Review of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) by Anthony K — 09 Dec 2007

Best wallpaper in a movie ever. This may be my favorite film. Simultaneoulsy fanciful and realistic... Demy tried musicals a few more times and they didn't do it for me because they tried too hard to be like Hollywood musicals.

This one is totally French. Everyone sings, the colors are lovely, the whole thing has the facade of a perfect romance, but nothing's perfect, people make practical choices... sometimes people make the wrong choices.

And sometimes the choices we don't want to make actually lead to happiness. There's something new for me each time. Catherine is almost disturbingly beautiful. Nino is great, too, and the center of the film and none of it would work without Anne Vernon.

Or Michel Legrand... oh, and Blonde Redhead used the words sung by Marc Michel for their song "This Is Not".