"The Umbrellas of Cherbourg"

Digging further into the Jacques Demy box set, I hit "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg," the only title I'd heard of before grabbing the set. The first two movies, "Lola" and "Bay of Angels" were big hits with me. What did I think of "Umbrellas?" Well, we're three for three.

"Umbrellas" is a musical. But not like any musical made up until then....and frankly, I haven't seen that many filmed musicals, so it may very well be the only one made in this style. And by style, I mean constant music with all dialog sung. And. It. Works. Beautifully. The film's already a marvel just to look at....the first color one in this set....and the performances are for the most part spot on.

The plot is really rather simple and told with economy. Unlike most musicals, no one breaks into song, because they're already in song, and there are no dance sequences. The male protagonist of the story is an auto mechanic, and it's pretty funny to hear regular garage talk done in a musical style (in French, of course, too). He, midway through the movie, has to go to Algeria to fight in 1959 ("Battle of Algiers," anyone?). The role of Geneviève was Catherine Deneuve's first major one....and she shines, as you'd expect. And the movie's all of 92 minutes long....again, Demy doesn't waste time.

The sometimes-jazzy, sometimes-melancholy music is from Michel Legrand, I swear I had heard the recurring, and closing, theme before somewhere....or several times in my life. In an accompanying feature on the disc, the host refers to the movie as a jazz opera. I had that same thought while watching it.

This is the rare foreign movie I'll try to get my wife to watch. She doesn't like to read subtitles, but I think this one is a ripe case for exception. I'm really looking forward to the fourth movie in this box!