Model Shop

Model Shop (1969) offers the great French filmmaker Jacques Demy’s take on America of the era, and specifically, on Los Angeles.  Bringing his celebrated character, Lola (the divine Anouk Aimée, reiterating her eponymous role from Demy’s 1960 film), to the City of Angels, he introduces an American, George (Gary Lockwood, giving a sensitive performance): unemployed, broke, about to be drafted to Vietnam, and suddenly madly in love with Lola, a woman he has only briefly glimpsed. As George searches for his potential amour, Demy gives us a portrait of the city that captured his heart in the same, lightning-bolt way.