Genre:
Musical
Release Date: 04/06/2004
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: French
Sound: DD5.1/DD2
Run Time: 92 Minutes
Flags: Adult Situations
Distributor/Studio: Koch Lorber Films
Jacques Demy's 1964 masterpiece is a pop-art
opera, or, to borrow the director's own description, a film in song. This simple
romantic tragedy begins in 1957.
Guy Foucher (
Nino Castelnuovo), a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old
Geneviève Emery (a luminous
Catherine Deneuve), an employee in her widowed mother's chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. On the evening before
Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, he and
Geneviève make love. She becomes pregnant and must choose between waiting for
Guy's return or accepting an offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant (
Marc Michel, reprising his role from
Demy's masterful debut,
Lola). A completely sung movie,
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is closest in form to a cinematic
opera. Composer
Michel Legrand composed the score, modeling it around the patterns of everyday conversation.
Umbrellas was re-released in 1997.
~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
;)
