Known for Directing
Jacques Demy (June 5, 1931 – October 27, 1990) was a French director and screenwriter. He appeared in the wake of the French New Wave. His films are well known for their sumptuous look, drawing on Hollywood musicals, fairy tales, jazz, and opera.
Born
June 5, 1931
Died
October 27, 1990 (age 59)
Birthplace
Pontchâteau, Loire-Atlantique, France
Filmography
95 films, 7 shows


Turning Table
1988 · 1h 20m
country: France
On a winter night, the author of "The King and the Mockingbird" is visited by the cartoon characters he created in his studio. Along with a little clown, he screens a selection of his favorite shorts


Three Seats for the 26th
1988 · 1h 46m
country: France
Yves Montand, playing himself, returns to his hometown of Marseilles to appear in an autobiographical musical. Once there, he searches for the barmaid he once loved and also encounters young hopeful Marion, giving her the chance of a lifetime.


Parking
1985 · 1h 35m
country: France
Rock star Orpheus writes love songs for Eurydice, who designs his album covers. Torn between her and his sound engineer, Calaïs, he discovers Eurydice has died of an overdose. Desperate, he descends into the Underworld to bargain with Hades.


A Room in Town
1982 · 1h 34m
country: France
Set against the backdrop of an increasingly violent strike, a worker falls in love with the middle-class daughter of his landlady.


Break of Day
1980 · 1h 30m
country: France
A writer in her fifties spends the summer in her Saint-Tropez home, tending to her garden and animals while reflecting on her past. As nature thrives around her, a handsome young man and a restless woman draw near, bringing the uncertainties of desire and romance. Adapted from Colette's quasi-autobiographical novel.


Lady Oscar
1979 · 2h 4m
country: France
Oscar François de Jarjayes was born female, but her father insisted she be raised as a boy as he had no sons. She becomes the captain of the guards at Versailles under King Louis XVI and Marie Antonette. Her privileged, noble life comes under fire as she discovers the hard life of the poor people of France. She is caught up in the French Revolution, and must choose between her loyalty and love.


A Slightly Pregnant Man
1973 · 1h 36m
country: France
Marco Mazzetti, a driving instructor, lives with his wife Irène and their young son. After a series of nauseous dizzy spells he goes to the doctor and discovers that he is four-months pregnant. Marco then becomes internationally famous.


The Pied Piper
1972 · 1h 30m
country: Germany
Greed, corruption, ignorance, and disease. Midsummer, 1349: the Black Death reaches northern Germany. Minstrels go to Hamelin for the Mayor's daughter's wedding to the Baron's son. He wants her dowry to pay his army while his father taxes the people to build a cathedral he thinks will save his soul. A local apothecary who's a Jew seeks a treatment for the plague; the priests charge him with witchcraft. One of the minstrels, who has soothed the Mayor's daughter with his music, promises to rid the town of rats for the fee. The Mayor agrees, then renigs. In the morning, the plague, the Jew's trial, and the Piper's revenge come at once.


Donkey Skin
1970 · 1h 30m
country: France
A fairy godmother helps a princess disguise herself so she won't have to marry her father.


Model Shop
1969 · 1h 35m
country: France
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.


The Young Girls of Rochefort
1967 · 2h 6m
country: France
In the seaside town of Rochefort, twin sisters Delphine and Solange dream of love and artistic fulfillment beyond their quiet lives. As sailors, artists, musicians, and chance visitors pass through town during a weekend fair, a web of near-misses and romantic longing brings ideal partners tantalizingly close—without their realizing it.


The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
1964 · 1h 33m
country: France
This simple romantic tragedy begins in 1957. Guy Foucher, a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old Geneviève Emery, an employee in her widowed mother's chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. On the evening before Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, he and Geneviève make love. She becomes pregnant and must choose between waiting for Guy's return or accepting an offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant.


Bay of Angels
1963 · 1h 24m
country: France
A bank clerk is drawn into the risky world of a gorgeous gambling addict.


The Seven Deadly Sins
1962 · 1h 53m
country: France
Seven directors each dramatize one of the seven deadly sins in a short film. In "Anger," a domestic argument over a fly in the Sunday soup escalates into nuclear war. In "Sloth," a movie star would rather pay someone to tie his shoe than bend over to do it himself, and he can't be bothered to accept a starlet's sexual favors. In "Gluttony," a peasant family on its way to the funeral of a relative who died from indigestion stops regularly to eat and drink en route, arriving in time to eat some more. In "Greed," a high-class prostitute refunds the price of a cadet's lottery ticket. In "Pride," an unfaithful wife finds reason to reform. And so on through lust and envy.


Lust
1962 · 15m
country: France
This short film by Jacques Demy was based on his memories of growing up in Nantes, France. While it was initially made for the omnibus film THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS (as the segment on "Lust"), it has also been distributed and exhibited separately.


Lola
1961 · 1h 29m
country: France
A bored young man meets with his former girlfriend, now a cabaret dancer and single mother, and soon finds himself falling back in love with her.


Ars
1960 · 18m
country: France
With ghostly eyes looking through the winter landscapes of the plains and villages of Ain, where the sanctified priest the Curé of Ars once lived, Jacques Demy tried to understand this fighter for communal spirituality and his daily torments of mysticism.


Le Bel Indifférent
1958 · 28m
country: France
An adaptation of Jean Cocteau's play of a woman lecturing her indifferent lover.


Musée Grévin
1958 · 21m
country: France
A man dreams he is in a wax museum after it is closed for the night.The statues come to life and behave in mysterious ways.


La Mère et l'Enfant
1958 · 22m
country: France
This documentary short offers practical advice for mothers on how to take care of their babies, such as feeding and bathing.


Le Sabotier du Val de Loire
1956 · 24m
country: France
This is October 1955. The place is a village in Loire-Atlantique, La Chapelle-Basse-Mer, where an old clog-maker works and lives with his wife and their adopted son. The clog-maker's meticulous craft is described with love and close attention to detail. On the other hand, forthcoming death pervades the quiet everyday life of the elderly couple.


Dead Horizons
1951 · 8m
country: France
Jacques Demy's first surviving live-action project. A man alone in his crumbling apartment recalls being left by his girl for another man.


Attaque nocturne
1948 · 2m
country: France
The film existed only in Jacque’s memory because all that remained were the two cardboard thief characters. Jacques called upon his memories to recreate the decor and the characters with a decorator. The operator then filmed frame by frame to reconstruct the film.
Un regard sur la Hollande
Un regard sur la Hollande
1946
country: Unknown
Short documentary film directed by Jacques Demy in 1946. Forty-two seconds of it appear in director Florence Platarets' 2024 film 'Jacques Demy: Le rose et le noir', along with footage of Mr. Demy showing the short film to one of his grandkids. Total runtime is currently unknown.


La Ballerine
1944 · 1m
country: France
When Agnès Varda was preparing the film Jacquot de Nantes in 1990, she was able to shoot in the small apartment where Jacques was raised. While emptying the attic, Agnès found pieces of 9.5 mm film, dry and folded, almost broken and two small cardboard figures. The film was impossible to project and the film had to be remade. Showing the pieces of film to Jacques he immediately identified La Ballerine. A student from the Fine Arts School of Nantes therefore redrew each shot, frame by frame, on blank 16 mm film.


Le pont de Mauves
1941 · 2m
country: France