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| La baie des anges, France 1962 |
Demy's second feature has a ravishing Jeanne Moreau, ash-blonde for the occasion and dressed all in white, as a compulsive gambler who doesn't care what happens to her so long as she has a chip to start her on the roulette tables. Ostensibly the subject is gambling, but the real theme is seduction - with Moreau casting a spell on Mann that turns him every which way - and this is above all a visually seductive film. Shot mainly inside the casinos and on the sunstruck promenades of Nice and Monte Carlo, it is conceived as a dazzling symphony in black and white. Moreau's performance is magnificent, but it's really Jean Rabier's camera which turns the whole film into an expression of sheer joy - not only in life and love, but things. Iron bedsteads make arabesques against white walls; a little jeweller's shop becomes a paradise of strange ornamental clocks; a series of angled mirrors echo the heroine as she runs down a corridor into her lover's arms; roulette wheels spin to a triumphant musical accompaniment; and over it all hangs an aura of brilliant sunshine. – Tom Milne, Time Out If a film can be said to dazzle, Bay of Angels can - quite literally; everything about it, from the sun-struck Cóte d'Azur with its glittering casinos, to the hardened ash-blonde glamour of Jeanne Moreau in a tight white suit, has a blinding intensity. Moreau plays a compulsive gambler who seduces a young bank clerk and drags him from casino to casino, from Nice to Monaco and back, as a mascot. Shot in gleaming black and white, lushly scored by Michel Legrand, Bay of Angels is major Demy; its lack of renown is mystifying. One senses condescension in Pauline Kael's description of Bay as “a magical, whirling little film, a triumph of style.” When she asks: “What would this film be like without Jeanne Moreau? . . . The picture is almost an emanation of Moreau, is inconceivable without her,” she is both right - it is one of Moreau's best performances - and off the mark. With or without Moreau, Bay of Angels is resplendent. “Delightful entertainment . . . Demy's rare achievement” (David Thomson). – Cinematheque Ontario |
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