Watching Model Shop (Jacques Demy, 1968), and the band Spirit not only has some soundtrack music in it, but they make an appearance as themselves. The main male character (played by Gary Lockwood, 2001) even sits down and chats w Jay Ferguson for a while. Jay's not a real good actor, btw. Anouk Aimee also stars. Nice LA locations. Vietnam war looms.
YES! strange flick -- I posted this 3 years ago:
"So TCM is showing this odd, obscure 1969 film I'd never heard of called Model Shop, one of those existential things so fashionable back then, with people wandering aimlessly and contemplating the meaning of their existence. Very European (dir. by Jacques Demy) despite taking place in LA. Gary Lockwood (of 2001) becomes obsessed with French chick Anouk Aimee (best known for A Man and a Woman). And about 20 minutes into it, Lockwood's character goes to visit some friends who have a band, and they're played by... Spirit! And in the next scene he has a heart-to-heart conversation with Jay Ferguson! Weird."
you nailed it. very existential, French New Wave feel.
a couple self-reflexive moments:
- Anouk shows Gary her photo album back at her bachelorette pad (I love the sprinkling of psychedelic posters on the walls of characters' homes) and there's one photo of her from the movie Lola, which she starred in -- and which Demy also directed -- in 1961. In fact, she plays the same characcter, Lola, in this movie and refers to her past as a dancer and "not very good" singer.
- Gary calls his parents from the offices of the hippie newspaper, and there's a photo of nouvelle vague icon Jean Paul Belmondo on the wall near the pay phone.
It's a slow moving movie, not much happens, which is like the main characters' lives, they are searching for some movement -- but the shots of LA, specifically around and along Santa Monica Blvd, are pretty fun.
Did you notice Fred Willard as the gas station attendant about two thirds of the way in? his role was uncredited, and I think his voice was dubbed.
I was hoping Spirit would play some on-screen songs, but the best we get is a brief scene of the band putting down their instruments after a practice session. They say hello to Gary and then the band shuffles out of the house. Randy California (guitar) was probably 17 when they filmed this!
Then Gary sits down with Jay, who plays a little electric piano ditty (which I was trying to identify as a Spirit song, and perhaps it was a riff from
Fresh Garbage??) and he lends Gary $100 (two fifty dollar bills he peels out of his wallet) and says somethig like Hey, no problem, man. The band is doing well. We're really taking off."
