Lola (1961)

 Jacques Demy's "Lola"

The characters of Jacques Demy's 1961 film "Lola" are all looking for connection and love, which is why the melancholic 'just-missing' of each other creates a very New Wave-esque irony. Centering on a young man who reunites with a long, lost childhood friend, the film operates as an ensemble. It is full of characters all desperately looking for something in their middling, aimless life. 

Demy's film comes across as indescribable. Of course, it embodies the elements of his New Wave contemporaries. However, "Lola" has a more musical quality to it. Demy himself even stated that the film was a tribute to Max Ophuls, whose films Demy has described as "musical without music." The same goes for "Lola," as the various scenes of its lonely, desperate characters almost feels hopeful and glistening with romantic undertones. 

For me, the thematic point of the film lies in a remark made by our protagonist, Roland, in one of the first scenes of the film. In a conversation with restaurant employees, it is remarked that real life can't be as romantic and dramatic as cinema. It is from that point that Demy uses the film medium to demonstrate this supposed fallacy, as he heightens the dramatic tension, ushers in emotional overtones, and paints the life of Roland and his contemporaries with the same poetic realism of a Jean Renoir film. 

In the end, there is a magical happy ending for one character and a melancholic, bittersweet ending for another. Demy has deemed Roland's life cinematic in its purpose, just as the film illustrates how we all are unbeknownst to the cinematic drama that exists around us. "Lola" demonstrates the utter beauty that can be found in the joys and sorrows of our seemingly mundane existence.