Taken inspirations from Josef von Sternberg’s THE BLUE ANGEL (1930), both Jacques Demy and Rainer Werner Fassbinder manufacture their own fantasies about its iconic protagonist Lola (played by Marlene Dietrich), a demimondaine of a sort, bewitches and brings an upstanding man to her heels.
Made in 1961 as his feature debut, Demy’s LOLA is a black-and-white “she is not that into you” rom-com à la nouvelle vague. Lola (Aimée) is an itinerant cabaret dancer, who wishfully awaits the comeback of her lover Michel (Harden), the father of her child. In Nantes, she bumps into her childhood friend Roland (Michel), an ennui-stricken young man who carries a torch for her. The reunion reignites Roland’s hope of joie de vivre, only Lola cannot reciprocate his feelings, but nothing major is at stake, Roland isn’t the possessive kind, in fact, Lola’s refusal actually eventuates his decision to depart, perhaps to Cherbourg since the character reappears in THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG (1964) and slumps into another ill-assorted love affair.
Aimée’s Lola is all froufrou femininity, coquetry is embedded in her chromosome but Demy also infuses her with an honesty that transcends secular concerns. Life is hard, but it doesn’t affect her, Lola can cavalierly juggle rearing a child with parrying off dalliances, including one from American sailor Frankie (Scott). She inherits the modernity of Dietrich’s Lola and magnifies it, it is all outward, modish, aims to inculcate audience a woman’s liberation of being true to her feelings (but can anyone really knows one’s “true” feelings?). But inwardly, Lola is a harbor, like the town she fetches up in, she waits for one day when her ships comes in. Her happiness is contingent on a fanciful wish, the lover who inseminated her and then left her 7 years ago coming back as a made man, and Demy is too romantic not to pay her dues, it is a storybook ending for his Lola, if not just for Michel Legrand’s lilting cadence.
Meantime, Demy nimbly orchestrates secondary plots around, Roland crossing path with a widow and her teenage daughter (Labourdette magnificently telegraphs the widow’s disillusion and perturbation without making her a ridicule) can be read as a deja vu of his past with Lola, and Cécile (Dupéroux), the 13-year-old daughter (who shares the same name of Lola), has a La Ronde style encounter with Frankie (yes, Demy’s LOLA is an open tribute to Max Ophüls), whose pending departure leaves something indelible in her impressionable soul, a cyclical pattern perpetuates.
For Fassbinder, his LOLA, his antepenultimate feature film, sets a moral backbone in the dead center and then topples it with a bang. The time is 1957, in the West Germany town Coburg, Lola (Sukowa) is the most alluring call girl in the brothel owned by Schukert (a smarmy Adorf), who is also the leading local building contractor, and the father of Lola’s young daughter, who is tended by Lola’s mother (Baal).
While the post-WWII reconstruction is in vogue, Schubert and co. (including the mayor, the chief of police) basks in shady gainful benefits, until the advent of the new building commissioner Von Bohm (Mueller-Stahl), a blue-eyed ramrod hailed from Eastern Prussia. Divorced and cultured, Von Bohm seems incorruptible and pulls out all stops to bring morality to his business. Intrigued by Von Bohm’s reputation, Lola meets him under her real name, puts him under her charm, but when the cat is let out of the bag, what will Von Bohm do?
Fassbinder has no scruples to satirize the ever scandalous falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute trope, and he does so with flair and tongue-in-cheek irreverence, when the dust settled, things are miraculously squared away, the status quo remains, even Von Bohm is made the co-owner of the brothel, how about that? Stiff morality is frown upon, and Lola gets what she wants, so fully and exuberantly embodied by Sukowa, she radiates with an aura of her Teutonic fiber, bedazzled by veils, furs, earrings and organdies. Subversively, Sukowa’s Lola is nothing if not inviolable, a true Fassbinder heroine head and shoulders above her seedy milieu. So in the end of the day, you don’t feel sorry for Von Bohm, who is astutely and vigorously portrayed Mueller-Stahl, but give him your blessings, their union is a godsend. Also, a squirrel-like Helga Feddersen (wearing a pair of high heels with contrasting colors, how fashionable!) is a lollapalooza as Von Bohm’s secretary Miss Hettich, hilarious without self-consciousness, the role in a cliché but Feddersen is a comedienne on steroids.
