'Umbrellas of Cherbourg' | Critics' Picks | The New York Times

A.O. Scott looks back at Jacques Demy's 1964 musical with Catherine Deneuve.
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'Umbrellas of Cherbourg' | Critics' Picks | The New York Times
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[@Lunnsix]

Man, just listening to the music makes me cry again. I didn't expect such a colorful movie to be so emotional. Masterpiece, for both Jacques Demy and Michel Legrand. This is a Masterpiece

[@HIghballJordan11]

Simply, one of the greatest films ever made. Flat out.

[@DarinMichaelGrant]

100%. Pure movie magic was made when Demy created this masterwork/masterpiece. Sheer bliss. :)

[@jamesswindley9599]

Doesn’t even need an English adaptation, it’s that good ❤️

[@candybasey8467]

I saw this Beautiful Movie One time when I was about 11 Yrs old around 1970... I Never Forgot How Much I Loved it. It was a Film like nothing I had ever seen before. It was actually on TV.. now all these Yrs later I See this Clip Of this Beautiful Film, And I just can’t believe it... Thank You KZbin !!!

[@Yo-yo7000]

One of the best movies ever made! These clips make you appreciate the restoration from a few years after this video

[@lesliewasserman173]

This is the most beautiful film ever produced. I never get tired of watching it....

[@alphabeets]

One of the greatest films ever made. Incredible music and style.

[@maxinehargrove1345]

Saw this on Turner's classical movies many years ago and loved it learned to play the theme song on piano and cry everytime 😢

[@spenserharris2604]

I would love to hear you play this ❤️

[@MGMOZfan]

I just saw this on Turner Classic Movies for the very first time today! I had never even heard of the film before! I really enjoyed it! I wish I understood French so I wouldn't have to read the subtitles. Romantic, joyful, colorful and heart-breaking.

[@sundelong2727]

I was 19 years old when I watched this movie in Korea and falling in love with movie. Four years later I met French American stationed in Korea as military. I think I was in love with my future husband already because of this romantic movie . We have five children now .

[@HarmonyxRuLz]

This might be my favorite movie ever

[@victor1978100]

I cry (knowing the ending) when I hear "je ne pourrai jamais vivre sans toi (I'll never be able to live without you)".

[@charlieharper4975]

One of the all time great musicals. Stands right up there with anything Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly ever did. Or any other American musical for that matter.

[@vampoftrance]

It makes me cry it's so beautiful

[@EmilyGloeggler7984]

Best movie opera/musical ever.

[@moow950]

I fell in love with the beautiful goddess Catherine Deneuve

[@giovanna8187]

So did I. I went to see everything I could that she was in. Saw "Repulsion" several times. Ah, those were the days!

[@jonfee5081]

One of the best romantic film I have ever watched

[@kennethrobertson8730]

I have seen this film from when it was first premiered, ground-breaking story-telling and beautifully realised in terms of song-spiel, cinematography, performance and direction. So 'new-wave' of the time. An existential happy/sad, unresolved ending.

[@ximenushka1]

I have seeing this movie only about 242 times

[@Superbaldyboy]

Singing in movies is back in now... according to Les Miz. I must say, that is the most beautiful Esso Station I have ever seen. Good advertising.

[@dgib1694]

Gas stations in the sixties had charm

[@effyleven]

I have been into Street View and examined some of the Cherbourg locations as they are now.. the station, for instance. Try it. See if it does something to you, too.

[@karabuller]

I tried! And failed. I don't know the addresses to plug in. I did find an umbrellas of Cherbourg manufacturer though!

[@cbielgib71]

After seeing it many times on the TV I've just seen it in the cinema tonight. Stunning.

[@TheSpecialGuestStars]

Looking at your choices of 'Critic's Picks' I think we have incredibly similar movie sensibilities, Mr Scott.

[@barbarabrooks2090]

The only opera I ever walked away from humming the wallpapers. A feast for the eyes, but the message seems to be that undying passion is a youthful folly, and that as people mature they make more sensible choices. The moment of truth is when the girl realizes that if she really wanted to die for love she would have done so by now. The puzzler is that her lover was glad she was pregnant, but later apparently lost interest in their child. Would that happen in real life?

[@ogamiitto8627]

Probably not today, but that time was different and that makes Guy's reaction realistic to me. Unlike today, society did not tolerate children not coming from properly married couples. Just as Geneviève decided to marry someone else, it wasn't Guy's child anymore.

[@dgib1694]

They don't make sensible choices, they are forced to act as they did. The dreams are shattered not by volition or reason but out of necessity. They manage to live without and find reasonable balance, as we all do in the best of cases.

[@aarongluzman]

Heartfelt... Admire her... Passion for life... Stunningly beautiful... Articulate, charming... Nobody understands her... Better than herself... Strike of love... ©...Aronne

[@pablojuega3312]

This end and " Splendour..." 😢😢😢❤❤❤

[@lokmanmerican6889]

That's a very beautiful way of putting it, right at the end.

[@GreenMorningDragonProductions]

No woman has ever looked better in a movie than Deneuve does, here, I think. Zhang Ziyi in 'Crouching Tiger', Kim Catrall in 'Mannequin', Halle Berry in 'Bulworth' and Geena Davis in 'Cutthroat Island' round out my top 5.

[@awesome420ication]

This movie must be seen for the cinematography alone, especially the use of colour. It's a nice contrast considering how most great looking movies are desaturated.

