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Bay of Angels (La baie des anges) is a 1963 film from France directed by Jacques Demy.

Jean is a young man who works as a bank clerk in the Paris suburb of Enghien. One day his coworker Caron offers Jean a ride home in his fancy new car, which catches Jean by surprise since they work the same job, and Jean's salary isn't enough for a shiny new car. Caron reveals that he bought the car with his winnings from the roulette tables at a casino. He cajoles Jean into going gambling with him. Caron is cleaned out, but Jean wins a fat wad of cash.

Jean's strict, disapproving father reacts to this news by throwing Jean out of the house. Jean, happy to get out from under his dad's thumb, makes his way to the French Riviera and the gambling casino at Nice. He meets Jackie (Jeanne Moreau), a beautiful, exciting woman who also happens to be a hardcore gambling addict. Will Jackie drag Jean down into a life of gambling addiction?

A young Costa-Gavras worked on this film as an assistant director.


Tropes:

  • Aside Glance: In one scene Jean is getting fitted for a tuxedo because they're headed to the casino at Monte Carlo. He puts on a suit jacket, followed by Jackie looking at the camera and cackling with laughter.
  • Book Ends: The first shot shows Jackie on the boardwalk at Nice, with the camera quickly rushing away from her. The last shot shows the camera rushing way in the same manner, as she strides away arm in arm with Jean.
  • Gambler's Fallacy: One of the ways gambling addicts lie to themselves. Caron keeps a notebook and writes down numbers, believing that he can predict what numbers are going to come up on the roulette wheel by tracking what has come up before.
  • The Gambling Addict: This was one of the first films to treat gambling as an addiction.
    • Caron reveals that he is addicted to gambling, that his wife disapproves but he does it anyway for the thrill, saying "I'm not leaving my wife, and I have to gamble—it's a bit like drugs."
    • Jackie is even worse. When Jean first sees her, she is being tossed out of the casino in Enghien for trying to steal chips. She says that she has slept on benches before after losing her money gambling. She also says that her gambling led to her divorce and her husband getting sole custody of their 3-year-old son. She has a toy roulette wheel in her suitcase, and says that sometimes, when she doesn't have any money, she uses it to gamble alone.
    • Jackie says she has a friend who was also a major gambling addict, who cured herself by writing the government and getting them to ban her from every casino in France.
  • Leg Focus: Jackie gets kicked in the leg while she and Jean are dancing. After they get back to the room she sits in a chair and says "Someone kicked me hard," which is really just an excuse for Jean and the camera to stare at her stocking-clad calves as she dangles them over the arm of the chair.
  • Lingerie Scene: Jackie is sometimes seen wearing only a corset when in hotel rooms with Jean.
  • Off-into-the-Distance Ending: The last scene has Jean and Jackie walking way arm in arm, to an uncertain fate, since she's expressly said before that she won't give up gambling.
  • The Place: The Bay of Angels, the beautiful bay south of Nice.
  • Sexy Backless Outfit: Jackie is wearing a sexy backless dress as she and Jean enter their swanky hotel suite in Monte Carlo.
  • Time-Passes Montage: A montage shows Jean and Jackie gambling in Nice, complete with spinning roulette wheels and the two of them exchanging money for chips.
  • Toxic Friend Influence: Caron cajoles his friend Jean into gambling, talking about how much fun it is and how thrilling it is to win.
  • The 'Verse: Part of a loosely connected universe of Demy movies. Anouk Aimee played the same character, Lola, in Demy films Lola and Model Shop. In Model Shop Lola says her husband left her for a lady gambler named Jacqueline "Jackie" Lemaistre, which is Jeanne Moreau's character in this film.

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