The Umbrellas of Cherbourg [Les parapluies de Cherbourg] ***** (1964, Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo, Anne Vernon) – Classic Movie Review 1945

Told in four acts, writer-director Jacques Demy’s irresistible, bitter-sweet 1964 classic French musical romance has originality, freshness, joie de vivre and charm in bucketfuls. Though the actors are dubbed, every word is sung in Demy’s seemingly effortless scenario and dialogue to composer Michel Legrand’s lovely light score.

A gorgeous young Catherine Deneuve stars as the cute teenage umbrella shop girl Geneviève Emery, working for her widowed mother Madame Emery (Anne Vernon) in her umbrella shop called Les parapluies de Cherbourg. The film’s first act takes place in November 1957, when Geneviève is only 16 years old and understandably falls for the hunky but low-achieving 20-year old garage mechanic and assistant Guy Foucher (Nino Castelnuovo).

They decide to tell no one about their relationship or their desire to get married. That’s because Geneviève fears her mother would think her too young to marry and would wish someone with better prospects, while Guy needs to look after his ailing godmother Aunt Élise (Mireille Perrey) and a young woman named Madeleine (Ellen Farner).

The second act begins in February 1958 when Guy gets called up to fight abroad for the French in Algeria. He has been gone for two months and is expected to be away for two years and, while he’s away at war, Geneviève takes the fateful decision of deciding to marry another man.

Nominated for five Oscars, this 1964 Cannes Palme d’Or winner is a true beguiling original, utterly charmant and très, très triste. Legrand was Oscar nominated for  both the score and for the song I Will Wait for You (lyrics by Demy).

The 1997 restored print shows it in superb condition.

Marc Michel, Jean Champion, Pierre Caden, Jean-Pierre Dorat and Bernard Fradet also appear.

Jacques Demy is best known for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) and Lola (1961). He was born on June 5 1931 and was married to Agnès Varda. He died on October 27 1990 in Paris of AIDS, aged 59.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1945

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