The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 12:49pm

I recently watched this film for the first time. I thought it was OK but not earth-shatteringly great. (To me the story was very predictable). Perhaps it should be viewed on a big screen to get the full impact of the scenery?

For those of you who have seen it, what makes it a great film?

Updated On: 12/16/13 at 12:49 PM

[WOSQ]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 1:53pm

The sheer unadulterated romanticism.

The saturated colors to match that romanticism in intensity.

The two main musical themes.

Bittersweet.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 4:34pm

It's one of my favorite films, and yet I understand why some people simply don't. It's one of those kinds of films. I like all three of the Demy/Legrand/Deneuve musicals, Cherbourg (which actually shares a character with Demy's earlier Lola) Rochefort and Donkey Skin.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 5:13pm

The AV Club just posted something about the film's ending, that still reduces me to tears.

http://www.avclub.com/article/is-the-umbrellas-of-cherbourgs-score-at-odds-with-106479

I love it for the melodrama, the romanticism, the colors, and Deneuve's completely captivating star-power. She was in her early 20s when that film came out- it seems unfair.

A.O. Scott on the film.

http://www.nytimes.com/video/movies/100000000818582/the-umbrellas-of-cherbourg.html

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 5:24pm

strummgergirl, thanks for posting that. And what a coincidence that they just posted this at the time when I have watched the film.

***spoiler alert***

Everyone has different thoughts. My thought at that last scene was "Why does she leave that poor little girl out in the cold car?"

And when he did the happy families thing at the end, I felt sorry for the woman he picked up and used in the bar.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 5:27pm

I think one thing that's so amazing about Denueve's performance is that she's lip synching to someone else's recording the entire time. And yet, it's perfect for the film.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 5:27pm

I guess it's the 1960s version of Amelie. I really enjoyed Amelie when I saw it. Audrey Tatou was captivating, the scenery was beautiful and the story was wonderfully quirky and endearing. And yes, I do admit that Amelie's ending was predictable as well.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 5:40pm

I hate Amelie, lol, but I do understand the comparison. While different in tone, I would be interested in hearing what you think (if you've seen or get around to seeing) Demy's other musicals.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 5:42pm

The story is simple, I agree. The real beauty is in the telling of the tale. The gorgeous actors, location, colors, and above all, the music.

I absolutely love it.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 8:48pm

I saw it on stage in Paris in 1979 and only recently saw the film for the first time.

On both occasions I admired much of it and I agree that Deneuve was lovely in the film, but that one damn musical theme (which we call "I Will Wait for You" in English) drives me a little nuts after awhile.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 9:47pm

The movie is coming out on Blu-ray this week in Europe (Region B). I'm sure a Region A release will follow in a few months.

They gave it a great review, too.


Blu-ray.com

[SweetLips]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 10:42pm

Nothing to do with Umbrellas but I always link it with Day for Night--2 films from that period that stir now unreachable memories---makes me want to revisit and try.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 8:56am

"I would be interested in hearing what you think (if you've seen or get around to seeing) Demy's other musicals."

I'll search them out and see if I can find them.

I don't hate this movie, it is a fine movie. It just didn't live up to the raves that I had heard about it.

And that poor girl having to sit out in that cold car while her mother warms herself inside the gas station.

[Ex-Siny]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 9:54am

So, I confess to not having seen the movie, although of course I am familiar with the music. Stupid question here - is there other music in the movie or do they keep singing the same melody with different lyrics ? And, yeah, that poor little girl sitting in the cold car with the window open. I doubt they would put a scene like that in any movie made today unless followed by a visit from Child Services. How times change.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 1:50pm

The entire movie is sung (no dialogue), and yes, there's more than one theme in the film. Many themes, lots of recitative. Gorgeous music.

Check out the Young Girls of Rochefort sometime, too. From 1967. Bright and breezy. Great music. Here's a sample. the film features Catherine Deneuve again, and also George Chakiris and Gene Kelly.

