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''Model Shop'' is a 1969
romantic drama film Romance films involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion (emotion), passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their ...
written, directed and produced by
Jacques Demy Jacques Demy (; 5 June 1931 – 27 October 1990) was a French director, screenwriter and lyricist. He appeared at the height of the French New Wave alongside contemporaries like Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. Demy's films are celebrated ...
, starring
Anouk Aimée Nicole Françoise Florence Dreyfus (; 27 April 1932 2024), known professionally as Anouk Aimée () or Anouk, was a French film actress who appeared in 70 films from 1947 until 2019. Having begun her film career at age 14, she studied acting and ...
, Gary Lockwood and
Alexandra Hay Alexandra Lynn Hay (July 24, 1947 – October 11, 1993) was an American actress of the 1960s and 1970s best known for her roles in ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'', '' Skidoo'', and '' Model Shop''. Mainstream career On October 29, 1966, t ...
, and featuring a guest appearance by Spirit who recorded the accompanying soundtrack. Demy made ''Model Shop'', which was his first English-language film, following the international success of his film '' The Umbrellas of Cherbourg'' (1964). Aimée reprises the title role from Demy's 1961 French-language film '' Lola''. ''Model Shop'' makes explicit the fact that Demy's films take place in the same narrative universe. It weaves together the plots of ''Lola'', ''The Umbrellas of Cherbourg'' and '' Bay of Angels'' (1963).


Plot

In Los Angeles, 26-year-old architect George Matthews is floundering. He is unemployed and in debt, his live-in girlfriend, aspiring actress Gloria, is tired of him, and his car is about to be repossessed. Going round to friends to scrounge $100 to stave off the finance company, he sees a beautiful foreign woman in a white convertible and follows her to a mansion in the hills. On the street, he sees the beautiful woman again and follows her. She enters a model shop, a tawdry studio where customers can take erotic photographs, and he books a session with her, but she is uninterested in his attentions. When calling his parents, he learns that his draft notice has arrived, and he must report for Army duty the next week. For the first time, he comes face-to-face with his own mortality. At home, he finds that Gloria has landed a job with a new admirer, who is taking her out for the evening. Obsessed with the enigmatic foreigner, he returns to the model shop and books another session with her. She tells him she is French, named Cécile but working as Lola, and recounts some of her problems. Abandoned by her husband Michel for a female gambler named Jackie Demaistre, she is trying to make enough money to return to France and her son. In a tender night of drinking and lovemaking at Lola's apartment, George and Lola talk of their failed romances, their dashed dreams, philosophy, and mortality. Through their conversation, they each find the willpower to continue living, and George gives her the money he had borrowed to save his car. The next morning, when George goes home, he finds Gloria packing to leave. He phones Lola, but her roommate tells him she flew to Paris that morning, having enough cash for a plane ticket. As they talk, a tow truck outside is removing his car. He tells the roommate: "I just wanted to tell her that I love her. I wanted her to know that I was going to begin again. It sounds stupid, I know. But a person can always try."


Cast


Production

Demy later told the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'':
I came here for a vacation, not to make a movie. But I fell in love with LA. I just had to make a film. It's so marvellous. When I left Paris it was dead. Now I've missed the revolution and everything. But I had been so depressed, so discouraged. I said I must go someplace where something's happening. I don't want to be pretentious but I want ''The Model Shop'' to be ''Los Angeles, 1968'' – like Rossellini's '' Europa '51''. Lola is a very small part. She ties the story together. Everything is like a puzzle: it fits together. I want to forget ''Cherbourg'', ''Rochefort''. I've gone as far as I can with that. I needed another language, new problems. This won't be a Hollywood movie. I told them I like to shoot on location, use real people whenever possible. The sound stage, big stars, big budget – I wouldn't enjoy that. I learned the city by driving – from one end of Sunset to the other, down Western all the way to Long Beach. LA has the perfect proportions for film. It fits the frame perfectly.
Demy initially wanted to have a new face in the leading role, and chose the then-unknown
Harrison Ford Harrison Ford (born July 13, 1942) is an American actor. Regarded as a cinematic cultural icon, he has starred in Harrison Ford filmography, many notable films over seven decades, and is one of List of highest-grossing actors, the highest-gr ...
. Columbia Pictures, however, had no confidence in Ford's abilities and demanded that Demy hire a more experienced actor. Gary Lockwood was eventually cast on the basis of his performance in ''2001: A Space Odyssey''. Demy says Lockwood "had nothing to do in ''Space Odyssey'' but he knew how to move. He's very natural, very simple." Alexandra Hay was cast after Demy saw her in
Michael McClure Michael McClure (October 20, 1932 – May 4, 2020) was an American poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. After moving to San Francisco as a young man, he found fame as one of the five poets (including Allen Ginsberg) who read at the famo ...
's play ''The Beard''. She was under contract to Columbia, who financed the film. "Alexandra is a free bird", said Demy. "In a certain way she is like
Jeanne Moreau Jeanne Moreau (; 23 January 1928 – 31 July 2017) was a French actress, singer, screenwriter, director, and socialite. She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française. Mo ...
... She has the same strong will. She will succeed because she wants to act. I think maybe
Bette Davis Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress of film, television, and theater. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in Hollywood history, she was noted for her willingness to play unsympatheti ...
was that way too." Filming began in June 1968. Anouk Aimée did not arrive until four weeks into filming, well after she was expected. Eventually, after Columbia Pictures sent her an ultimatum, Aimée arrived, and filming resumed. "I did Jacques's first film so it has to be that I do his first American film", said Aimée. Carole Eastman (under the name Adrien Joyce) wrote English dialogue for the film. The Los Angeles rock band Spirit both appears in the film and recorded a soundtrack that was not released commercially for 36 years after the film appeared in theaters.


