The World of Jacques Demy
(L’univers de Jacques Demy)
France/Belgium/Spain, 1995, DCP, color and b&w, 90 min.
French and English with English subtitles.
DCP source: Janus Films
Guided by Agnès Varda through her husband’s life and films a few years after his death in 1990, the “casual stroll” endearingly weaves together film clips, old photographs, rare home movie and behind-the-scenes footage on his film sets, interviews with Demy throughout his career and informal chats with Demy’s children, as well as numerous actors, friends and collaborators such as, Claude Berri, Catherine Deneuve, Anouk Aimée, Michel Legrand, Michel Piccoli, Danielle Darrieux and Dominique Sanda. In between, excited fans effuse and enlightening episodes surprise, such as footage of Jim Morrison on the set of Donkey Skin and Harrison Ford’s screen test for Model Shop. In the spirit of Demy’s playful optimism, Varda elucidates the passionate path of a filmmaker determined to march to his own unique tune, charming legions of followers off into dreamlands unknown.