La baie des anges
France,
1962
Shown in 1974
CREDITS
- dir
-
Jacques Demy
- scr
-
Jacques Demy
- cam
-
Jean Rabier
- cast
-
Jeanne Moreau, Claude Mann, Paul Guers, Henri Nassiet
-
COMMENTS
Shown October 25, 1974 as part of Jeanne Moreau tribute. Jeanne Moreau appeared for an onstage interview.
Compulsive gambler Jackie aims her manic schemes and Bette Davis eyes at a naive young bank clerk in this sun-drenched, nicotine-stained ode to the gamblers and losers of the French Riviera. First seen walking proudly along the Monte Carlo boardwalk in the film's justifiably famous opening, the glamorous but fraying Jackie (Jeanne Moreau) is more comfortable in the less blinding enclosure of a casino, where a clueless bank clerk soon falls for her. “I thought this lifestyle only existed in American movies,” he marvels, but the joy of Bay of Angels is that it only exists in this movie: the whirl of roulette wheels, the constant click of chips, elegance and effortless cool, all framed by the radiant black-and-white camerawork of Jean Rabier and the music of Michel Legrand. Towering above it all in white boas and heavy makeup is Moreau, capable of making even borderline-psychotic addiction look enthralling in “a bravura demonstration of star power on the rampage” (New York Times).
—Jason Sanders, Pacific Film Archive
FACTOID #147
The Coppola clan (Francis, Eleanor, Sofia and Roman) is the family with the most filmmakers represented at the Festival. Films screened include Apocalypse Now (1990); One from the Heart (1990); Lick the Star (1998); The Virgin Suicides (2000); CQ (2002); and On the Set of CQ (2002). (And that’s not even counting onscreen appearances by cousins Nic Cage and Jason Schwartzman.)
