It’s become fashionable in recent years to say that you don’t like musicals. The reason for this is unclear; maybe we’ve become too sophisticated as an audience (yeah, right… the crushing success of movies like Charlie’s Angels are a great indicator of our new-found sophistication) so that people bursting out into song just isn’t believable anymore. Another reason might be the fact that all Disney movies have at least one musical sequence in them, and people are reluctant to say that they actually enjoyed a “kids’ movie”. I personally hold musicals as high in my esteem as any other genre. I give an equal chance to all movies, be they musical or not.

Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) could be described as some sort of Nouvelle Vague opera. Characters don’t break out into song in this one; they sing every piece of dialogue. It can be somewhat distracting at first; every banal little piece of dialogue (the postman comes in, he signs a hearty “Hellooooo!”) is sung. It takes a few minutes to get used to it, but once you do, you barely notice it anymore.

Catherine Deneuve plays Geneviève, a 17-year-old girl living with her mother, who runs a Cherbourg umbrella shop. Geneviève is in love with Guy (Nino Castelnuovo), a mechanic who lives with his dying aunt. Guy and Geneviève want to marry, but her mother (Anne Vernon) is severely opposed to it. She doesn’t have to argue much, because Guy is drafted by the army and has to go away for two years. This is where Cassard, a jeweller friend of the mother, comes in. He’s madly in love with Geneviève, rich, handsome… you can see where this is going.

If there’s one thing wrong with this film, it’s the dialogue. It’s a good thing that the dialogue is sung, because the movie would be dull as dishwater if it weren’t. This is a rather minor complaint if you don’t speak French; being fluent in French (hell, it’s my first language), I couldn’t help being annoyed at the blatantly expository dialogue being sung. It sounds mostly like someone’s describing what’s going on, as opposed to people actually talking. It’s a violation of the ‘Show, don’t tell’ rule of screenwriting, although I suppose the point is moot because of the nature of the film.

Composed by Michel Legrand, the film’s score is perfectly suited to the film. Although there are no songs (they’re more like scenes; the melodies can remain for as long as ten minutes) that stick out and stay in your head, there’s not a song that’s so wretched and annoying that you have to fast-forward through it. I have no idea if the actors are actually using their own voices here; it’s obviously lip-synching, though. Everyone sings beautifully.

Speaking of beauty, Demy’s use of Technicolor here is striking. The film is colourful, sometimes massively so. There are bright pinks and deep forest greens and a virtual kaleidoscope of colors, all wonderfully shot by Demy and remastered by Agnès Varda, Demy’s widow for a 1992 re-release.

The beauty doesn’t stop there, however. This is the film that made the luminous Catherine Deneuve a star. She just radiates beauty and star power here. Her performance is great; she brings just the right amount of vulnerability and innocence to the character. Nino Castelnuovo gives a more typical (if equally effective) performance. Deneuve is somewhat theatrical in her portrayal, which is how it should be. Castelnuovo is more restrained, more natural, creating a well-balanced contrast between the two. Vernon, as the mother, is excessively theatrical, however and Marc Michel, who plays Cassard, is about as interesting and expressive as a piece of plywood.

The film is ultimately a sad one; there’s no sugar-sweet conclusion, as you would expect from a musical as colourful as this one. It’s also more realistic in that regard; it ends like many love stories end, without the superficial glamour glitz of a Gene Kelly musical (ironically, Kelly starred in this film’s follow-up, Les Demoiselles de Rochefort… which I haven’t seen). The last image of the film is heartbreaking yet, in a way, as good as it could be.

I could say that The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is a musical for those who hate musicals, but that wouldn’t be fair to it. It’s a romantic, yet sad film that shouldn’t really be considered a musical per se; it is not built around the music, but rather the music built around it.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older