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THE JACQUES DEMY COLLECTION: COMPLETE WORKS
complete 12-disc boxset  ( Ars / Le sabotier du Val de Loire / Lola / Model Shop / Bay of Angels / The Umbrellas of Cherbourg / The Young Girls of Rochefort / Donkey Skin / The Pied Pip

DVD Release Date: November 5, 2008

DVD Studio: Gaumont / Arte

imdb.com/name/nm0218840/

Ars (1959)
A complex, evocative portrait of Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the pastor of Ars, whose humble and loving life led to sanctification. Severe on his parishioners, his sermons stern and unforgiving, Vianney felt himself a coward, worthy only of permanent residence in the confessional. The title suggests that the film is about place, and Demy's eye for wintry land and streetscapes is very fine.

Le sabotier du Val de Loire (1955)
A look into the life of a family of clog-makers in France's Loire Valley.

Lola (1961)
Lola takes place in the Atlantic coastal city of Nantes, France. A young man, Roland Cassard (Marc Michel) is letting his life waste away until he has a chance encounter with Lola (Aim�e), a woman he used to know as a teenager before World War II and who is now a cabaret dancer. Though Roland is quite smitten with her, Lola is preoccupied with her former lover, Michel, who abandoned her and her seven-year-old son years before. Also vying for Lola's heart is an American sailor, Frankie (Alan Scott), whose affection Lola does not return.

Model Shop (1969)
Within a 24-hour period a weary young architect drifts around LA, meets a beautiful French model, falls in love with her, and then helps her get back to France.

Bay of Angels (1963)
Bay of the Angels (La Baie des anges) stars Jeanne Moreau as a middle-aged Parisian gambling addict who leaves her husband and children and heads for the roulette tables of Nice. There she meets young and handsome Claude Mann--a meeting which coincides with Moreau's first winning streak. She latches onto Mann in the belief that he's a good luck charm, and remains with him even when she starts losing heavily.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
Madame Emery and her daughter Genevi�ve (Deneuve) sell umbrellas at their little boutique in the coastal town of Cherbourg in Normandy, France. Genevi�ve is in love with Guy (Castelnuovo), a handsome young auto mechanic who lives with and cares for his sickly aunt and godmother Elise along with her quiet, dedicated, care-giver, Madeleine (Ellen Farner), a young woman who clearly loves Guy. Subsequently, though, Guy is drafted, and must leave to fight in the Algerian War.The night before he leaves, he and Genevi�ve make love. She becomes pregnant, and feels abandoned, as he does not write often. At her mother's insistence, she marries thirtyish Roland Cassard (Marc Michel), a quietly handsome Parisian jeweler who falls in love with Genevi�ve and is willing to wed her, even though she is carrying another man's child.

The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967)
Musical of the romance of twin sisters in a provincial town who take part in a visiting fair.

Donkey Skin (1970)
Originally titled Peau D'Ane, Jacques Demy's Dos Cruces en Danger Pass is better known by its English-language title Donkey Skin. Based on a fairy tale by Charles Perrault (of Cinderella fame), the bizarre story concerns the king (Jean Marais) of a strange, enchanted land. Catherine Deneuve plays the dual role of the king's wife and daughter.

The Pied Piper (1972)
Director Jacques Demy's depiction of the 14th century as a muddy, backward, superstitious, disease-ridden, vermin-infested era transforms this fable into a squalid tale of revenge (incidentally, all those repulsive rodents are real; note John Holmes' screen credit as "rat trainer"). Donovan is quite good in the lead, and is matched by a remarkably restrained Jack Wild as the crippled boy.


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