Visually, adorned by fluorescent strip lights and neon-lit backlights, predominantly showered in magenta-tinged hew, LOLA is Fassbinder’s most extraordinary polychromatic experiment, even in the two-shots, two different-colored lighting sources are deployed, leveling at either characters. Might the crimson curtains of the brothel be the provenance of David Lynch’s “the red room” in Twin Peaks? It is all too fascinating to look at, a depraved yet ebullient lifeworld lensed through Fassbinder’s far-out retina.
referential entries: Demy’s DONKEY SKIN (1970, 4.3/10); Fassbinder’s VERONIKA VOSS (1982, 7.2/10); Josef von Sternberg’s THE BLUE ANGEL (1930, 7.4/10); Max Ophüls’ LA RONDE (1950, 6.5/10).
Title: Lola
Year: 1961
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Italy
Language: France, English
Director/Screenwriter: Jacques Demy
Music: Michel Legrand
Cinematography: Raoul Coutard
Editing: Anne-Maire Cotret
Cast:
Anouk Aimée
Marc Michel
Alan Scott
Elina Labourdette
Annie Duperoux
Jacques Harden
Margo Lion
Catherine Lutz
Corinne Marchand
Anne Zamire
Rating: 7.8/10
Title: Lola
Year: 1981
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: West Germany
Language: German, English, French, Latin
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Screenwriters: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Pea Fröhlich, Peter Märthesheimer
#TGC 导演长片处女作，感觉还是算新浪潮的风格，不过看似是个浪漫爱情片，但内核还是涉及到法国未来方向的问题，这点《牯岭街少年》跟这部作品好像。影片中二战后的动荡，男性的缺席，美国海军驻扎，一切都似乎指向了法国何去何从的问题。影片只讲述了几天的故事，似乎呈现了一幅非常朴素的素描画，内容以消失7年归来的男人开场，结尾也是他们一家三口在行驶的车上似乎说明导演对于未来还是非常看好的。
电影中女性的主体性还是蛮强的，对照男性来看似乎他们都非常受困于自己的身份，不论是不知何去何从的男主，还是驻扎的海军士兵亦或者多年未归的丈夫。女主呈现出的坚强似乎是他们都不具备的，而且在被误会那里的反馈实在是太有力量了，虽然一切的基础是她在坚持等待，但感觉即使没有这个回归也不会影响她得选择。
视觉上，黑白诗意，美感十足，整体的镜头剪辑还是贴近于新浪潮的风格，开场的行驶的汽车我咋记得戈达尔有一部电影也是这样开场的。
听觉上，配乐非常好，很多时候通过配乐可以感受到角色的情绪，户外的自然收音效果很好，尤其是海浪声和背景的嘈杂声，感觉很好的呈现出了那种小港口的现实环境。
看完电影首先是震憾，它居然能把 这些形形色色的人物的 命运的交织起伏 如此 自然，不留痕迹地地编织在一个看似平淡的小故事里。 这是真正的四两拨千斤，
男主 Rolande 日子过得浑浑噩噩，还刚丢了工作，街上偶遇童年女伴Lola，重燃了对她的爱情和对生活的信心。但Lola 对抛弃她外出挣钱的 美国水手Michel念念不忘，七年了仍在等她回来，对Rolande的热切求爱 招架不住，只想和他保持纯友谊。Lola同时还被另一个美国水手Frankie追求
在另外一条线索上，Rolande在书店偶遇夫人Desnoyers和她的未成年女儿Cecile，因为Cecile恰好是Lola的原名，以借字典为由，他去了这对母女家几次，Desnoyers是单亲妈妈，明显对Rolande有意，但是后者无动于衷。与此同时，Lola在街上偶遇了Frankie, 并疯狂地迷恋上了他，但是他很快要回芝加哥
