An exceptional in memoriam about Jacques Demy by a colleague film-maker and partner. The portrait is made with love and great knowledge, both of film and of Demy’s life. Jacquot de Nantes can scarcely be called a combination of feature and documentary; it is above all a feature. Varda succeeds primarily in bringing Demy’s youth to life, on the basis of his own memories of youth and she does so in the form of a film from the time: in black & white, lightly romantic and realistic. The scenes from Jacques Demy’s youth — he grew up in Nantes — are juxtaposed with fragments from his famous musical films; many elements from his oeuvre are explained in this way. The film also includes several fragments from interviews, made shortly before Demy’s death; he died on 28 October 1990, just after shooting of Jacquot de Nantes was completed.Varda brings to life a young Demy whose calling, as it were, was cinematography. As a youth he showed incredible diligence and dedication in putting together a complete animation film with few means at his disposal and completely self taught. Varda reconstructed the work of the young set builder in minute detail and shows the authentic result.Jacquot de Nantes is made with Demy’s death close at hand. He wrote and described his memories which were filmed almost immediately. It is striking that this cinematographic hospice work and mourning has resulted in such a cheerful film. A film about the happy youth of a modern story-teller.î
