Customer Reviews

Les Parapluies De Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg)

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The movie "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg" is beautiful, tender, and alive with vivid color; this complete soundtrack recording is no different. From the breathy tones of the opening flute solo all the way through to the stirring finale, evey nuance and texture of Michel Legrand's very colorful score is captured perfectly on this recording. If you're unfamiliar with the music from this movie, you may be surprised to discover a number of familiar melodies -- songs that have worked their way into today's jazz and adult contemporary music repetoire (most natoably "Watch What Happens" and "I Will Wait For You"). For me, the real treasure of this recording is the attention the engineers paid to capturing the cast members' singing voices. The French language comes across crystal-clear. And even if you don't speak or understand the language, the passion within each voice -- the rainbow of emotions given forth from the singers, matched perfectly with the sweeping score -- allows the listener to understand the emotinal gyst of what each character is expressing at that moment. And speaking of the cast -- simply amazing. My favorite moment (I can't accurately express why) is when Guy comes home to his aunt's apartment and he runs into her caretaker, Madeline. When they greet each other ("Bon soir Guy", "Bon soir Madeline"), there is such a "tender tension", an unspoken adoration, I practically melt each time.
What really makes this recording the ultimate for "Umbrellas" fans are the six bonus tracks. They are perfect examples of how this beautiful music is being re-interpreted into the jazz scene. Tony Bennett does a terrific turn with "Watch What Happens", and Michel Legrand himself takes to the piano and delivers an amazing 8-minute variation on "I Will Wait For You" -- you have to hear it to believe it!
And, by the way, if you don't have the video already in your collection, I would suggest purchasing it at the same time you're buying this CD. The movie has been restored to it's bright, vivid original color -- eye-popping!

This movie and soundtrack are beyond reviews! There is nothing to say except ... beautiful. I have listened to this CD of the complete movie soundtrack countless times and still find myself amazed by it. The music is the ultimate of Legrand's sweet, searching, yet loungey jazz, with occasional tango and big band style diversions. The movie, while beautiful to look at, is a very simple story in its essence. This soundtrack is what makes people sit through it over and over again. (No disrespect meant to the excellent cast and the incomparable debut of Mlle Deneuve!) The singing voices are as refreshing as cool water and the French comes through with exquisite clarity.

It may be hard to track this one down, but it's entirely worth every penny. The music to this soundtrack is so beautiful, I know very little French, but it doesn't matter.

This is also one of my favorite Films as well. If you haven't seen the film, rent it. There's nothing like it, it's beyond fantastic.

The complete score to Jacques Demy's one-of-a-kind musical is here, and with bonus tracks, adding up to some 115 minutes of material. While not all of Michel Legrand's music is as memorable as the haunting main theme, the pieces which range from playful to mournful are uniformly beautiful and spiced up considerably by Demy's dialogue/lyrics, always sung rather than spoken.

This sountrack is simply beyond review. I first knew about it when one of my friends brought the DVD of the movie to the company.And then it was like magic: "I just have to get this soundtrack anyhow!!" I would suggest that it's better to get the DVD first. Knowing the movie will eventually help you to appreciate the sondtrack more coz it's more influential together with the story. I guess not many people know about this movie in my country and I'm grat that my friend helped me discovered this WONDERFUL CD.

Umbrellas was my first foreign film, and what a marvelous film it was! I had my doubts, due to the corny beginning, but as I watched, the music sucked me in! The haunting lyrics by Demy and score by Michel Legrand will be with you for hours afterward! This is a must-have soundtrack for every complete music library! (The film is a must as well for your video library!)

I love the music and the story in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. It has several classic songs by Michel LeGrand. And, for students of French and French culture, it opens lots of insights.
My only criticism would be of the CD jewel case itself; that there is not enough information contained in it and it is very hard to read, given the choice of colors.

Don't even get me started raving about the film, which I only came upon in adulthood after its release much earlier in the stylish 60s. It's a piece of art that just moves and flies, and dazzles the spirit.

But this remastered soundtrack? This is musical nirvana, and some of the loveliest stuff I have acquired in my decades of music loving, and I like so much of everything from country romance to Italian soundtracks to pop and jazz of all stripes.

Like its successor, Francis Lai's '66 score for "A Man and a Woman", Legrand fuses pop, jazz, orchestral swing, and old style crooning to perfect one of the most poignant tales in cinema/pop history. "Watch What Happens" and "I Will Wait for You" are timeless.

This remastered version is worth the extra bucks; pivotal interludes were deleted from the original, and the sound is better.

Thank you, Michel!