My friend Vern, alarmed at the absence of Jeanne Moreau from that favorite actresses list I concocted, quickly brought over a sizeable stack of Jeanne Moreau DVDs to brainwash me with. Does his wife know about this zealous obsession? He carried them over with a herniated disc. This is devotion to an actress!
Jeanne Moreau & Claude Mann in Bay of Angels (1963)The first one we watched together was Jacques Demy's gambling romance Bay of Angels (1963). My only previous Demy experience was his 1964 musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourgh which sits comfortably among my favorite films of all time. Bay tells the story of a naive young Jean (Claude Mann) who goes gambling one day on a whim. He wins big and drops everything to vacation with his newfound riches. Jean soon meets Jackie (Moreau) a platinum blonde casino hopper and the two have a rollercoaster adventure filled with cash, casinos and hotels. They win and lose... and win and lose some more.
After one particularly big win, Jackie cajoles Jean into providing her with a magnificent suite and he questions her expensive taste and obsession with riches. Her response:
No. I don't like money. You see what I do with it when I have it. If I loved money I wouldn't squander it. Gambling attracts me by its stupid mixture of luxury and poverty.
And also the mystery of numbers... chance. I often wondered whether God ruled over numbers.
The first time I entered a casino I felt as if it was a church. I had the same emotion. Don't laugh. Try to understand. I tell you gambling has become my religion. Money means nothing to me. Nor this robe, this room. Nothing. I knew you wouldn't understand.
One chip is enough to make me happy.
Add this one to your rental queues (netflix / greencine / blockbuster). At 79 minutes it offers a big return on investment. Would that more modern filmmakers would train their lens so tightly on characters and events in miniature and see what miracles can arise.