[@tiptopdadddy]

One of my favorites

[@denisefreitas6727]

One of my favorite movies! Demy was a genius!💖

[@Bondoz007]

Vale Michel Legrand - thank you for the music that soars in this film 😓😓😓

[@joansmith3296]

Catherine Deneuve! Probably the most beautiful woman ever born.

[@gabeldunn5068]

Truer words have never Benn sad

[@thomasnorman9536]

not....my friend shirley is most beautiful

[@victor1978100]

@@thomasnorman9536 My wife too. But Catherine Deneuve is (probably) the most beautiful woman ever born. That's a paradox.

[@spenserharris2604]

I would love to hear you play this ❤️

[@geoffphillips5293]

I remember coming across this by chance on Arte and being intrigued by the way the songs never ended.

[@jacobdominguez7808]

Great film!

[@cantorandopera]

Did you see Pastiche? Deneuve sings again! And she runs an umbrella factory! Coincidence or conspiracy????

[@potdog1000]

one of my favourite films

[@romanmorawski4424]

Uwielbiam muzyke z filmu Parasolki z Cherbourga, oraz ten film z Catherine Denouve

[@spyral00]

Anybody who likes this, try Jacques Tati after it. Different style, but equally innovative and brilliant.

[@pablojuega3312]

Legendaria❤❤❤

[@mauricioduron3193]

Spoiler ending, anyone? For shame, A. O.

[@SmithMrCorona]

How can you spoil a film 54 years old? Oh, psst-- the shark dies in Jaws, Vader is Luke's father, Wayne shot Liberty Valence, and the kid can see dead people.

[@poetryqn]

@@SmithMrCorona I snorted my tea, laughing at your comment. Well, done, mate!🤣🤣🤣

[@JiveDadson]

Such a shame that film critic Peter K. Rosenthal never reviewed this film. He would have gotten to the real meaning, which all the others miss. You know what I am talking about.

[@awl7788]

WTH!! Spoiler alert! Why’d you do that? Thank goodness I’ve already seen it. Seriously, bro put a spoiler warning on here

[@pablojuega3312]

Bellisimaaaaa

[@bonChic20]

I get that Mr. Scott is an ill romantic. hehe. But nonetheless I love this movie, and it's one of those films in which the score almost transcends the movie, visually

[@karabuller]

Am I the only one who finds the mother somehow more compelling, more beautiful than the daughter? I love her sophistication, her coifed beauty - hahaha. I kept wanting there to be some cougar action with the diamond dealer. I love how they act like she's 75 or something. (Spoiler alert btw!) "Mother has passed..." What was she? 42?!? Hilarious. Yes, an absolutely beautiful film AND I'm entertained by some of this "product of its time" stuff.

[@RedJet-bq6fq]

A truly great mother inspiration for La La Land 👏👏

[@tengaiklin7129]

The french,their cinema arena may be small, visavis hollywood, but certainly very potent.

[@vitasunshine]

does anyone know where I can see this movie?

[@ChampagneCraig]

Would be worth a trip to see it somewhere on the silver screen in a theater.

[@DebbieKnightSounds]

Just as good on a big screen TV at home.

[@ChampagneCraig]

Devita, Turner Classic Movies just showed this film and does so from time to time. TCM is your best chance to see it.

[@micahgreentree6285]

I’m 5 years late, but it’s on the Criterion Channel lol

[@Springlanguage]

And the meaning of the colours in the film??????????

[@benjaminpallier5927]

Film culte en France ❤

[@pinbret]

is that film criticism or mechanical dissection this is a unique masterpiece of the film and I realize he had a little time to give us his criticism but leaving out the character of her sister played buy the actual sister of the star who died young tragically well I fix things for a living I'm not a very good luck to him

[@marcusharton5463]

The sister acts in The Young Girls of Rochefort? I think you might be mixing he two films?

[@deirdrewilson8957]

Is Catherine really singing ?

[@ogamiitto8627]

No. The real singer was Danielle Licari. Same for Nino Castelnuovo (Guy), dubbed by José Bartel.

[@LePhil79]

She didn't sing in Jacques Demy movies ( Les parapluies de Cherbourg, Les demoiselles de Rochefort, Peau d'âne ) but she sang later in her acting career ( Dancer in the Dark - Lars von Trier, Huit femmes - François Ozon, etc. ), and she also recorded french songs, notably for Serge Gainsbourg.

[@BarbarossaAB]

Thanks a lot for spoiling the movie in the first 30 seconds, without any warning

[@pioneer7777777]

I feel I would suffer watching this - every line is singing...

[@govbop]

I had a similar reaction, but after the 1st 10 minutes I got used to it, and after the 1st 20 minutes, I fell in love with it

[@govbop]

the reason is, every line of music is handcrafted to the dialog. There is no other musical or opera where this is the case. And, there is no composer like Michel Legrand. He is a legend, especially among the top American Jazz folk including Miles Davis, Fats Waller, Gerry Mulligan etc etc etc

[@giovanna8187]

At first I thought, oh no, what is this silly singing all about? But I was captivated by the beauty of the music, the set design, camera work, and the actors, and ended up loving it. It's an opera, or sung play, which is something rarely seen.

[@ForbinColossus]

AO Scott, you fake New Yorker - say "ANT" not "ONT" @1:55 Beautiful Legrand score but a sad commentary on fathers that he refuses to see the daughter he made

[@dgib1694]

Of course it is for the good of all of them, including the daughter. Reconnecting with Genevieve would have been a folly

[@siimseiin]

⚠️ SPOILER ALERT! ⚠️

[@SeanNessman]

Young Girls of Rochefort is BETTER. GIVE IT A CHANCE.

[@emjayay]

Not better, but also worth seeing.