Jacques Demy made a couple of musicals which were popular art house hits in the US so it's not surprising that Hollywood came calling. This is not a musical, though it does deal with the nature of love. It's a laid back "mood piece" (yep, narrative is for squares) about 24 hours in the life of young (well, meant to be, anyway) photographer Gary Lockwood.
This has a great feel for the city of Los Angeles - planes flying overhead, the dingy diners, time spent on the freeway, the scattered pockets of culture in amidst the oil pumps and gas stations. There's some evocative music on the soundtrack and plenty of atmosphere - I was reminded at times of the images in Zabriskie Point. Unfortunately there are some other things reminiscent of that movie - lack of story, some awkward depictions of the counter-culture, and really bad acting.
Chief culprit of the latter is Alexandra Hay as Lockwood's girlfriend but Anouk Aimee is awful too. She's good looking and all that but I couldn't stand her. Lockwood - not the most charismatic actor in the world - is alright, being effective simply by underplaying... although he's probably too old for his role and its a dull character ("I don't know if I want to settle down", "I don't know if I want to be an architect").
There is definite novelty value to be had watching this, and its amazing to think there was a time when Hollywood studios financed such films, but really, this is only for Demy completists or people into movies about LA.
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