The Model Shop

Seems like 50% of this film follows our protagonist driving up and down and round and round the sunny streets of L.A., from the beaches of Venice to the hills overlooking the city to the sidewalks of the Sunset Strip. And that's just fine with me, because I really can't get too much of vintage film footage of southern California circa 1968, thank you Jacques Demy very much. And then there is the opening backing up tracking shot which reminded me of a smaller scale opening to the Shining but placed at the beach instead of a mountainside. The camera tracks back to the small beach dwelling of Gloria and George where we find the two just waking up and wondering what the day holds in store. With George/not working and Gloria losing her patience. He grows tired of her concerns and splits in search of a hundred bucks to stop his car from being repossessed. Which brings me back to those long exterior shots of George in his Army-green paint MG roadster that he has to fold one leg underneath himself to insert himself into. George does manage to scrounge up the hundred bucks from the singer in the band Spirit and then promptly, without a care begins to spend it on things other than his car,such as taking photographs of a strange (as in not known to him)woman he has followed to a 'model shop' an extinct business where men would go to snap pics of women,$12 for 15 mins. Love these long lost dips into film from this time period and it's all over Model Shop. I only wish the part of George's infatuation were played by another actress rather than Anouk Aimee who I thought to be tiny and rodent-like and someone it doesn't seem to me George would be so distracted by although he does mention her French accent reminds him of another French girl he met once. Anyway, George is all screwed up with the fear of being drafted and Lola (Aimee)takes him away from all that, for a while. Always try.                11/11/09