The opening credits to Jacques Demy's 'Lola' establishes that the said film is dedicated to the great German director Max Ophüls. Now the influence of Ophüls can be seen in Demy's fluid camera movement, the meticulous panning shots, the tracking shots and other elements of the camera work. But apart from the cinematography, I also found another thematic link between 'Lola' and one particular Ophüls film, namely 'La Ronde'.Demy does in 'Lola' exactly what Ophüls did in 'La Ronde' which is constantly and intentionally remind the viewer of the lack of realism in the film by imparting a quasi fairy tale-esque tone to it. Any viewer looking for a story grounded in realism will feel frustrated by the numerous coincidences that he/she will be bombarded with. This is a film where the director is consciously manipulating situations through conveniences and coincidences (just like Ophüls in 'La Ronde') to find similarities in various characters and also to explore the cyclical nature of life and its despairs. The result is charming and also emotionally moving.As I mentioned before, Demy is playing around to find similarities in the relationships between various characters as well as the basic connections between the characters. For example - Madame Desnoyers is supposed to be an older version of Lola while her teenage daughter is supposed to represent Lola in her younger days, similarly Lola's son has a connection with Roland since both of them were conceived as a result of an accidental pregnancy, and there is also a clear connection between Michel and Frankie. Although 'Lola' is for the most part light-hearted in tone, it is to be noted that the film has a melancholic core and the melancholy rises to the surface by way of Demy's exploration of human separation, first loves, cyclical creation of similar relationships from one generation to the next, and failed romances. We hear about separations that took place in the past due to wartime compulsions and also characters contemplating departure and hence separation/break-ups in the present times due to sheer disenchantment. Although this concept of separation gets reversed at the climax, the ending to 'Lola' when viewed from multiple perspectives can be best described as bittersweet.Demy had described 'Lola' as a 'musical without too much music' and the performances from the actors including Anouk Aimée are accordingly theatrical instead of naturalistic. My one gripe with the film is that the character of Roland at times felt a little too bland.'Lola' doesn't quite reach the charming heights of Max Ophüls' 'La Ronde' which is clearly a huge influence on this film, however it is still a brilliant piece of work that expertly strikes a balance between playful charm and genuine human emotions. Highly Recommended.P.S. - By the way, this might be a bit inappropriate, but Anouk Aimée in 'Lola' is the perfect representation of the phrase 'Hubba- Hubba'. God was she sexy.

I have recently watched trois couleurs:Rouge and realized that what they're trying to do is similar to Lola. both the movies have reaccuring circumstances such as in trois couleurs, there is an old judge and he talks of his heartbreak. then simultaneously there is a young judge and we get to see his girlfriend cheating on him. In Lola, we see young Cecile and older Cecile, Michel and Franky. maybe they're trying to say life repeats itself? I enjoyed it thoroughly. She is very charming. here are my favorite quotes:"we're alone and we stay alone but what counts is to want something no matter what the cost is.""bit of happiness in simply in wanitng to be happy."

The movie opens with a blond man wearing white and driving a white Cadillac convertible around the city. This, it turns out, is Michel, returning to Nantes after an absence of seven years. Roland (Marc Michel) is a restless young man carrying a heavy burden of ennui along with his charm and his youthful melancholy. He gets fired and drifts into a bookstore, where he meets a woman and her daughter Cecile, and offers to lend the girl his French-English dictionary. The name Cecile reminds him of a woman he once knew—and it turns out this woman is Lola (Anouk Aimee), a dancer in a local cabaret, dallying with a young blond American sailor, Franky, who reminds her of her lover Michel, father of Yvon, whom she refuses to believe will never return. Roland plans to go abroad, as a courier for some kind of shady deal, and finds he's in love with Lola, who does not love him. Still, she says wait two months while she goes off to dance in Marseilles, and we'll see. And just as she's said goodbye to all the girls in the cabaret, each of whom kisses the little boy goodbye, each calling him a different pet name—Michel arrives to deliver a surprising storybook ending. Little Cecile shares some rides with Franky at the fair, and the next morning runs away. Roland heads out to Johannesburg, even though the police have captured the smuggler who commissioned the trip.The movie seems to offer Lola as the answer to Roland's blankness. In a crucial scene toward the end, they walk slowly through the upper level of an arcade of shops. He tells her, "Life's like that. We're alone and we stay alone. But what counts is to want something no matter what the cost is. There's a bit of happiness in simply wanting happiness. I wanted nothing until I saw you again. But now..." He pauses. "You're right. It's great to be alive." In the first scenes of the film he complains of not having lived, but in the end he knows.Demy loved Nantes. It shows in the framing of city shots, and especially in the way the urban and industrial dinginess is balanced by crowded, human detail, and by people moving through the streets...

Jacques Demy's first feature is a totally unreal confection, a real movie-movie about characters living their lives in dreams and fantasies, all derived from the movies. It's a pure escapist film, shot on location in Nantes with Raoul Coutard's most dazzling black-and-white cinematography. Every character in the movie is tinged with magic, sometimes explicitly, as when Lola (Anouk Aimee) is photographed so that she's wreathed in light, or when Cecile (Annie Duperoux) has her outing at the fair and it's shown in slow motion. It's a deliberately "silly" movie, and that's what's charming about it.