Jacques Demy's student film is all technique and young-man angst. The young man, played by Demy, is heart broken. He is rejected by the latest only girl he will ever love, and her current boyfriend knocks him down. Now he lies on his filthy mattress in a garret, brooding and smoking, then smoking and brooding. Occasionally he reads a book -- Sartre, probably. He tries to commit suicide, but is distracting by jazz drumming. Will he ever escape this vale of tears?
Like all young film makers, Demy is fascinated by camera technique: the overhead shot, the traveling crane, the fish-eye lens, Abd tragedy.. There's nothing like a young man for tragedy.
If I mock this film heartily, it's because I admire the film maker Demy became, one who used technique in a way that called attention to itself, and showed us something new.. Like every great artist, he had to be bad before he could be good.... and it looks like he tried to cram all the bad he could into this.
Points for making such a mockable film, though. Was that his intention? We'll say it was.
