Jacques Demy film debut from 1961 starring Anouk Aimee. In France in the city of Nantes, a group of characters connect or encircle each other in the game of love. Aimee plays Lola, a nightclub dancer, raising a small boy who's husband left some time before. American sailors are on leave in town & one in particular visits Lola & professes his love for her which she turns down rationalizing her husband was the only love in her life. Meanwhile an old friend of hers from the neighborhood has lost his job (he's in the process of finding himself) runs into her (he has befriended a woman & her daughter at a book store & has made inroads into a relationship w/them over the promise of a dictionary) putting him in the mind of a love long lost now found. Lola's prodigal husband also features into the mix (fleetingly!) as he pops up from time to time driving around town in an American convertible. Things come to a head when Lola's friend gets a shifty job transporting some diamonds, the daughter he met goes missing & Lola's ex appears to be one step behind her. Described by Demy as a musical w/o musical numbers (there is one though which Aimee delivers w/sensuality to spare) this film feels like the equivalent of a well digested meal. Interesting note in the restoration credits we learn this Lola is the same character Aimee would play 8 years later in Model Shop.