母女这条线 可以说是神来之笔，首先Cecile 和Lola的人生 不可思议地相似，有着相同的名字，都在未成年时爱上了一个美国水手，但也都离她们而去。 这可以理解为 另外一种新颖的方式来代替 俗套的 回忆，Cecile就是少女时期的Lola。也可以理解为是 生命的循环往复，Cecile 的故事在一遍遍地重演。Lola的王子Michel 衣锦还乡了，Cecile将来能否有机会与Frankie重逢呢？
整部电影都在讲生命的遗憾与错付，那些小小的失落和未竟的渴望。
Rolande对Lola的感情显然是一种不切实际的寄托，他把她当成了一种逃避灰暗现实的出口，他甚至在和她的未来还不确定时就擅自决定辞去危险的走私工作留下来，这当然是一厢情愿的“直男意淫“。
Lola和Michel的故事 则像是一个带着灰暗阴影的童话。Michel 当时是抛妻弃子 出去挣钱，在这七年中Lola也并不就一直保持忠贞，她甚至还会和长得像他的男人上床。 导演设置这样的结局更像是一种美好的向往吧
Rolande 是下一个Michel。在各种草蛇灰线的叙事中暗含了后者就是前者的 命运的轮回
这种 陌生人之间命运的偶然联系 很容易让人想到基耶洛夫斯基 的电影，如《两生花》 里面的双女主，如同有心灵感应。
[未完待续]
2.同时显出字幕à Max Ophüls。
3.接着有贝多芬第七交响曲，末尾又相呼应。
4.片名Lola让人联想到Max Ophüls的Lola Montès。
5.女主角的形象与影片提到的玛莉莲·梦露的形象的对比 法国文化与美国文化的冲突 美国水手与热爱文学的法国失业者
7.人物关系的对称性：
法国男性—一对母子与一对母女—美国男性
8.二战的影响
9.法国电影血统：末尾三声连呼Michel在一部更早的著名的法国电影《禁忌的游戏》末尾中出现过。
非常强劲的作品。经过战争，经过美国战后秩序十年，讲“法国”的归属问题。萝拉就是“法国”，也是殖民地殖民属地所有资源的代称，自然也是所有美国属地、女性的统称。整个国家已经沦为美利坚的“军中乐园”，整个法国不过是一个美军“妓院”，女人没有道德负担，用眼睛和心等待着殖民主人的光临。男主是战后追寻存在意义的青年代表，也是殖民地里男性的象征，也是道德与纯真的象征。n水兵是“现实美国”，麦克是“梦中美国”，属地的女性毫无怀疑，热情地把身体和心献给了一切可以接触到的“美国”—包括未成年的女性。美国来到，所有女人用近乎发情的眼睛在看着，在渴望着。但是这个国家的建设者和牺牲者呢？无人关心，无人在意。这个国家的未来呢？无人关心，无人在意。这里的“人”当然是指女人。n欧罗巴的历史和文明？不重要。欧洲的未来建设？不重要。重要的是把一切奉献给主人。n片子很狠辣的还点到一点，就是人终究是时代的产物，意识形态与人生选择，都是受制于此的，你给我展示破碎的美国，真实的美国，我被美国兵尽情蹂躏伤害，不影响一点我继续把未来的一切贡献给美国。n女人或许会有道德上的一丝迟疑，但是被时代塑造的头脑和身体会自动做出选择。大家可以看我们历史上的名人，我们的明星，我们的身边相识，也可以看润美的低华，都能找到例子。n日本这种都知道战后用行动抵抗美国兵，“战胜国”法国则抹去了最后的怀疑。要知道，法国女人，可是在战时用政治行动去诅咒污蔑法国士兵，去诅咒保家卫国的男人的。同时在纳粹入侵时，毫不犹豫去拥抱和赞美德国纳粹的（比如女权头子波伏娃对纳粹士兵的迷恋），至于数量巨大的出卖法国国家利益的女性“法奸”，更是世界闻名。n我们会好一点吗？敏感的南京沦陷时期，部分女人居然自动学起日语、服侍鬼子兵，挽着鬼子军官胳膊，唱起了小曲儿—这些，隐藏在了被凌辱被屠杀的中国男人和女人的背后，隐藏在了“正确历史叙述”的背后。n我们的当下呢？媒体圈文化圈教育圈，法律界，这里面的蛀虫，被曝光的已经有多少？隐藏的呢？在中国可以说近百年里最强盛的今天，我们国家的女性，今天的女性，道德观和行为意识，却来到了，历史最低点。n结果就是，看实际数据—婚恋数据，出生数据，看女性负债，看司法案件，看脏病的患者数量，看夜场上岸失败，看诈骗失败，看女权邪教带来的社会撕裂，看犯罪，看社会案件，看未来趋势。非常可惜也要讲，一大批或者叫一代的、中国女性，其实已经被这个社会，放弃了。不要抬杠，去看数据。
Taken inspirations from Josef von Sternberg’s THE BLUE ANGEL (1930), both Jacques Demy and Rainer Werner Fassbinder manufacture their own fantasies about its iconic protagonist Lola (played by Marlene Dietrich), a demimondaine of a sort, bewitches and brings an upstanding man to her heels.
