Les parapluies de Cherbourg (1964)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Jacques Demy

Writer:

Jacques Demy (scenario and dialogue)

Release Date:

16 December 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

FOR ALL THE YOUNG LOVERS OF THE WIDE, WIDE WORLD...

Plot:

Geneviève, 17, lives with her widowed mother, who owns an umbrella shop in Cherbourg. She and Guy, a twenty-year-old auto mechanic...

Plot Keywords:

Aunt | Marriage | Mechanic | Umbrella | Teenage Girl

Awards:

Nominated for 5 Oscars. Another 5 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Catherine Deneuve	...	Geneviève Emery
Nino Castelnuovo	...	Guy Foucher
Anne Vernon	...	Madame Emery
Marc Michel	...	Roland Cassard
Ellen Farner	...	Madeleine
Mireille Perrey	...	Aunt Élise
Jean Champion	...	Aubin (as J. Champion)
Pierre Caden	...	Bernard (as P. Caden)
Jean-Pierre Dorat	...	Jean (as J.P. Dorat)
Bernard Fradet	...	Gas Station Apprentice (as B. Fradet)
Michel Benoist	...	Umbrella Buyer (as M. Benoist)
Philippe Dumat	...	Garage Customer in 1957 (as P. Dumat)
Dorothée Blank	...	Girl in Cafe (as D. Blank)
Jane Carat	...	Ginny (as J. Carat)
Harald Wolff	...	Monsieur Dubourg

Also Known As:

Die Regenschirme von Cherbourg (West Germany)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (USA)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

France | West Germany

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR (restored version) (1992) | Mono

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) | UK:U (re-rating) (1997) | Singapore:PG | Netherlands:AL (re-rating) (2008) | South Korea:12 | Australia:PG | Chile:TE | Finland:S | France:U | Portugal:M/12 | Sweden:Btl

Filming Locations:

Cherbourg, Manche, France

Company:

Parc Film

Trivia:

Roland tells Genevieve's mother he once loved a woman named "Lola." "Lola" is a Demy film from 1961, in which Marc Michel plays the same character of Roland.

Quotes:

Roland Cassard: I've just seen Miss Genevieve. I would have liked...
Madame Emery: She's gone out. The life we lead here is so sad for a young girl. This dreary shop. She's bored, and I fear she'll become depressed. Would you like some tea?
Roland Cassard: With pleasure.
Madame Emery: We've just had a terrible fight about you.
Roland Cassard: About me?
Madame Emery: She wanted to go out, but I didn't want her to. We had a row. We've been so lonely since my husband died.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Ja zuster, nee zuster (2002)

Soundtrack:

I Will Wait For You

An offbeat but beautifully stylised and colourful piece of cinema

This must be amongst the most distinctive, idiosyncratic and exquisite films I have seen in a long while. There is nothing particularly new about the plot, which is a straightforward and uncomplicated love story divided into three acts, but the beauty of this film is in the telling of it.

All the dialogue in this film is sung, which at first is a little unsettling, but it actually takes very little time to adjust to. The verse/chorus format of popular music and the musical genre is eschewed for an approach more resembling a modern opera, as the characters croon their lines to each other over a continuous score. This gives the most banal of lines a rhythm and cadence of their own. Because of this I found the French a lot easier to understand than with more naturalistic films, which was fairly handy for me as the print I was watching was with Dutch subtitles! I must confess, I did find that the music (written by Michel Legrand) began to grate towards the end of the 87 minute running time but even so there is still much to admire here. Visually it's stunning, with a bold and vibrant colour palette of almost hallucinogenic intensity and sumptuous costume and set design (that wallpaper!). The opening credit sequence sets the mood perfectly: a birds eye view of the inhabitants of Cherbourg in the rain beneath their umbrellas as they walk across the frame is reduced to a colourful abstraction. Catherine Deneuve is predictably gorgeous and the first act of the young couples courtship is one of the most beautifully pure pieces of cinema I can think of. It reminded me a bit of 'Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris', a film which I saw in television a long time ago and would do absolutely anything to get hold of a copy. 'Les Parapluies de Cherbourg' is a wonderful, sincere and uplifting film that everyone should go and see at least once, and preferably on a big screen. Once seen, never forgotten.