January 26, 2004

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

Posted by Chris

I went to see Les Parapluies de Cherbourg at my local cinema yesterday afternoon. An extraordinary banal story, real soap-opera stuff, but so strange and wonderful when every line is sung to French semi-jazz music. And the final scene when Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo meet again is so moving. Wonderful multicoloured wallpaper in every room too! The poignancy was accentuated by the mentions of war in Algeria: ambushes, comrades killed and so on. If I’d seen this a year ago these would have been little more than words but now it is easy to imagine the scenes.

Posted on January 26, 2004 12:30 PM UTC
Comments

this i think is my favourite movie, tender, delicate, sad, lonely and beautiful…i keep meaning to write on it, but then the last scene comes, and i’m left speechless.

Posted by anthony · January 26, 2004 03:15 PM

What an odd coincidence! Me and the Spouse watched this yesterday for the first time. On tape, but. At least it was letterboxed. —I loved the interruptions of everyday life that kept popping into the songs: the syncopated garage transactions, the mailman singing hello as he drops off the mail in the middle of a sung argument.

Posted by --kip · January 26, 2004 04:14 PM

I thought it was silly when I first saw it in its original US release, but having seen it again on video and then DVD it’s grown on me to the point that I’d now put it on my top 10 movie musicals list. Demy’s subsequent film Les Demoiselles de Rochefort isn’t as good but it’s worth seeing. And I believe his earlier b&w movies, Lola and Baie des Anges, are soon to appear on DVD.

Posted by fyreflye · January 26, 2004 05:05 PM

plice give me a siva pitcher

Posted by sajna · February 18, 2004 02:58 PM

plice give me a siva pitcher

Posted by sajna · February 18, 2004 02:58 PM
Followups

This discussion has been closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed.