A Study of Gambling Addiction, Jacques Demy’s movie Bay of the Angels
From a dark screen with only the faint sound of the sea in the background, out of the circle of the camera, gradually getting larger, emerges the image of an elegant woman, clad in white (Jeanne Moreau), walking on the Bay of the Angels in Nice, on the south coast of France. Then the camera tracks backward and accelerates its motion; it recedes on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice as the music of Michel Legrand bathes the opening credits. The music is a lush and multi-layered piano composition evocative of vibrancy, speed (the movement of the camera accelerates), energy and, as we will discover, drama, tension and passion.
Initiation into the world of gambling; separation from the father
The beginning of Bay of the Angels takes us to a patriarchal world, a world of money symbolized by the bank and the casino in Enghien, as well as the world of the main character’s father. The first scene is set in a bank. The camera, tracking in a downward angle, presents us with a mild-mannered and unassuming clerk named Jean Fournier who works at his desk, in a bank. It is a predominantly male world; the only female is the secretary who is ordered by Jean’s supervisor to give him his vacation pay-check and whose only words are: “Yes, sir”. Everybody is impeccably dressed with suits or dresses of a classic cut. Jean is tired (“I’ve got to forget about figures”). He accepts a ride from his co-worker Caron who has been able to afford a new car despite a limited salary from the bank. The car is a DS Citroen, an expensive and powerful car, shaped like a giant tortoise. It is worth noting that DS and “Déesse” (goddess) are pronounced in the same way; in the sixties many jokes were made as to how men rode with their goddess! The goddess is waiting for them as the two men exit the bank and much of the men’s conversation happens as Caron is driving. Jean Fournier is surprised that his friend could afford such a car. Caron explains that he leads a double-life as a gambler that he has been able to hide from his wife, despite a promise never to gamble again, and from his conservative employers. Caron is a trickster, he lies and deceives.
Jean: “So you live a lie.”
Caron: “I have to, I won’t leave my wife and gambling is a compulsion. Now I play incognito.”
Caron invites Jean to accompany him to the casino for a Saturday outing at the roulette table. To Jean who is reluctant to try it and compares it with the world of drugs (“if I became an addict I’d be lost”), Caron assures him that “gambling and drugs are worlds apart. With gambling you keep your lucidity. It’s very stimulating”.
Jean’s life, we sense, has been much less than stimulating. He lives with his father who is a clock and watch-maker. In the father’s life, everything works like clock-work and there is not much space for Eros. The first vision we have of him is him sitting at his desk wearing a long work blouse, working on a watch with a magnifying glass. He has a strong work ethic. Money is not given freely to you, you work hard to get it and then you need to be careful with how you spend it. The only feminine presence in the apartment is that of the cleaning lady and cook Martha. She is an elderly woman who is wearing black clothes. We can assume that Jean’s mother is dead and that she comes to help the two men with the cleaning and cooking (“you just have to warm the soup). She is on her way out and she asks the father for some money for shopping. The father is reluctant to give the money: (“I gave you 10 000 Francs last week”), to which she replies somewhat sharply: “you try doing the shopping”.