Made in 1961 as his feature debut, Demy’s LOLA is a black-and-white “she is not that into you” rom-com à la nouvelle vague. Lola (Aimée) is an itinerant cabaret dancer, who wishfully awaits the comeback of her lover Michel (Harden), the father of her child. In Nantes, she bumps into her childhood friend Roland (Michel), an ennui-stricken young man who carries a torch for her. The reunion reignites Roland’s hope of joie de vivre, only Lola cannot reciprocate his feelings, but nothing major is at stake, Roland isn’t the possessive kind, in fact, Lola’s refusal actually eventuates his decision to depart, perhaps to Cherbourg since the character reappears in THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG (1964) and slumps into another ill-assorted love affair.
Aimée’s Lola is all froufrou femininity, coquetry is embedded in her chromosome but Demy also infuses her with an honesty that transcends secular concerns. Life is hard, but it doesn’t affect her, Lola can cavalierly juggle rearing a child with parrying off dalliances, including one from American sailor Frankie (Scott). She inherits the modernity of Dietrich’s Lola and magnifies it, it is all outward, modish, aims to inculcate audience a woman’s liberation of being true to her feelings (but can anyone really knows one’s “true” feelings?). But inwardly, Lola is a harbor, like the town she fetches up in, she waits for one day when her ships comes in. Her happiness is contingent on a fanciful wish, the lover who inseminated her and then left her 7 years ago coming back as a made man, and Demy is too romantic not to pay her dues, it is a storybook ending for his Lola, if not just for Michel Legrand’s lilting cadence.
Meantime, Demy nimbly orchestrates secondary plots around, Roland crossing path with a widow and her teenage daughter (Labourdette magnificently telegraphs the widow’s disillusion and perturbation without making her a ridicule) can be read as a deja vu of his past with Lola, and Cécile (Dupéroux), the 13-year-old daughter (who shares the same name of Lola), has a La Ronde style encounter with Frankie (yes, Demy’s LOLA is an open tribute to Max Ophüls), whose pending departure leaves something indelible in her impressionable soul, a cyclical pattern perpetuates.
For Fassbinder, his LOLA, his antepenultimate feature film, sets a moral backbone in the dead center and then topples it with a bang. The time is 1957, in the West Germany town Coburg, Lola (Sukowa) is the most alluring call girl in the brothel owned by Schukert (a smarmy Adorf), who is also the leading local building contractor, and the father of Lola’s young daughter, who is tended by Lola’s mother (Baal).
While the post-WWII reconstruction is in vogue, Schubert and co. (including the mayor, the chief of police) basks in shady gainful benefits, until the advent of the new building commissioner Von Bohm (Mueller-Stahl), a blue-eyed ramrod hailed from Eastern Prussia. Divorced and cultured, Von Bohm seems incorruptible and pulls out all stops to bring morality to his business. Intrigued by Von Bohm’s reputation, Lola meets him under her real name, puts him under her charm, but when the cat is let out of the bag, what will Von Bohm do?
Fassbinder has no scruples to satirize the ever scandalous falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute trope, and he does so with flair and tongue-in-cheek irreverence, when the dust settled, things are miraculously squared away, the status quo remains, even Von Bohm is made the co-owner of the brothel, how about that? Stiff morality is frown upon, and Lola gets what she wants, so fully and exuberantly embodied by Sukowa, she radiates with an aura of her Teutonic fiber, bedazzled by veils, furs, earrings and organdies. Subversively, Sukowa’s Lola is nothing if not inviolable, a true Fassbinder heroine head and shoulders above her seedy milieu. So in the end of the day, you don’t feel sorry for Von Bohm, who is astutely and vigorously portrayed Mueller-Stahl, but give him your blessings, their union is a godsend. Also, a squirrel-like Helga Feddersen (wearing a pair of high heels with contrasting colors, how fashionable!) is a lollapalooza as Von Bohm’s secretary Miss Hettich, hilarious without self-consciousness, the role in a cliché but Feddersen is a comedienne on steroids.
Visually, adorned by fluorescent strip lights and neon-lit backlights, predominantly showered in magenta-tinged hew, LOLA is Fassbinder’s most extraordinary polychromatic experiment, even in the two-shots, two different-colored lighting sources are deployed, leveling at either characters. Might the crimson curtains of the brothel be the provenance of David Lynch’s “the red room” in Twin Peaks? It is all too fascinating to look at, a depraved yet ebullient lifeworld lensed through Fassbinder’s far-out retina.
referential entries: Demy’s DONKEY SKIN (1970, 4.3/10); Fassbinder’s VERONIKA VOSS (1982, 7.2/10); Josef von Sternberg’s THE BLUE ANGEL (1930, 7.4/10); Max Ophüls’ LA RONDE (1950, 6.5/10).