Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

avik-basu1889 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.

trpdean This director is ROMANTIC! I think he rightly shows the astonishing contrast between love being generated by complete chance and fleeting encounter - with its lasting consequence and possibly enduring devotion. I just loved it. One of the things that is so winning about this movie (also true of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) is how very modest the characters -- and the movie - are. The characters are sincere - if they lie, they apologize later - and unafraid to say when they are greatly moved -- and when they aren't.I think both movies wonderfully portray mother - daughter relationships - and both are quite sympathetic to men as well as women. How often do you see movies that show the truth of men's emotions wracked by romantic feelings (rather than solely lust) - sometimes returned and sometimes not? Very seldom.In some ways, I prefer Lola to Umbrellas because the plot is more ingenious, the vividly drawn characters more numerous - so there is more to engross one. (On the other hand, by concentrating on just the love for one woman, Umbrellas creates an agony in the viewer that is more powerful than any feeling in Lola). Just see it - and you'll see many disparate pieces pull together in a wonderfully satisfying, utterly charming, wonderful romantic tale. Lola and Umbrellas make me anxious to see the Young Girls of Rochefort.

Bubba JIojo My all-time favourite. Must have watched it a hundred times, sometimes 4 times in a week, and I never can get tired of it. It's just cinematographic perfection. And I don't have words for Anouk Aimee as Lola. Magic ?

Daryl Chin (lqualls-dchin) 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.