Jacquot de Nantes **** (1991, Philippe Maron, Edouard Joubeaud, Laurent Monnier) – Classic Movie Review 5194

Writer-director Agnès Varda’s 1991 French documentary is a charming, bitter-sweet tribute to French film-maker Jacques Demy (nickname Jacquot) by his wife Varda, who shared his life from 1958 till his death on 27 October 1990, aged 59. Varda’s screenplay is based on Demy’s memoirs.

This labour of love, featuring clips from Demy’s most renowned films Lola, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), Model Shop, and Peau d’âne (Donkey Skin, 1970), is a detailed story about his boyhood passion to make films despite his father’s attempts to make him study mechanics. It tells of his youth in Nantes spent with his brother, his school friends, childhood sweetheart and first attempts at directing.

Movingly the dying Demy, obviously ill with AIDS, is interviewed looking back over his life. Demy had wanted to direct the film but was too ill.

The actors are Philippe Maron as Jacquot 1, Edouard Joubeaud as Jacquot 2, and Laurent Monnier as Jacquot 3, with Brigitte De Villepoix as  his hairdresser Mother and Daniel Dublet as his garage-owning  Father.

Roger Ebert opined: ‘Heartwarming and heartbreaking, a masterpiece.’

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5194

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