Jacques Demy, le Rose et le Noir: a highly colourful cinematic itinerary

“My films are disguised films”, Jacques Demy liked to say. “Often, colour and music mask the real pessimism of the words. Not to mention forced cheerfulness. But I think I’m the same way in life. What we do and what we are are the same thing. I don’t make a distinction.”

Jacques Demy, le Rose et le Noir is a journey through the work of the filmmaker. Florence Platarets takes up the challenge of a first-person documentary, drawing on the abundant archives in which Jacques Demy speaks of his cinema and, implicitly, himself.

That’s where the strength of this documentary lies. It explores all the beauty and intimacy of family archives. With the collaboration of Rosalie Varda and Mathieu Demy, both co-producers of the film, Florence Platarets was able to make use of interviews filmed by Agnès Varda, personal mementoes filmed in Super 8 and other making of materials, including irresistible images of Françoise Dorléac and Catherine Deneuve sharing a cigarette after a dance rehearsal.

The documentary is structured around the works of Jacques Demy. For each film, it looks at the intentions, the challenges they faced and stories from the set. From his beginnings with Lola to his musicals like Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (The Young Girls of Rochefort) and his foray into America with Model Shop, once you’ve see this documentary, only one desire remains: to dive back into each of these gems from this legendary filmmaker.