Les Parapluies de Cherbourg
Directed by	Jacques Demy
Produced by	Mag Bodard
Written by	Jacques Demy
Starring	Catherine Deneuve Nino Castelnuovo
Music by	Michel Legrand
Cinematography	Jean Rabier
Editing by	Anne-Marie Cotret Monique Teisseire
Distributed by	The Criterion Collection
Running time	91 min.
Language	French
IMDb profile

Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) is a musical film made in 1964. It was directed by Jacques Demy, and starred Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo. The music was written by Michel Legrand. It is the middle film in a trilogy of sorts, after Demy's 1960 film Lola and before his 1967 film The Young Girls of Rochefort; the three films share some of the same actors and minor characters. Image File history File links ParapluiePoster. ... The director and screenwriter Jacques Demy (1931 - 1990) was one of the most approachable filmmakers of the French New Wave. ... The director and screenwriter Jacques Demy (1931 - 1990) was one of the most approachable filmmakers of the French New Wave. ... Catherine Deneuve at Cannes in 2000. ... Nino Castelnuovo (b. ... Michel Legrand (born February 24, 1932 in Paris) is a French musical composer, arranger, conductor and pianist. ... The Criterion Collection is a line of authoritative consumer versions of important classic and contemporary films on laserdisc and, later, DVD. It was established as a joint venture between Janus Films and the Voyager Company in the mid-1980s. ... The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... The film director, on the right, gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, whilst filming a costume drama on location in London. ... The director and screenwriter Jacques Demy (1931 - 1990) was one of the most approachable filmmakers of the French New Wave. ... Catherine Deneuve at Cannes in 2000. ... Nino Castelnuovo (b. ... Music is an art, entertainment, or other human activity that involves organized and audible sounds and silence. ... Michel Legrand (born February 24, 1932 in Paris) is a French musical composer, arranger, conductor and pianist. ... Lola Racing Cars (also Lola Cars International) is a racing car engineering company founded in 1961 by Eric Broadley and based in Huntingdon, United Kingdom. ... Les Demoiselles de Rochefort is a musical starring Catherine Deneuve, her sister Francoise Dorleac who was killed in a car accident shortly after filming, Jacques Perrin, Michel Piccoli, Danielle Darrieux, George Chakiris, Grover Dale and Gene Kelly. ...

The film is unusual in that literally all the dialogue is sung, even the most casual of conversation. This is an example of the musical form known as recitative. Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, often constrasted with speech. ... Recitative, a form of composition often used in operas, oratorios, cantatas and similar works, is described as a melodic speech set to music, or a descriptive narrative song in which the music follows the words. ...

Synopsis

Madame Emery and her daughter Geneviève (Deneuve) sell umbrellas at their little boutique in the coastal town of Cherbourg in Normandy, France. Geneviève is in love with Guy (Castelnuovo), a handsome young auto mechanic who cares for his great-aunt along with quiet, dedicated, care-giver, Madeleine (Ellen Farner), a young woman who clearly loves Guy. Subsequently, though, Guy is drafted, and must leave to fight in the Algerian War and seldom writes to his love. Months later, Geneviève is pregnant, lovelorn and feeling forgotten. At her mother's insistence, she marries thirtyish, Roland Cassard (Marc Michel), a quietly handsome Parisian jeweller who falls in love with Geneviève and is willing to wed the younger girl, even though she is bearing another man's child. The society wedding in a great cathedral, with a tiara being placed on the bride's head, symbolizes her upward social and economic movement. Cherbourg is a city of Normandy, in northwestern France, in the Manche département, of which it is a sous_préfecture. ... Normandy is a geographical region in northern France. ... Combatants FLN Algeria France The Algerian War of Independence (1954–62) was a period of guerrilla strikes, maquis fighting, terrorism against civilians on both sides, and riots between the French army and colonists, or the colons as they were called, in French special département Algeria and the FLN (Front...

When Guy returns, with a leg injury, from the army and the war, he learns that Geneviève has married, left Cherbourg and that the umbrella store is utterly gone. He attempts to ease back into his old life, but becomes rebellious due both to the war and to the loss of Geneviève. One day, Guy quits his job after an argument with his boss, and spends a night,and a day, drinking excessively in seedy port bars. He winds up sleeping with a prostitute named Jenny, whose real name turns out to be also Geneviève. When he returns to his apartment, Madeleine tells him tearfully that his great-aunt has died. Eventually, Madeleine's love is recognized by Guy. who cleans up his life, with her encouragement. With a legacy from his aunt, he is able to finance to own a new "American-style" Esso gas station. He asks Madeleine to marry him, and she accepts, very happily. An Esso Station in Toronto Esso in Higashi-Osaka Esso is an international trade name used by ExxonMobil and its related companies. ...

