Jacques Demy invariably wrote his own lyrics - I use the word loosely -and got away with their mediocrity because he usually hired Michel Legrand to set them. This time around he hired Donovan and lost out on both words and music so perhaps it's just as well that he (Demy) was clearly aspiring to something more than just a light musical but a Socially Significant document embracing usury, racial prejudice and pestilence. It wouldn't be Demy without some picture-book visuals and indeed the opening sequences in particular are reminiscent of Ingmar Bergman whose bitter black coffee had been slightly diluted to cafe-au-lait. The casting is Odd to Quaint and doesn't really work but it has to be said that the scenes with the wedding cake, the rat exodus and the children exodus have a certain style.
Review of The Pied Piper
