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4 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Chilly Cherbourg isn't quite Sunny Malibu, August 25, 2000
What I thought initially, "Oh no, not one and a half hours of pure music, no speaking," soon changed within a few minutes to "This is going to be an exciting movie." Being a visual person I was first strike by the color arrangements in and outside and although the music was quite ordinary except for the hit number I Will Wait for You, I started to realize that this New Wave type film was making fun of the earlier American musicals and of Hollywood itself. Jacques Demy doesn't just poke fun at the Frenchman's "friend" across the Atlantic but also of the French themselves. In France one of the worst crimes is to be bourgeois, in other words middle class. Wealthy is fine, the rich don't have to put on a show, and being poor has its dignity, a glass of wine and a puff on a Gauloises, an intellectual conversation in some smoky dive, what could be better? The clever color schemes mainly those in Madame Emery's home first of all reflect the middle class attitude that is the Emerys have a sense of taste. The clothes have to match the wallpaper, and not only that each room has to match the person who lives or sleeps in it. We can see this nowadays with the Laura Ashley designs, the curtains, wallpaper, even the bedclothes have the same color and pattern. Laura Ashley stores can be found in all the correct places such as the South Coast Plaza Mall in Costa Mesa where everyone who thinks they are somebody shops, and if this monument is too expensive then a cheaper version of this matching phenomenon can be found in K-Mart. I believe Jacques Demy took a look at the extreme exaggerations of the Hollywood musical and then went one or two steps further. We can see Aunt Elise also has taste because her apartment has a color scheme of red and cream, even her bedclothes have the same hues. Guy arrives from the hallway which is decorated in blue. He has on a pair of denims and a blue pullover that makes him appear from the blue room almost translucent. After his conversation with Auntie he departs to another room that is also blue. Now I'm sure there's no deep psychological meaning to this but purely Demy enjoying himself. If we take a look at the plot it isn't very dramatic compared to American films. This is another case where Demy is manipulating the audience. We see these exuberant colors throughout the film and all the time I am expecting something very exciting or different to happen. But it's just a love story, with hardly any ups or downs, everything is on an even keel with Genevieve and Guy going their own way, similar to the average person. Genevieve ends up wealthy just as her mother wished, and Guy owns an ordinary service station. This is also part of the fun because in a Hollywood film, a musical, a comedy or a more serious plot, the protagonist normally ends up with wealth, fame, and a girl on his arm. In Umbrellas at the end we see Guy who has just seen his old flame in a posh car drive away from his very down to earth workplace, and he never saw his kid. It's also snowing to add salt to the wound, no Malibu skyline here, and he continues on with life as he plays snowballs with his son. Now why didn't Demy choose exciting Paris or Marseilles on the Riviera for the location, here's another finger up at Hollywood. Cherbourg is on the north coast of France bordering the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel with the Atlantic winds blowing from the West through the streets with lots of rain, a thoroughly depressing place, not the Mediterranean where Bridget Bardot or Jean-Paul Belmondo would hang around. From a quick look this film is just a musical, not a bad musical though, but this really is a pure tongue-in-cheek version of the films such as Band Wagon and I can definitely see shades of Singin' in the Rain when comparing the street scenes. In Singin' they are suppose to be real, well kind of, and in Umbrellas they are real but over painted to look artificial. Umbrellas and Rain, I think there must be some kind of connection. I believe the French were having a good laugh when they made this film and I'm sure they thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
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