Singing the praises and the pain of love

THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG aka LES PARAPLUIES DE CHERBOURG (1964)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(Original review from 1996)

Catherine Deneuve is probably the most beautiful, attractive, mysterious blonde in cinema. In my opinion, her beauty is her magic and it draws enormous pathos and is unsurpassed in the history of film, even with the iconic, empathetic sexiness of Marilyn Monroe. I think part of her unmistakable beauty is her ability to play both weak and forlorn women in films such as "Repulsion" and "Belle De Jour," and strong, independent, callous women in films like "O Convento" and the lesbian vampire in "The Hunger." I have not seen all of Deneuve's films, but I doubt she's ever played such a vivacious, funny, charming woman who sings as she does in the seemingly riotous "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg."

In her film debut at the age of twenty, Deneuve plays the teenage Genevieve, a girl who works for her mother (Anne Vernon) at a small umbrella shop. Every day after work, Genevieve meets the local garage mechanic named Guy (Nino Castelnuovo) whom she is deeply in love with. Guy wants to marry her and whisk her away from her mother. There are complications, though. Her mother's shop is about to be closed down until a wealthy playboy, Roland Cassard (Marc Michel), offers to save it - of course, he is deeply smitten by Genevieve's beauty and falls in love with her. Her mother insists that she marry Cassard since Guy is out to be drafted to the army in Algeria for two years.

More complications ensue. Genevieve turns out to be pregnant. Since she only receives one letter from Guy, she accepts Cassard's marriage proposal, and his willingness to raise her child as their own. A few years later, Guy returns from the army only to discover that Genevieve has married, his mother is sickly, and her caretaker, Madeleine (Ellen Farmer), is in love with him.

Part of the charm of "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" is that director Jacques Demy has turned this highly romantic film into a musical in the strangest sense. Demy's screenplay is full of the usual romantic cliches and witticisms except they are not spoken by the actors, they are sung! The movie gets funnier and funnier as it proceeds with its noble, inventive idea - it is equally pleasurable to watch Deneuve singing her shouting matches with her mother. After a while, we forget the actors are singing as the film gets richer and more serious leading to an unexpectedly touching finale.

"The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" also has exquisitely designed cinematography where the interior walls, chairs, tables, staircases and lights consist of primarily bright colors such as pink, blue, green and red - this partly pays homage to Hollywood's musicals where bright colors seemed to seep in every frame, especially Vincent Minneli's musicals. This is also partly a device where we are aware that we're not seeing the real world, but a fictional and dreamlike one.

"The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" is unlike any movie I have ever seen, and it is very similar to Woody Allen's recent "Everyone Says I Love You" where some of the characters sang at the most inappropriate moments, though they mostly sang famous songs of the 20's and 30's. In this case, the actors actually sing the dialogue. Jacques Demy's film has been recently restored because the original Eastman film stock was fading. The result is a film that's bright, vivid and frequently funny and hits all the right notes and some sad ones about how love does not conquer all. The film is a treasure to behold and an antidote to the sappy, robotic romantic comedies of the 90's. No treasure is greater though than the magical, youthful presence of Catherine Deneuve.