Lola is a 1961 drama film, the debut film directed by Jacques Demy as a tribute to director Max Ophüls, described by Demy as a "musical without music". Anouk Aimée starred in the title role. The film was restored and re-released by Demy's widow, French filmmaker Agnès Varda.
The names of the film and title character were inspired by Josef von Sternberg's 1930 film Der blaue Engel, in which Marlene Dietrich played a burlesque performer named Lola Lola.
Plot spoiler
Lola takes place in the Atlantic coastal city of Nantes, France. A young man, Roland Cassard (Marc Michel, who later reprises the role of Roland in Demy's 1964 film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg), is wasting his life away until he has a chance encounter with Lola (Aimée), a woman he knew as a teenager before World War II, who is now a cabaret dancer. Although Roland is quite smitten with her, Lola is preoccupied with her former lover Michel, who abandoned her after impregnating her seven years earlier. Also vying for Lola's heart is American sailor Frankie (Alan Scott), whose affection Lola does not return.
Struggling for work, Roland gets involved in a diamond-smuggling plot with a local barber. Cécile (Annie Dupéroux), a 13-year-old girl, crosses paths with Roland; in many ways she reminds him of Lola, whose real name is also Cécile. In the end, Michel returns to Nantes, apparently very successful and hoping to marry Lola, just as she is leaving for another job in Marseille. She goes away with Michel as she always said she would.
