150 Word Review: 'The Umbrellas of Cherbourg' (1964)
"I don't like operas. Movies are better."
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is a colorful musical romance about love and loss between young lovers in a small French coastal town.
Jacques Demy directs this piece of French new wave cinematic candy, and he crams every shot with yellow bicycles and pink scarves and green wallpaper. The dialogue is all sung, more like an operetta than an American-style song and dance spectacular, and there is one sumptuous melody threaded throughout. The plot: boy falls in love with girl. Nino Castelnuovo plays the boy, and the girl, Catherine Deneuve, shines while arguing with her mother about marrying her new beau.
Slowly, darker themes emerge: war, pregnancy, debt. Death and disappointment. Love isn't straightforward, like a popular ballad. It's not a tune you can hum. It is a simple song that weaves and dives. In Cherbourg, the working class is happy and sad, horny and heartbroken, often at the same time.