I always loved the way the film opened. There's a lot of dance in this one, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX6I1_PwMt4

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 1:56pm

Les Demoiselles de Rochefort is absolutely one of my all time favorite films...E V E R.

I love every single frame of that candy-color coated film!

It's one film that I used to watch religiously almost on a weekly basis...that's how much I love it.

I don't watch it nearly as much now...but now I may have to re-visit it.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 2:18pm

Yay!

More for you, Carlos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwC5l35NLgs

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 2:29pm

Hey, Carlos, have you seen this??? It's an entire stage production of Les Demoiselles de Rochefort posted earlier this year.

Looks like a first-rate production, too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGnsAHEpGNY

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 2:36pm

Yes! I saw it! It is a first rate production and Legrand wrote some new songs for the stage version.

Thanks for posting the dance in the park sequence...magnificent!

'Young Girls', 'Sound of Music' and 'Wizard of Oz' are my 3 go-to films to lift my spirits up.

Every song is a winner, but my absolute favorite is Chanson D'Un Jour D'ete.

Is it 6 yet? I want to fly home and watch it now!

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 3:42pm

I love ROCHEFORT, too!

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 4:17pm

Oddly Chakiris and Gene Kelly were dubbed for Rochefort as well, as was Francoise Dorleac, Deneuve's real life sister who died so tragically the same year--maybe they weren't comfortable singing in a different language. That stage version fascinates and confuses me. I like a lot of it, but the design and aesthetic (and choreography) still mixes in a lot of those "modern" that is standard for French stage musicals.

I know people seemed to love or hate CHerbourg on stage in London a year or two ago--I have a feeling it would be harder to make work on stage, in any language. I know there are several translations, but I've only heard Sheldon Harnick's which I found rather clumsy. Still, better than that English Rochefort soundtrack that was done by the same dub singers when the movie came out and often is incomprehensible between weird lyrics and bad accents.

It's too bad Rochefort doesn't have a decent DVD release in N America (the one Ihave is long out of print) though I've read that the French BluRay will play anywhere, but don't quote me on that yet. Demy's films haven't really had much of a decent treatment here. You can get his odd Donovon/Medieval musical done in English, The Pied Piper, Bay of Angels and his first hit Lola (which as I said, while it's not a musical though it has a lovely score is sorta a prequel to Cherbourg in that they share the character, and actor of Roland--it always seemed fitting htat he's jiilted in Lola and then ends up partly causing the seperation of Genevieve and Guy in Cherbourg.) And then Demy's one bid at Hollywood, the failure Model Shop which has Gary Lockwood has Anouk Amee reprising her role of Lola from that film... It's not on DVD here, but randomly shows up on TCM fairly regularly.

As I said I have a big soft spot for Donkey Skin and would highly recommend it, though I also understand it's frankly a very strange film. We first had to watch it (as a "treat) in grade 2 or 3 when I was in French Immersion, and I think I was the only kid who loved it--I couldn't get the Cake Making song out of my head. But it's based n a weird fairy tale anyway, and Demy emphasizes the incest (Deneuve's princess Donkey Skin's father, played by Jean Marais, wants to marry her,) how bizarre the donkey who ****s gold is, a good fairy godmother played by Delphine Seyrig is a wonderful camp performance ie secretly kinda only in it for her own romantic ideas, and it is thrown with anachronistic elements as well as visually (and by casting Marais) a complete homage to Cocteau's Belle et le Bete. But apparently it was Demy's most popular film in France.

For years I could remember details, but there was no North American video or way to see it, so I was happy ten or so years back when it got a very good DVD transfer, though I doubt we'll get a BluRay outside of Europe. But, as I said, I love it. Here's Deneuve and Rochefort's handsome Jacques Perrin as the Prince in a dream song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyY7zztZdfQ And here's her magic cake song which she sings to herself... literally http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7axZxIdNhM Oh and here's her fairy godmother singing why daughters shouldn't marry their fathers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEqxp3LsqMw

None of the other Demy films I've seen are really great films, but they each fascinate me. Being a big classic girls anime/manga nerd who grew up with the French animated version of Rose of Versailles and saw the Japanese Takarauka stage version, Demy's film version is bizarre. Called Lady Oscar it was paid for by the Japanese, filmed in Versailles to reflect the Marie Antoinette story and then, randomly, performed in English.