Reception

The film performed poorly at the box office. Demy's wife
Agnès Varda Agnès Varda (; born Arlette Varda; 30 May 1928 – 29 March 2019) was a Belgian-born French film director, screenwriter and photographer. Varda's work employed location shooting in an era when the limitations of sound technology made it easier ...
later said Demy "was less than happy with what Columbia did with ''Model Shop''. They killed it! I don't say it was the greatest picture but opening it in double features in the suburbs! Columbia really let him do what he wanted but he didn't get the point early enough: if you make a cheap movie they don't think anything of it." Critic
Jonathan Rosenbaum Jonathan Rosenbaum (born February 27, 1943) is an American film critic and author. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for '' The Chicago Reader'' from 1987 to 2008. He has published and edited numerous books about cinema and has contributed to ...
views ''Model Shop'' as one of Demy's most critically underrated and neglected films, writing that "the play between actuality and artifice is the most complex and unconventional" in the film. Adrian Martin also celebrated the "still-too-little seen" ''Model Shop''. He notes how it is "keyed into the mild eventfulness of the ''fait divers'', undeniably emotional and momentous events happening to, or resonating within, derisory bodies that can scarcely support, transmit, narrate or pass on that emotion." Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of ''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...
'' is also a major proponent of ''Model Shop'', writing that Demy's film is "obsessively escapist" and that "every film emymade, whether it had singing in it or not, was essentially a musical; he could make the sad streets of Nantes into an MGM back lot.". In 2011, he included it in his "Cine-Autobiography", a list of unranked films which "opened doors or made imturn a corner.". Charlotte Garson notes how the films of Demy, as in the works of Balzac and
Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French language, French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Pas ...
, create a universe in which not only themes but characters reappear. A few of the recurring motifs in ''Model Shop'' are chance making or marring relationships, lovers parted by war, women surviving by near-prostitution and the US as a world of sunshine where people drive open-top cars. Cécile is not only a character from ''Lola'', which also featured her husband Michel, her lover Frankie and her child, but was mentioned in ''Les Demoiselles de Rochefort'' as well. Another mention is of the gambler Jackie from ''La Baie des Anges''. ''Model Shop'' is included on ''
Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (formerly written ''Sight & Sound'') is a monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). Since 1952, it has conducted the well-known decennial ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time. ...
''s "75 Hidden Gems" list. Films on the list were selected by 75 international critics as "unduly obscure and worthy of greater eminence". When promoting ''Model Shop'', Demy said he wanted to make an all-singing musical in the United States about students titled ''The Interview'', something that never materialised.


Legacy

A brief portion of the film is seen at the beginning of the season seven episode of ''
Mad Men ''Mad Men'' is an American historical drama, period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on cable network AMC (TV channel), AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, with seven seasons ...
'' titled "Field Trip", when the character
Don Draper Donald Francis "Don" Draper, born Richard "Dick" Whitman, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the AMC television series ''Mad Men'' (2007–2015), portrayed by Jon Hamm. At the beginning of the series, Draper is the charismatic yet en ...
is shown watching it in a theater. The plot of the episode mirrors that of the film; Don is in a failing marriage with his actress wife Megan. Brief clips of the film are used in the music documentary '' Echo in the Canyon'' to help set the feeling of 1960s Los Angeles. Los Angeles pop culture historian
Alison Martino Alison Martino (born December 15, 1970 in Los Angeles, California) is a writer, television producer and historian. She is the daughter of the singer Al Martino and his wife, flight attendant and model Judi Stilwell Martino. Known as an expert in ...
named ''Model Shop'' "the inspiration for ''Echo in the Canyon''. Apparently the directors caught it playing on
Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcas ...
. The filmmakers consider it particularly evocative of mid-1960s sensibilities. It definitely embodies the feel of that era. Perhaps that's why
Don Draper Donald Francis "Don" Draper, born Richard "Dick" Whitman, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the AMC television series ''Mad Men'' (2007–2015), portrayed by Jon Hamm. At the beginning of the series, Draper is the charismatic yet en ...
is watching this movie in episode 7.3 [of ''
Mad Men ''Mad Men'' is an American historical drama, period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on cable network AMC (TV channel), AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, with seven seasons ...
'']". Quentin Tarantino has cited ''Model Shop'' as an inspiration for his 2019 film ''Once Upon a Time in Hollywood''. Likewise, Greta Gerwig has cited the film as an inspiration for her 2023 film ''
Barbie Barbie is a fashion doll created by American businesswoman Ruth Handler, manufactured by American toy and entertainment company Mattel and introduced on March 9, 1959. The toy was based on the German Bild Lilli doll, Bild Lilli doll which Hand ...
''.


See also

* '' Model Shop'', album by Spirit


References


External links

* * * *
''New York Times'' Review 2/12/69
{{Jacques Demy 1969 films 1969 romantic drama films 1960s American films 1960s English-language films 1960s French films American romantic drama films Columbia Pictures films English-language French films Films directed by Jacques Demy Films with screenplays by Carole Eastman Films set in Los Angeles Films shot in Beverly Hills, California Films shot in Los Angeles French romantic drama films Foreign films set in the United States English-language romantic drama films