Review of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) by Harpreet S — 25 May 2010

The elegantly beautiful Catherine Deneuve plays Genevieve who lives with her mother, the owner of an umbrella boutique. Nino Castelnuovo plays Guy, a handsome young auto mechanic who lives with his sickly godmother. They all live in the port town of Cherbourg in the Norman region of Northern France and they are both in love. Unfortunately their time together will only last through the next day as Guy is being drafted, and must leave to serve in the Algerian War. It is revealed that because of their final encounter before leaving to Algeria Genevieve is pregnant. While Guy is serving his duty, Genevieve encounters a well off jeweler who asks for her hand in marriage. Genevieve now faces the most important choice she has ever had to make. Will she wait for the love of her life to come back from the war or will she go with the well off gentleman who will assure her of a life?

This musical, which is formed like a cinematic opera, is filled with many bold and vibrant colors - colors that are often reflected by the outfits a character wears to something else in the shot such as the yellow Deneuve wears inside the shop to a van parked outside, or a rose that is followed by an umbrella with the same hue. The use of these colors and the fact that all of the dialogue is sung and not acted in the typical way give this brilliant French musical a sort of freshness compared to many other films in the genre. All of the actors do a great job of singing their parts plus Catherine Deneuve is as beautiful as ever. Jacques Demy's dialogue/lyrics sung to Michel Legrand's wonderful music (which takes up the entire film not having more than 5 seconds of silence in between) is a thing of beauty. While the fact that the dialogue is completely sung is a little off putting at first, by the time the first song is finished, the viewer will be completely in the spell of the music and Demy's story. The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg is a film highly recommended to those that love musicals and that are willing to put in effort in enjoying one that is arguably THE most musical of all musicals. A truly great film that was in some ways overshadowed by both My Fair Lady in 1964 and The Sound Of Music in 1965. Fantastique! 10/10.