Parking is a bizarre rock/disco musical (again with Legrand) that tells the story of Orpheus (again inspired more by Cocteau's Orphee) set in a parking garage... La Naissance du Jour is a gentle adaptation of the Colette novel. A Slightly Prgnant Man is an incredibly stupid film with Deneuve married to Marcello Mastriooni who gets pregnant--hijinks ensue.

Most fascinating to me Une CHambre en VIlle which is his most ambitious musical--the use of violence and sexuality/nudity so offended Michel Legrand that he refused to write the songs, so Michel Colombier came in (it's a nice score.) Through sung again, it deals with a tragic romance in Nantes during the 1955 workers strike and has to be seen by Demy fan but, despite being nominated for a slew of prizes, it's maybe too heavy handed hold up. Still has some beautiful moments. I believe it's been done on stage as well and is up on youtube.

It's too bad Demy died relatively young of AIDS around 1990--his last film the Yves Montand was, I think, meant to be a throwback to Rochefort--another love letter to old musicals, but the only really good parts are when they throwback to an old song (even the AU revoir section from Cherbourg.) Agnes Varda, his director-wife was controversial among fans for a while because she always fiercely denied her husband was gay--until she wrote a tell all memoir. But she has been working hard at restoring all of his films--he's my favorite French director and its too bad so many are still relatively hard to find here.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 4:45pm

I didn't realize Les Demoiselles de Rochefort was out of print! I went to Amazon and found this hilarious (and pretty accurate) review of the movie. It's exactly why I love the film.

Even the Guys Are Wearing "Go-Go Boots"

Imagine a Monty Python version of "Bye Bye Birdie", set in France and featuring twin anorexic Ann Margrets; and you will have a good idea of the "look" of "The Young Girls of Rochefort". Then throw in the Hullabaloo dancers with even the males in go-go boots and be prepared to laugh. Which is appropriate because on one level Jacques Demy is gleefully and affectionately satirizing the movie musical tradition. What you are not prepared for is how, after about 40 minutes, you realize that you really like this thing.

It is fast paced, extremely original, and very pretty; ultimately its innate charm just wins you over. At the end you are shocked to find that this silly satire stands alone atop all of Demy's other films. His legacy of optimism, beauty, and unashamed sweetness.



More here.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 4:56pm

Apparently they just this year staged a Rochefort flashmob in Paris. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fma0AGsSzGM

That review is spot on--and exactly, those are many of the reasons I love the film.

French Film Guide has a pretty accurate review of Peau D'ane (as well as Une Chambre en Ville that I would agree with) on a semi similar level:

"Whilst the score is not Legrand's best, the film boasts some memorable songs, which deserve to be better known than they are. Likewise, there's a certain genius in the artistic design of the piece which you'd only expect to find in a film by Jean Cocteau, from whose work the film's look and feel is probably inspired.

Whilst Catherine Deneuve's cool ethereal presence dominates this film, there are some notable contributions from her impressive co-stars Jean Marais, Jacques Perrin and Micheline Presle. Best of all, Delphine Seyrig gets to play a scheming fairy, an inspired piece of casting which allows the actress to give what is almost certainly her most wondrously camp performance ever.

Sugary, unreal, saturated with colour, and with a tendency to push kitsch to its absolute limit (and then a bit further), Peau d'âne is one of those mad oddities of a film that you will either love or hate. Chances are that you will love it, especially if you have enjoyed Demy's better known films."

http://frenchfilmguide.com/movies/FFG_Peau_d_ane_1970_review.html

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 5:06pm

I love that flash mob!

This is one of those movies that I have to watch every spring (early spring), usually while consuming several gin and tonics. It just puts me in the right mood for the rest of the warmer months.

It's like eating a big bowl of sherbet.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 5:17pm