You won't be disappointed!

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Demy challenged himself in a simple way here; portray an ordinary life of hindrance and difficulty as we might know it, so a melodramatic plot about a love affair that is quashed by distance, and layer this through the desire to flow to a further distance than just hurt; release.So he makes opera, the plot is fully sang, colors are fierce and bright in celebration of a life that we would like to be in this other way, more musical than it is and yet this desirous life breaks down on the way. None of this interest me overmuch, that is to say as artifice. But it achieves an airy feel; French is such an airy language, full of vowels, unlike the marching sounds from the other side of the Rhein. It grants the cinematic breath free passage.Oh there are melodramatic obstructions the characters face, obstacles in the path of love - the girl's beau has to spend two years in Algeria in the army, there's a lot of dismay over absence, his at first, hers when he gets back. But even more important is the evocative finale where they meet again after years one night, these last two minutes are everything; there could be friction, recrimination, ego and drama, but the film lets go, grants free passage.Indeed if you decide to track this it shouldn't be just for mellifluous song and bright colors, mere aesthetics; it should be also to contemplate release in the last gesture. Demy does it as best he can without a transcendent tradition to work from, which the French don't have.But something lingered in mind after watching. How much release is there, or how much drama that goes unspoken and is carried after they part? No clear answer other than what you embody of course.But see now. The film is an extension of a previous one by Demy, Lola. The protagonist there returns as a character here, there are other parallels. Previous knowledge isn't required of course. But the choice, to deliberately echo things we may have known from a previous life (if only we have lived through that previous life), factors in what we're saying, about drama - internal narrative - that continues to echo.And more tantalizing is to note how a third film, Le Bonheur, annotates this one and the last scene, made by the wife of Demy, Agnes Varda, obviously inspired by the work of her husband and released a year later. It's not a scholarly connection I'm after; here we have work by soulmates for whom love and romance were things they shared in life, not tropes. In Bonheur we see a husband and wife who could be the boy and girl of this one had everything worked out, whose married life is as blissful as the romance here hoped to materialize. Both films are about happiness and betrayal. Even more pertinently; both are about distance, empty space, in which internal narrative begins to form.Here every emotion is externalized in earnest, the distance is explicit; he goes away to Algeria, she to Paris. There, every emotion is externalized too - by the man - and yet the distance is implicit, masterfully so, in the women keeping silent. Varda creates empty space in which we pour our internal narrative of betrayal and come to disbelieve our senses; hauntingly rendered as an ambiguous scene of death that viewers anxious for certainty interpret unambiguously.Varda goes beyond but in my eyes the inspiration is founded on Demy's marvelous last scene where everything - we presume - is let go of; except all that lingers and you carry in life only you'll know. For a few nights of marvelous introspection you will see this together with Lola and Le Bonheur.

A young girl separated from her lover by war faces a life altering decision.This is the film that Jacques Demy will always be known for (his other films say "from the director of" this one on the cover). While not necessarily the best (that could be debated with "Donkey Skin"), this really exhibits Demy's sense of color and broad range of music that he had not really been able to express before and would go on to be known for.Catherine Deneuve as Geneviève Emery is the film's highlight, although Danielle Licari provided the signing (and with an all-singing musical, that makes Licari every bit as big a star as Deneuve). This film certainly helped launch Licari's career, as she did not release her first album until the following year with "La Geographie en Chansons".

A film like this makes me think of my own life choices.It starts out like a painting that comes to life, set in the ancient port town of Cherbourg. (I was surprised to read on Wikipedia that a U.S. Civil War battle was fought off its shores.)From the cobblestone streets to the jewel-box storefronts to the grease monkeys at Guy's garage, this film is a joy to behold. And with Michel LeGrand's score, a delight to listen to. As a Francophile, I wish I could find a copy of its script. I enjoyed the crisp simplicity of the entirely sung dialogue.Adding to the satisfying unity of "Parapluies" is its perfect casting.Catherine Deneuve convinces as a rebellious daughter, infatuated teen, and bemused unwed woman with child. Her own mother, played fascinatingly by Anne Vernon, probably experienced the same type of out-of-wedlock pregnancy as her daughter does. Clearly, Mme. Emery is attracted to M. Cassard, yet her sole conscious wish is for the security of her only child. The mother-daughter relationship here is one of almost-total miscomprehension. Cassard (a dapper Marc Michel) is interesting to watch as the wealthy, somewhat bloodless suitor who actually travels with a crown, ready-made, to place on his lady love's head!Nino Castelnuovo is superb as Guy, along with Ellen Farner as Madeleine. I enjoyed the range that Castelnuovo demonstrated, going from carefree lover to ready-to-serve draftee, to depressed and acting-out Algerian War vet. The conversation between Guy and Madeleine, prior to marriage, is one of stunningly convincing depth, though its words are few.Of course, the final scene of this film is unforgettable. I've seen "Parapluies" no fewer than five times and this viewing I cried perhaps more than ever, due to evermore bittersweet experience of my own under my belt. Its tunes and melodies soothe and inspire!

When I read the title for this film in the book of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die I knew it was a foreign film, from France, but I had no idea it was a musical, so I was most intrigued to watch, from director Jacques Demy (Lola, The Young Girls of Rochefort). Basically seventeen year old Geneviève Emery (Catherine Deneuve) lives in an umbrella shop in Cherbourg with her widowed mother Madame Emery (Anne Vernon), and she is secretly in love with twenty year old auto mechanic Guy Foucher (Nino Castelnuovo), and the two of them want to get married. She reveals this to her mother however, and she objects thinking that her daughter is too young and that he is not mature and well-established enough, and he may be required to do military service, and shortly later he is sent to Algeria after being drafted to serve in the war, but before leaving he and Geneviève consummate their love. Following this Geneviève is pregnant, while he is away he hardly communicates and they have drifted apart, so she listens to her mother's strong encouragement to accept a marriage proposal from Roland Cassard (Marc Michel) (he previously appeared as the same character in the film Lola), the affluent gem dealer who is in love with her and promises to bring her child up as his own. Guy is discharged from service before his two year term is up due to being wounded, he returns home and finds out Geneviève is married with a child and has moved away, and following this he sinks into deep depression and anger, which he struggles to control. But Guy recovers from his state when he falls in love and married young Madeleine (Ellen Farner) who had been caring for his aunt Élise (Mireille Perrey), who is now deceased, and she left him an inheritance which he uses to fulfil his ambition to open a service station. Years pass, and Geneviève, who is now discernibly wealthy, has returned home with Françoise (Rosalie Varda), her and Guy's daughter, and have an accidental meeting at his service station, their short conversation is obviously filled with unuttered fondness and regret, and in the end they finally part ways. Also starring Jean Champion as Aubin and Harald Wolff as Monsieur Dubourg. Deneuve is beautiful and gives a great delicate performance as the young woman longing for love from one man until fate changes everything, Castelnuovo is interesting as the man who is in and out of her life, and Michel is likable as the wealthy man with good intentions. The story is relatively simple, complicated romance, but what makes this musically distinctive is that every scene has singing, from the most mundane conversations to emotionally charging moments every word is spoken and sun in tune, and the picture has good use of vivid colour and design as well, it is a fantastic musical. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Song for "I Will Wait for You", Best Original Music for Michel Legrand and Jacques Demy, Best Music Adaptation or Treatment for Michel Legrand, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen for Demy and Best Foreign Language Film, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film. Very good!