Public Speaking in The City

Justin Paton is on a mission to show the rest of us why looking at a painting is worthwhile and to help us figure out how to do it. In this thought-provoking series, Paton demystifies art and answers the questions we might be too embarrassed to ask. What is there to see in an abstract painting? Why do portraits grab us? Is it wrong to feel exhausted by big-city museums? Why should we care about paintings anyway?

Jacques Demy's auspicious debut - "a musical without music" set in the port city of Nantes - stars Anouk Aimée as the title character, a cabaret singer awaiting the return of Michel (Jacques Hardin), her long-absent lover and the father of her child. Michel went to America seven years ago and promised to return when he became rich. In Michel's absence, Lola is being courted by her childhood friend Roland (Marc Michel) and American sailor Frankie (Allan Scott). At some point, it seems that Lola will settle down with one of them, but her heart still belongs to Michel. The film is dedicated to Max Ophüls and the film title obviously alludes to Ophüls' Lola Montes as well as to the heroine of Josef Von Sternberg's The Blue Angel. Marc Michel makes a reference to his unrequited love towards Lola when he reappears in Demy's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964).