The coda is set in December 1963, approximately five years after the earliest events. Guy is now managing the couple's Esso station. He's with his now upbeat, and loving wife, Madeleine, and their little son François. It is Christmas Eve at the new business location. Madeleine and François go for a short walk, leaving Guy briefly, after which a new Mercedes pulls in to the station. The mink-clad driver turns out to be a sophisticated, visibly wealthy Geneviève, accompanied by her (and Guy's) daughter, Françoise, who remains in the car.

They go inside, at first shocked to see each other, and Geneviève explains this is the first time she has returned to Cherbourg since her marriage. Her fairly young mother is now dead. She has only her rich husband and child in her family life. The two converse while Geneviève's car is being filled with gas, and Geneviève asks Guy if he wants to meet their daughter. Without comment, and little reflection, he answers "no", and this leads to their exchanging their final goodbyes.

Technical Details

• Director: Jacques Demy
• Music: Michel Legrand
• Debut: February 19, 1964
• Format: 35 mm, 1.66:1 aspect ratio, Color
• Genre: Musical Drama
• Length: 91 minutes (per IMDB.com)

The current version of Les Parapluies de Cherbourg released on DVD is a completely renovated version of the original. The film was shot on Eastman negative stock which rapidly faded and became almost unusable. The various copies of the film doing the cinema circuit also gradually lost their quality; fortunately, Demy realised the short shelf-life of the original negative, and made negative black and white copies of the original in the three colour bands. (See Technicolor for a technical explanation of how the three-strip process works). In the 1990s, Demy's wife, film director Agnes Varda, headed a project to put these three black and white copies back together. The resulting film recaptured Demy's vision of a surreally bright Cherbourg. Legrand assisted in the digital remastering of his score and finally produced a high-quality version of the film score, considered by many to be a musical masterpiece. February 19 is the 50th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... Logo celebrating Technicolors 90th Anniversary. ... Agn s Varda (born May 30, 1928) is a French filmmaker and director based in Paris and one of the key figures in modern film. ...

Awards

• Prix Louis-Delluc, 1963
• Palme d'or (Golden Palm) at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival
• Critics' prize for Best Film, by the French Syndicate of Film Critics, 1965
• Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1964
• Nominated for three more Academy Awards in 1966, all three for Legrand and Demy, though it did not win any: "Best Song" (for "I Will Wait For You"), "Best Original Score", and "Best Scoring - Adaptation or Treatment".

The Palme dOr (Golden Palm) is the name of the highest prize given to a film at the Cannes Film Festival. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Foreign Language Film is a yearly US award for the best non-English film released in the period October - September in the country of origin. ... Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ... The Academy Award for Best Song is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; nominations are made by Academy members who are songwriters and composers. ... From Rule Sixteen of the Special Rules for The Music Awards Original Score: An original score is a substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer. ...

Cast

• Catherine Deneuve: Geneviève Emery
• Nino Castelnuovo: Guy Foucher
• Anne Vernon: Madame Emery
• Mireille Perrey: Aunt Élise
• Marc Michel: Roland Cassard
• Ellen Farner: Madeleine
• Jean Champion: Aubin
• Pierre Caden: Bernard
• Jean-Pierre Dorat: Jean

Catherine Deneuve at Cannes in 2000. ... Nino Castelnuovo (b. ...

Trivia

• Two of the film's songs became English-language hits and were recorded by many artists: "I Will Wait For You" and "Watch What Happens" (originally "Recit de Cassard" ["Cassard's Story"]). Both were translated into English by lyricist Norman Gimbel. The former was given even greater emotional impact when it was played over the downbeat ending of the Futurama episode Jurassic Bark
• An English-language stage version, called The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, with translated lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, premiered in 1979 at the Public Theater.

Norman Gimbel (born November 16, 1927) is an American song lyricist. ... Futurama is an American animated television series that follows Philip J. Fry after he is cryonically frozen at midnight, December 31, 1999, and is defrosted a thousand years later in the year 2999. ... Jurassic Bark is the 61st episode of Futurama. ... Sheldon Harnick (born 1924) is an American lyricist best known for his collaboration with composer Jerry Bock on hit musicals such as Fiddler on the Roof. ... The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization. ...

External link

• Les Parapluies de Cherbourg at the Internet Movie Database