Model Shop

Model Shop (1969)

Maybe Tomorrow. Maybe Never. Maybe.

While trying to raise money to prevent his car from being repossessed, George is attracted to Lola, a Frenchwoman who works in a "model shop", an establishment that rents out beautiful pin-up models to photographers. George spends his last twelve dollars to photograph Lola, and discovers that she is as unhappy as he.

Date of release
1969-02-11
TMDB
6.5 / 10 (76)
Runtime
1h 35m
Genres
Drama, Romance
Director
Jacques Demy

Casting

Interesting facts

Model Shop is a 1969 romantic drama film written, directed and produced by Jacques Demy, starring Anouk Aimée, Gary Lockwood and Alexandra Hay, and featuring a guest appearance by Spirit who recorded the accompanying soundtrack. Demy made Model Shop, which was his first English-language film, following the international success of his film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964). Aimée reprises the title role from Demy's 1961 French-language film Lola.

Production

I came here for a vacation, not to make a movie. But I fell in love with LA. I just had to make a film. It's so marvellous. When I left Paris it was dead. Now I've missed the revolution and everything. But I had been so depressed, so discouraged. I said I must go someplace where something's happening. I don't want to be pretentious but I want The Model Shop to be Los Angeles, 1968 – like Rossellini's Europa '51. Lola is a very small part.

Demy initially wanted to have a new face in the leading role, and chose the then-unknown Harrison Ford. Columbia Pictures, however, had no confidence in Ford's abilities and demanded that Demy hire a more experienced actor. Gary Lockwood was eventually cast on the basis of his performance in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Demy says Lockwood "had nothing to do in Space Odyssey but he knew how to move. He's very natural, very simple."

Alexandra Hay was cast after Demy saw her in Michael McClure's play The Beard. She was under contract to Columbia, who financed the film. "Alexandra is a free bird", said Demy. "In a certain way she is like Jeanne Moreau ... She has the same strong will. She will succeed because she wants to act. I think maybe Bette Davis was that way too."

Filming began in June 1968. Anouk Aimée did not arrive until four weeks into filming, well after she was expected. Eventually, after Columbia Pictures sent her an ultimatum, Aimée arrived, and filming resumed. "I did Jacques's first film so it has to be that I do his first American film", said Aimée.

Carole Eastman (under the name Adrien Joyce) wrote English dialogue for the film. The Los Angeles rock band Spirit both appears in the film and recorded a soundtrack that was not released commercially for 36 years after the film appeared in theaters.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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