Finishing the Demy box set, two feature-length films and four shorts.
Donkey Skin (1970) - I did not feel at all transported to the world of Charles Perrault's fairy tale at all. If anything, this makes me appreciate well-made costume dramas all the more. Everything here just seems fake or sub-optimal, so there's no immersion in a new time and place, even a lot of the costumes seem like something you could pick-up at Goodwill after Halloween is over. I'm thinking especially of the king's cape and boots, as well as the lilac fairy's lavender attire. The editing trickery to make the fairy ascend and descend is also a bit silly, though I know the limits of the technology of the time have played a part. The only film of the set I had a genuinely hard time attending to. Grade: D-
Une Chambre En Ville (1982) - Demy revisits the musical format of having every line sung, as in most operas, as in the amazing The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, for the best surprise of the set. I don't normally hold out a lot of hope for a director's later works, but this oddly bloody melodrama set in Nantes circa 1955 during a workers' strike, while not perfect, hits a lot of high notes for me. We have the political overtones and a great sense of time and place with specifics that Demy visited more in the four shorts here than the other five feature films. While class struggle is the backdrop, the romantic and sexual relationships bridge members of oppositional classes in fundamental ways. In a sense, human desire transcends the battles in the streets, all the way to the bitter conclusion. The film certainly has weaknesses, especially in the uneven score that moves between classical and contemporary sounds in a clunky manner (Michel Legrand is sorely missed here), and it's far from the best ensemble Demy put together, but its dedication to its stirring story and setting make it quite a good film. Grade: B
Then there are the shorts. These are mostly graded for fun. It's hard to approach them, as, besides a few distinct types of shot that he uses in his features most prominently (which I will be asking questions about in another thread), these are pretty different from his feature lengths, and not as uniquely Demy. Not bad, though.
Les horizons morts (1951) - Wordless, 8-minute film where Demy plays a guy who just got his heartbroken and contemplates suicide. It plays more like Demy's first completed project, a sort of first contact with the art form, than anything else. It's not very good, but it's hard to hold it against him too much. I feel this was included in the set mostly for educational purposes. Grade: D
La sabotier du Val de Loire (1956) - A tale of a clog-maker that turns into a meditation on the passing of time and inevitability of death. It's a deliberate, at-times solemn thing, but has a meditative quality that isn't so readily present in the six features in the set. Upon reflection, it's probably the most meaningful of the four. The narration is a bit excessive, sometimes I wish it was less frequent and allowed us to focus on the man's actions rather than commentary. Still, rather pleasing, even life-affirming. Would've been interesting had he ever pursued such a subject for a feature (assuming he didn't; and if he did, please tell me the title). Grade: B+
Ars (1959) - I really wish I knew the name of the shot, where the camera seems to be in the back of a car, filming as the vehicle drives away. It's used fairly extensively here to establish the setting, the small town of Ars, where the Cure de Ars spent a lifetime trying to save the people's soul. Like the previous short, lots of voiceover narration as we explore the town, his chambers, and his church. Everything feels quite retrospective, trying to piece together the hard work and ascetic lifestyle of such a man of God with historical accounts and cultural artifacts only. The material itself reminds me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's asides in several books that considered the inner-world and conflict of the pious, especially Father Cayetano Delaura in Of Love and Other Demons, minus the melodrama. Interesting, but inessential. Grade: C
La luxure (1962) - A short based on Demy's childhood in Nantes and featuring a love of language and playfulness, this is the single short that really resembles the Demy from the features. He covers a lot of ground, from the streets of the city and two young girl-crazy young men, to childhood misadventures, to Hell itself, all in the service of a joke based on a childhood misunderstanding of the word "lecherous" upon which the film is built. It's quite playful in story and editing, though it also plays into the stereotype that all men just think with their...well. You know. Not a total success, as I think it gets a little carried away with its premise and indulges in lechery a little excessively, but a pretty good insight into the humor and playfulness of Demy. Grade: B+
I'm giving The Umbrellas of Cherbourg my final vote in our poll.