Le sabotier du Val de Loire

For "Jacquot de Nantes",the "Val de Loire" is part of his childhood.Like Marcel Carné and Georges Franju,he began his career with shorts.It was 1961 before he directed his first full length feature ("Lola") An user wrote that he was a true story and the way Demy depicts the craftsman's work leaves no doubt about it.From the tree to the clog,which little by little takes shape .But I'm not sure it's the main subject of the film:for the movie is not representative of Demy's future works.Even when his work turned pessimistic (" model shop" " pied piper" or "parking" ) ,he never made a movie as lugubrious as this one.The real subject of this short is getting old and the thought of an impending death ("my wife is as old as my wheelbarrow" "another of my old mates is gone" ).It's the dimming of the day and the old couple desperately needs each other and their biggest fear is to be the one who survives ("If she goes first,she won't have to wait for me too long").They have a child (an orphan they adopted),but now he's grown up,and begins to leave them alone for he has a life on his own ("he gets restless" says the father).

The Val de Loire ,which is also my native region ,is shrouded in a crepuscular light:shadows lengthen over the film as it progresses ;the slow ending of two lives which were certainly not the one you dream of.

As the old people are fishing ,a train is tearing along :in their old world the milk train does not stop anymore,just the hoot of a small van early very early in the autumnal dawn.