101 Movies: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
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The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
Original title: Les parapluies de Cherbourg (France)?
Written and directed by Jacques Demy
Music by Michel Legrand?
*SPOILER FREE
Every word is sung, every emotion is captured, and every shot is mastered.?
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is a musical romance set between 1957-1963 in Cherbourg, France. Following Geneviève, a beautiful 17-year-old who works with her mom at their umbrella boutique, and her lover, Guy, an auto mechanic who lives with and cares for his elderly aunt. Guy has to go to serve in the war, and Geneviève has to make a life-altering decision.?
A visual and audible melodrama of young love. Love and cinema had never looked so colorful and vibrant.?
Happy and heartbreaking, beautiful and melancholic, real and fictional. This is the colors of Cherbourg, the music of Cherbourg, the tears of Cherbourg... The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
Jacques Demy and his musical classic would inspire one of today's most prestigious filmmakers, Damien Chazelle, to revolutionize the genre with the biggest musical of the 21st century, and my favorite musical of all time (article coming up this week).?
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Available to watch on HBO Max, Apple TV, The Criterion Collection, and on Amazon Prime Video.?