban geometry but cannot find a design for his inchoate emotion.
—James Quandt
• Written by Demy. Photographed by Michel Hugo. With Anouk Aimée, Gary Lockwood, Alexandra Hay, Carol Cole. (92 mins, Color, 35mm, From Sony Pictures)
Preceded by:
Lust (France, 1961). (La luxure). Demy’s contribution to an omnibus film, The Seven Deadly Sins, is set on the streets of Nantes and features a young Jean-Louis Trintignant. (14 mins, In French with English electronic titling, B&W, 35mm, From Cine-Tamaris)
Total running time: 106 mins
Vault Print!
As beautiful and moving as any of Demy’s films, Model Shop updates the fate of Lola (Anouk Aimée), the French prostitute who gave his first film its name in 1961, who has moved to Los Angeles and works in a “model shop,” where lonely men go to snap photos of beautiful women. 2001’s Gary Lockwood plays a would-be architect who pursues Lola like some holy grail through the City of Angels. Misunderstood or dismissed upon its release, Model Shop was Demy’s only American film, and it shows a fine outsider’s sense of atmosphere: L.A.’s fractured topography of beach, canyon, and low-rise metropolis, the pastel model shop with its labyrinth of back rooms, the lambent languor of the Sunset Strip at twilight. Aimée is supernal as the lost and longing Lola, Lockwood surprisingly fine as the architect who admires urban geometry but cannot find a design for his inchoate emotion.
—James Quandt
• Written by Demy. Photographed by Michel Hugo. With Anouk Aimée, Gary Lockwood, Alexandra Hay, Carol Cole. (92 mins, Color, 35mm, From Sony Pictures)
Preceded by:
Lust (France, 1961). (La luxure). Demy’s contribution to an omnibus film, The Seven Deadly Sins, is set on the streets of Nantes and features a young Jean-Louis Trintignant. (14 mins, In French with English electronic titling, B&W, 35mm, From Cine-Tamaris)
Total running time: 106 mins
read more
As beautiful and moving as any of Demy’s films, Model Shop updates the fate of Lola (Anouk Aimée), the French prostitute who gave his first film its name in 1961, who has moved to Los Angeles and works in a “model shop,” where lonely men go to snap photos of beautiful women. 2001’s Gary Lockwood plays a would-be architect who pursues Lola like some holy grail through the City of Angels. Misunderstood or dismissed upon its release, Model Shop was Demy’s only American film, and it shows a fine outsider’s sense of atmosphere: L.A.’s fractured topography of beach, canyon, and low-rise metropolis, the pastel model shop with its labyrinth of back rooms, the lambent languor of the Sunset Strip at twilight. Aimée is supernal as the lost and longing Lola, Lockwood surprisingly fine as the architect who admires urban geometry but cannot find a design for his inchoate emotion.
—James Quandt
• Written by Demy. Photographed by Michel Hugo. With Anouk Aimée, Gary Lockwood, Alexandra Hay, Carol Cole. (92 mins, Color, 35mm, From Sony Pictures)
Preceded by:
Lust (France, 1961). (La luxure). Demy’s contribution to an omnibus film, The Seven Deadly Sins, is set on the streets of Nantes and features a young Jean-Louis Trintignant. (14 mins, In French with English electronic titling, B&W, 35mm, From Cine-Tamaris)
Total running time: 106 mins
show less
Date/Times:
Pacific Film Archive (PFA) Theater
2575 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94720
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