Lola

Jacques Demy’s crystalline debut gave birth to the fictional universe in which so many of his characters would live, play, and love. It’s among his most profoundly felt films, a tale of crisscrossing lives in Nantes (Demy’s hometown) that floats on waves of longing and desire. Heading the film’s ensemble is the enchanting Anouk Aimée as the title character, a cabaret chanteuse who’s awaiting the return of a long-lost lover and unwilling to entertain the adoration of another love-struck soul, the wanderer Roland (Marc Michel). Humane, wistful, and witty, Lola is a testament to the resilience of the heartbroken.

Film Info

  • France
  • 1961
  • 88 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 2.35:1
  • French
  • Spine #714

Special Features

  • New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Interview with actor Anouk Aimée from 2012, conducted by filmmaker Agnès Varda
  • Interview with Varda from 2012 on the origin of Lola’s song
  • Four short films by director Jacques Demy: Les horizons morts (1951), Le sabotier du Val de Loire (1956), Ars (1959), and La luxure (1962)
  • Restoration demonstration
  • Trailer
  • New English subtitle translation

Available In

Collector's Set

The Essential Jacques Demy

The Essential Jacques Demy

Blu-ray Box Set

6 Discs

$99.96

Special Features

  • New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Interview with actor Anouk Aimée from 2012, conducted by filmmaker Agnès Varda
  • Interview with Varda from 2012 on the origin of Lola’s song
  • Four short films by director Jacques Demy: Les horizons morts (1951), Le sabotier du Val de Loire (1956), Ars (1959), and La luxure (1962)
  • Restoration demonstration
  • Trailer
  • New English subtitle translation
Lola
Cast
Anouk Aimée
Lola
Marc Michel
Roland Cassard
Alan Scott
Frankie
Elina Labourdette
Madame Desnoyers
Annie Dupéroux
Cécile Desnoyers
Jacques Harden
Michel
Credits
Director
Jacques Demy
Written by
Jacques Demy
Original music by
Michel Legrand
Cinematographer
Raoul Coutard
Set decoration and costumes
Bernard Evein
Editor
Anne-Marie Cotret
Producer
Georges de Beauregard

Current

Anouk Aimée on Lola
Anouk Aimée on Lola
The amazing cinematic universe of Jacques Demy essentially starts with Anouk Aimée. The distinctively beautiful French actor had recently made a splash in Federico Fellini’s hit La dolce vita when she was cast as the title lovelorn music-hall…
Jacques Demy and Nantes: The Roots of Enchantment
Jacques Demy and Nantes: The Roots of Enchantment

A friend and longtime scholar of Jacques Demy ruminates on the great director’s career, as well as the port hometown they shared—which would become a magical movie location.

By Jean-Pierre Berthomé

Lola: Demy’s Paradise Found
Lola: Demy’s Paradise Found

Anouk Aimée’s beguiling chanteuse, the title character of Jacques Demy’s romantic debut feature, is the figure from whom the director’s entire cinematic world springs.

By Ginette Vincendeau

Demy Monde
Demy Monde
Film scholar James Quandt created a nearly hour-long visual essay for our new collector’s set The Essential Jacques Demy. Titled Jacques Demy, A to Z, it elaborates on twenty-six concepts important to understanding the cinema of this singular filmm…
Christophe Honoré’s Top 10
Christophe Honoré’s Top 10

The wildly prolific French director, novelist, and playwright celebrates the films that bring him pleasure and confound his understanding.

The Unforgettable Images of Raoul Coutard
The Unforgettable Images of Raoul Coutard
From the delicate natural lighting in Jacques Demy’s Lola to the breathtaking widescreen Technicolor in Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot le fou, the late cinematographer Raoul Coutard’s most indelible images remain hallmarks of modern French cinema. I…
Film Picks from Agnès Varda, Arnaud Desplechin, Olivier Assayas, and More
Film Picks from Agnès Varda, Arnaud Desplechin, Olivier Assayas, and More
As part of the launch of the new French streaming video service La Cinetek—which was founded by the filmmakers Pascale Ferran (Bird People), Cédric Klapisch (Chinese Puzzle), and Laurent Cantet (Return to Ithaca), as well as Alain Rocca, president…

Explore

Raoul Coutard

Cinematographer

Raoul Coutard
Raoul Coutard

Perhaps the most famous cinematographer of the nouvelle vague, Raoul Coutard shot more than seventy-five films during his forty-three-year career. A war photographer (in Indochina) turned freelance photojournalist (his images appeared in Paris Match and Look), Coutard turned to film, hesitantly, only in the late fifties. After fumbling his way through a few film assignments (he was inexperienced with a movie camera), he was hired by producer Georges de Beauregard to shoot the debut film of a young critic named Jean-Luc Godard. His ragged, incisive shooting style on Breathless became iconic in modern cinema, and Godard kept him on board for the rest of the sixties and beyond, while other directors, like François Truffaut, Jacques Demy, Jean Rouch, and Costa-Gavras, also called upon his skills. His exacting images, which vary from rich and luxurious to gritty and documentary-like, can be seen in countless indelible films, including Shoot the Piano Player, Jules and Jim, Contempt, Alphaville, Pierrot le fou, and Z.