Model Shop

French New Wave director Jacques Demy found his specialty in colorful (if bittersweet) musicals (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) and fairy tales (Donkey Skin), but for his one and only American film (shot in English), Demy returned to the social settings and introspective character studies of his earlier work. Released in 1969, Model Shop has been called a sequel to the 1961 Lola, and indeed Anouk Aimée reprises her role of Lola, now an émigré trying to earn enough money to get back to France and her son by working in a Los Angeles “model shop,” where photographers hire out private sessions with the “models.” Lola meets George (Gary Lockwood), a frustrated architect who has turned his back on career and just drifts around in his convertible (which is about to be repossessed), as if trying to outrun the reality of his draft notice. Demy, whose real subject is capturing a disillusioned generation, brings a fresh eye to late ‘60s Los Angeles, finding evocative and unexpected images (such as an oil derrick perpetually pumping away in the front yard of a rented bungalow) in a sobering and pensive portrait of Vietnam-era youth. The soundtrack hails from the rock group Spirit (which also appears in one scene, when George crashes at their communal pad). Recommended. (S. Axmaker)