Bay of Angels

La Baie des Anges

Jacques Demy, France, 1962, Ciné Tamaris

Comment

The last shot of the film is also a tracking shot. Instead of opening the space, this shot pulls back inside the casino where the two characters, seen from behind, are leaving. Its movement gives the shot a sombre feeling which visually contrasts the ‘happy end’ which we would expect of the couple coming back together, just at the point when it seemed they would part company. The way in which the final shot is filmed seems to say something quite different from what the screenplay suggests. Perhaps this departure, far from being the start of something new, is nothing but the hellish entrapment of a couple forever subject to the horrors of their gambling addiction.