JACQUOT DE NANTES (director/writer: Agnès Varda; screenwriter: based on the memoirs of Jacques Demy; cinematographers: Patrick Blossier/Agnès Godard/Georges Strouve; cast: Jacques Demy (Himself), Daniel Dublet (Raymond, Jacquot's Father), Philippe Maron (Jacquot 1), Edouard Joubeaud (Jacquot 2), Laurent Monnier (Jacquot 3), Brigitte de Villepoix (Marilou, la mere), 1991 - France)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Jacques Demy, the subject of this biography, was a great filmmaker; his films were poetical visions, filled with music and fantasy and magic. JACQUOT-- the title refers to the young Jacques' nickname, as he was named after his grandfather, but lovingly called Jacquot by his mother. He died in 1990.
The French director was most acclaimed for his inventive 1964 musical "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg." Demy, a seemingly gentle and reflective soul, was married to Agnes Varda, a director herself, who bases this film on her husband's unfinished memoirs. Before he died, he collaborated and appeared in the film, offering insights into his childhood experiences.
The movie is a look back at his most happy childhood and some of the events that shaped his life. The pivotal point of the film revolves around his use of imagination and how he was always inspired by it. The film follows young Jacquot (played by a progression of actors) through his Nantes boyhood as the eldest son of a working-class family, whose father owned a garage and was a hard-working mechanic, while his loving mother stayed in the kitchen and offered him full-support in his yearnings to be a filmmaker. His childhood experiences included the following: his first attraction to puppet shows (filmed in vivid color) and then experimenting in animation, the songs he daily heard that later became part of his films, his displeasure at being in a technical school, the war and his reaction to the Nazi occupation of his town, and his final departure to Paris and the start of a long career in films.
Varda is extremely cautious in the way she presents Jacquot, carefully rooting out all the implied meanings in his life. His childhood experiences are really trite but through her photographs of them in black and white, employing the cinema verite method, his life is meticulously examined as to his relations with friends, his father, and his mother.
It was interesting to see how Varda interspersed his childhood memories with the legendary films he was later on known for. Vargas, by showing the "inspirational" episode from his childhood and then his usage of it in films such as, "Lola," "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg," "The Young Girls of Rochefort," "Donkey Skin, "or some other Demy work, has managed to tie the director's early life into his life in films.
On some occasions she'll present a sentimental impression from his childhood -- the small movie camera (Ercscam) with which he shot his first stop-motion film. Scenes like that come off as being truly genuine. Another such scene was from September 16, 1943- the horrors from the war he will always remember, as his town was bombed and there were heavy casualities. This made him a hater of war for the rest of his life. The look in his saddened eyes, as he is being interviewed, indicates how he still remembers that day.
But for all the niceties about him shown, and deservedly so, this biography seemed somewhat sterile and unwilling to question a lot of personal things about Demy's life. It seemed to be bent on being an homage and final goodbye, without the benefit of being anything more critical. So we learn nothing of the couple's relationship, the brain tumor from which he was dying from, or the stories circulating that he was bisexual. The film seems as if it was a guided museum tour given to elementary school children, that will only show the director's dedication to being a filmmaker and will reveal nothing about what is inside the man.
The film begins and ends with Demy on the beach, looking out at the sea, and envisioning his life as it turned out. It is a film about a boy who knew what he loved to do in life and was fortunate to make a living doing it. This film should inspire others to follow their own beliefs, but does not have the magical qualities of a Demy film.
REVIEWED ON 2/10/2000 GRADE: B-
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
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