What it’s about
After moving to the port town of Nice, former bank clerk Jean Fournier (Mann) meets Jackie (Moreau), a striking platinum blonde who long ago abandoned her husband and children for the casinos she now haunts. Jackie latches onto Jean when he brings her a streak of good luck, but her compulsive behavior risks draining all his passion.
Why we love it
Jeanne Moreau delivers one of her finest screen performances in Demy’s high-spirited “Bay of Angels,” playing a gorgeous, middle-aged gambling addict whose obsession with roulette governs her life. (She even keeps a mini roulette wheel in her purse.) Shot on location in Nice and Monte Carlo, this ecstatic, high-spirited drama hinges on Moreau’s ability to seduce and possess Jean, whom she perceives as a good-luck charm, and his eventual need to free himself from her grasp. Jean Rabier’s giddy, dizzying cinematography complements Demy’s concern with love and longing, fate and fortune. Put your chips down on “Bay of Angels.”
Jeanne Moreau, Claude Mann Jacques Demy