By – Gareth Jones

For fans of Jacques Demy and Michel Legrand, French New Wave, Musicals

Most of the time, attention that is given to the French New Wave is focused on Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut.  They both were and are crucial to that movement, but it is also important to dive into other works from that era.  I speak to myself as much as anyone here.  In my first introduction to the French New Wave, I was severely lacking in my understanding of Agnes Varda and her husband Jacques Demy.  My twenty-year old self was not mature enough to appreciate their work.  Over the past twenty years, I have slowly been able to rectify that.  I was too dismissive of them as an undergrad but now, I am completely transfixed and blown away by them.  There is no better example of this than my recent re-viewing of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Jacques Demy’s masterpiece of color and music.  The recent restoration making the rounds demands to be seen on the big screen with an audience.  I was fortunate to see it at Sidewalk Cinemas in Birmingham with my wife and daughters.  That also brought additional perspective to this experience.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is the second of an informal trilogy of films by Demy. He created a world unto himself with some of the same characters appearing in multiple films.  It started in 1961 with Lola, continued with The Umbrellas of Cherbourg in 1964 and finished with The Young Girl of Rochefort in 1967.  Of the three, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg received the most critical acclaim including the Palme D’Or at Cannes.  It has gone on to be one of the most influential musicals of all time, and after seeing it on the big screen, it is easy to see why.

The film tells the simple, but not so simple, tale of young love and how life gets in the way.  It follows the relationships of Genevieve and Guy, played to perfection by Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo.  She is seventeen and is being held back by her umbrella shop-owning mother. Guy works at the auto shop but will soon be drafted by the army.  The film is split into three sections: the Departure, the Absence, the Return.  It is a heartbreaking representation that is all the more affecting because of how the film is presented.

There are two elements that immediately strike the viewer, the ultra-saturated and overwhelming use of color, and the singing for all dialogue, mirroring an opera. First, the color decision is taking the sumptuous colors of Hollywood and integrating them into every aspect of the production design. It is at times overwhelming, but incredible at the same time.  This method does take the audience out of the viewing experience but only brings them back in over and over.  This effect of immersion/revulsion is revolutionary to me.The singing has the same effect.  It makes you aware that you are watching an artificial work, but it also pulls you into the story.  This is modernism at its best for me.  You are made aware of the artwork, but not to the level that you are completely removed from the experience.  To top that all off, as a middle-aged human, I can connect to the story so much more now.  The music by Legrand is sincere but not saccharine.  A perfect combination with the color palette.

In a world filled with so much pain, ugliness, and suffering, it is vital to have art like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg to help us process grief whilst still giving us hope.