The long Saturday. That's what I've been calling these past two weeks. With Christmas and New Year's smack in the middle of the week, the past 14 days have been luxuriously quiet. I'm not complaining. I knew it would be quiet, so I planned to focus all of my time on finishing my next book by my January 6 deadline. But the week of New Year's is always a lovely, twilight time, don't you think? One year ending, another starting. What better way to celebrate than with foreign films that were accompanied by splendid scores.
Yesterday, I found a delicious print of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg that also happens to have terrific sound. You can enlarge the film to your full screen without losing resolution! Released in 1964, Umbrellas was a revolution in film. For one, the French movie seduced the eye and ear. Directed by Jacques Demy, the entire film's dialogue is delivered in song. The music? By Michel Legrand. The star? Catherine Deneuve, who is as elegant and as charming here as a flute of Veuve Clicquot. Nino Castelnuovo, her love interest, is a ruggedly handsome Italian actor.
All of the scenes are saturated in color and feel as if you landed on a giant marshmallow in the candy store of your dreams. Every square inch of the film is color conscious, from lemon-yellow lights and China red wallpaper to pink and green striped wallpaper and cantaloupe opera dresses. A dazzling, joyous feast. One might even say this film helped influence the age of psychedelic art. [Photo above of Nino Castelnuovo and Catherine Deneuve]
The film takes place in the coastal French town of Cherbourg. It's divided into three parts—the Departure (November 1957), the Absence (January-April 1958) and the Return (March 1959-December 1963). The score established Legrand as a major force in Hollywood. Two of the songs from the movie became big '60s standards—I Will Wait for You and Watch What Happens. Nominated for a best foreign-film Oscar, the movie astonishingly did not win in 1965, losing out to the Italian film, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, with Sophia Loren. [Photo above of Catherine Deneuve and Michel Legrand in November 1964]
Here's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg...
