People who know Demy's work will notice the connection between "Lola" "les parapluies de Cherbourg" and "model shop":the first and the third feature Lola ,both played by Anouk Aimée ,and the first and the second one feature Roland ,Lola's unfortunate lover.They will notice how Gary Lockwood ,who plays the male lead in "model shop" resembles Marc Michel,the FRench actor who plays Roland.In "les parapluies de Cherbourg" ,Lola is a memory,and we can hear Roland talk about her to Deneuve's mother.And,how strange,in "model shop",Lola opens her photo album and she begins to recall people from the past,actually the characters of "lola":Michel,the gambler whom she married ,and Frankie ,the marine who died in the war since.Unwarranted nohow:Lockwood's character is to leave for Vietnam very soon.... as Deneuve's fiancé was fighting in Algeria in "les parapluies de Cherbourg".The phone call between Lockwood and his father reveals a lot about the late sixties zeitgeist .

That said,"model shop" is not among Demy's best and might put off a lot of viewers because it's more "nouvelle vague" than any of this director's works.The first thirty minutes are sometimes boring and it's difficult to feel Demy's touch .There was something magic in the towns of Nantes and Cherbourg ,which does not operate here except maybe during the cast and credits ,where the American town seems terribly depressing .The characters are not as interesting as in "Lola" or "les parapluies" and sometimes seem like relics from a long gone past (eg the hippies,Spirit pop group).The movie really takes off during the Aimée/lockwood scenes but they are few and far between.

"Model shop" was a commercial fiasco .I remember that when it was released it only stayed one week in the movie theater where it was shown in my town.I did not see it at the time.So I had to wait 24 years to catch it on one of its very rare TV broadcastings.Afterwards ,Demy made "Peau d'Ane " (Donkey Skin) and it was a return to former glories. I will recommend "model shop " to Demy's fans but Demy's fans only.

This is a bad film, French New Wave or not. While I don't love this type of movie, even as an example of the genre, it's bad. French Writer/Director Jacques Demy (who I have loved in several of his other films) makes a mostly aimless film about a guy who has the personality of a paper towel...and it's all set in America. The guy is Gary Lockwood and I felt a bit sorry for him in the movie as he really had very little to do except exist as well as do things that rarely made sense. Emoting in any way certainly was NOT in the cards for this guy!

The film begins with Lockwood in bed with his girlfriend (who, coincidentally, has almost no personality either). There's a knock at the door as finance company guys are about to repossess his car. He gets them to agree to wait until the end of the day and Lockwood spends much of the beginning of the film visiting various acquaintances trying to bum money from them. Finally, he finds a soft touch and gets the $100 he needs, but ends up spending it on a woman he just saw as he was driving down the street (Anouk Aimée) who poses for perverts who pay her to strip. And, as a result, he can't pay for the car. I assume this is supposed to be romantic, but the guy just comes off as a leeching idiot. Plus, when he announces that he loves her even though he doesn't even know her, he seems like a real creeper!

The film bears some similarities to the famous "Breathless" ("À bout de soufflé"), though unlike Jean-Paul Belmondo (who also plays a low-life), Lockwood's character has no personality and is very, very stiff (in a bad way). At least with Belmondo, he had style and a certain rogue-ish charm. But watching a similar style film with none of the positive qualities of the Godard/Truffaut film, it's a real chore to endure. And, with a plot that seems a bit recycled, the New Wave novelty can't even be respected.

A dull and unconvincing film, it didn't even benefit from being bad. If it been terrible and not dull, this would have been an improvement--at least with terrible you can watch it for a laugh!

George Matthews (Gary Lockwood) is an aimless jobless guy in L.A. Repo-men are coming for his car and he needs $100 to pay them off. His girlfriend Gloria is trying to get into the entertainment business and he doesn't care. The war is raging and he expects to get drafted. While driving around, he spots a beauty (Anouk Aimée) and follows her car to a hillside mansion. She runs a "Model Shop" which rents out models for private photo sessions.

The repo-men are too nice. The guy should join him in retrieving the money. If there's no money, he can grab the car right away. No repo-man would let him delay like that. The tow truck driver is right. Quite frankly, it could be worst and George could crash the car or take off to who knows where. This is more than a little thing. It starts the movie. The scene could have placed it on a higher intensity but the repo-man sets a chilled tone right from the beginning. Of course, George is so chilled that he's almost dead. I get the point but the chilled tone almost stalls the movie. He doesn't have the money and he still goes to the repo office. What is that? Repo should at least ask for partial payment. I'm just stuck on the repo situation.

I'm actually intrigued with this chilled performance. His aimlessness grows out of a state of hibernation from his draft status. It's an interesting angle if the movie has a more intense outer world. This is French director Jacques Demy trying to go Hollywood. It feels like a small slice of French cinema being grafted onto Hollywood. Lockwood's acting is too static and rarely has emotional depth. He's doing the same thing from start to finish no matter what's happening to his character. The idea is a little intriguing but the movie has no tension.