Bay of Angels

Jean, a bank clerk in Paris, gambles for the first time at a friend's insistence and wins. Against his father's warning he takes leave and goes to Nice. In the casino he meets a blonde woman, Jackie, who has lost her husband and her child to gambling and has no intention of stopping. The film is not interested in love. It is interested in what winning feels like: it does not frame gambling as a moral question but as a state of mind, and it does not ask you to pity Jackie. Even when she loses she is the liveliest character in it. The form is white and bright: Nice and Monte Carlo, seafront hotels, casino rooms. Jeanne Moreau went fully blonde for the part and dresses in white; everything around her in frame is pale. Jacques Demy wrote and directed, with music by Michel Legrand whose piano theme sets the film's rhythm. It belongs to the period before his colour musicals and was shot in black and white. Jeanne Moreau plays Jackie and Claude Mann plays Jean. Who it is for: viewers who like the French New Wave and character-centred films. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for events. The film takes place almost entirely at the tables, and its final decision will not convince everyone.