Les parapluies de Cherbourg (1964)

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 | Shop | Military Service | Umbrella | Mechanic

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:

In the beginning, a black car rolls into the garage where Guy works, and Guy is asked to assist with the car's problems. This car is actually Roland Cassard's and it can be seen two more times: when Roland visits the umbrella shop to give Ms. Emery the money for her pearl necklace, and again as the wedding car. The license plate is the same and can be seen in this latter scene and in the very first.

Quotes:

Guy Foucher: Are you in mourning?
Geneviève Emery: Mother died last autumn.
Guy Foucher: What did you name her?
Geneviève Emery: Francoise. She's a lot like you. Do you want to see her?
Guy Foucher: I think you can go.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Trapped in the Closet: Chapters 13-22 (2007) (V)

Soundtrack:

I Will Wait For You

9/10

The first of the three segments is perhaps the sunniest film ever made. It's a totally original film (at least from what I've seen); so original, in fact, that at first it's kind of off-putting -- the artificiality of the bubble gum colors (in the first segment, as they change slightly as each moves into the next), the constantly moving camera, and the fact that all of the lines are sung makes it hard to get situated within the film, for the same reason that you turn the car radio down when you're driving down a street trying to read house numbers. ("I can't follow the plot, they keep singing...") And yet Demy isn't satisfied with just being sunny (and his brightness is never garish); each segment has a specific feel, the grandest being the last, with an ending that's just right. (Though it should be said that Demy never once sacrifices the pleasure he creates, nor does he fall into any stale conventions, even while his story is based on the oldest of movie clichés -- wait for me!).

I hesitate to use the word melodrama, but that's essentially what the film is, both for the meaning of the word "melo" (music) and for the heightened emotions brought on my the music. It feels like we've got our head in the clouds, not least of all because the acting is aided by, well, the singing. The music, which is nearly always splendid (and never song-and-dancey), compliments the actors. At first the acting is very plain; or at least, it seems that way. I think that's due to the unconventional approach. Deneuve's loveliness as a young woman keeps us from responding to much aside from her beauty (and she starts off as a typical love-struck sixteen year-old), but by the end she's quite a different person, and to overuse a term applied to Deneuve, she becomes elegant. (I kept looking at her handsome costar thinking Alain Delon would have been perfect in the role; then I learned his most noteworthy film aside from this one was the Delon-starring Visconti film, "Rocco and His Brothers.) Surely some people would probably vomit at a film of such shameless exhibitionism and style, but I was left astonished, thinking, How in the hell did they pull it off? 9/10