Lola (1961 film) carrying on or being redirected." Lola (1961 film) Lola is a 1961 romantic drama film, the debut film directed by Jacques Demy as a tribute to director Max Ophüls, described by Demy as a "musical without music". Anouk Aimée starred in the title role. The film was restored and re-released by Demy's widow, French filmmaker Agnès Varda. The names of the film and title character were inspired by Josef von Sternberg's 1930 film "Der blaue Engel", in which Marlene Dietrich played a burlesque performer named "Lola Lola". "Lola" takes place in the Atlantic coastal city of Nantes, France. A young
Marlene Dietrich Crawford, Mae West, Katharine Hepburn, Norma Shearer, Dolores del Río and Fred Astaire among others. While she was in London, officials of the Nazi Party approached Dietrich and offered her lucrative contracts, should she agree to return to Germany as a foremost film star in the Third Reich. She refused their offers and applied for US citizenship in 1937. She returned to Paramount to make "Angel" (1937), another romantic comedy directed by Ernst Lubitsch; the film was poorly received, leading Paramount to buy out the remainder of Dietrich's contract. In 1939, with encouragement from Josef von Sternberg, she accepted producer