French Cinema at its Best!
This is my favorite foreign film of all time. The dialog is entirely sung in French, the music is captivating, the set design is breathtaking, and the acting is brilliant. Catherine Deneuve never looked so young, beautiful, and innocent as she appears in this movie. The movie's ending gives the viewer an unexpected but sometimes so true dose of reality. This is my favorite foreign film of all time. I love it!!!

A bit overwhelming, but in a very beautiful way
This movie is like the proverbial box of chocolates--everything looks so perfect and appetizing that you have a hard time deciding on where to start or on what to concentrate. Between the acting, the cinematography, the sets, the costumes, the singing, the music, the plot, it is a bit difficult to take everything in at the same time. You find yourself suddenly looking at a gaudily painted door, an interesting camera movement, a lamp, listening to a particular instrument in the score, and snapping out of it with the sudden realization you have not been paying any attention to the dialogue. If any movie ever deserved to be called an assault on the senses, this is it, except it is an assault of the most artistic and tasteful kind imaginable. It's easy to suspect that Francois Ozon was inspired by this movie to do his 8 Women, which is a similar sensual overload and also (surprise, surprise) stars Deneuve.

Most musicals either try to build up the plot to such a dramatic point that it justifies the characters's breaking out into song and dance (West Side Story (Special Edition DVD Collector's Set)) or simply never try to suggest they are more than entertaining fluff pieces, where the spoken dialogue just keeps the plot moving and provides a bridge to the next song (Singin' in the Rain (Two-Disc Special Edition)). The transition between spoken dialogue and song is, at any rate, the problem, and often seems a bit awkward. This movie eliminates the issue of transitions by simply eliminating transitions: Every line in it is sung, which seems a bit silly for about ten minutes but then works splendidly as the lovers begin to make plans for their future together.

The DVD is not exactly heavy on extras, unfortunately, but then again, a good work of art is a complete statement in itself and does not require commentary to enjoy it, and this is a unquestionably a very good work of art.

Excellent musical
A wonderful musical film from Jacques Demy. Set in a fantasy Cherbourg (a French seaside town famous for its rainy weather) during the late 50s and going on for several years, it consists in three acts. First act: Genevieve (a very young Catherine Deneuve) is a teenager living with her mother, with whom she works in a shop that sells umbrellas. She fells in love with Guy (a car mechanic, played by Nino Castelnuovo), who is only a little older than she is. Her mother opposes the romance, as she sees Genevieve as too young and Guy as too poor. Guy is drafted to the Algerian war for two years, but not before leaving Genevieve pregnant. Act two: Genevieve's mother not only has now an unwed pregnant daughter, but the financial situation of her shop is dire. Fortunately for her, a diamond dealer in love with Genevieve agrees to pay her debts. He wants to marry Genevieve (despite being pregnant with other man), and eventually Genevieve will agree. Third Act (SPOILERS AHEAD): Guy returns from the war with a limp in one of his legs. He goes to Genevieve's shop, but sees that mother and daughter have gone. He becomes bitter, is soon fired from his job. His beloved aunt dies, and after that, he marries her caretaker, Madeleine. With his aunt's legacy, he is able to buy a gas station. He and Madeleine have a boy. Final Scene: Christmas Eve. Genevieve, now married and with a daughter, arrives with her car to Guy's gas station. Surprised to see each other, they decide to go inside the station to talk, but they both soon realize that their relationship belongs to the past. She goes away, and soon Madeleine and their boy arrive, and they celebrate Christmas by throwing each other snow balls. End of movie. All this is done through sung lines (rather than songs proper). It's an extremely entertaining and amazingly fluid movie, despite not having the traditional happiness of musical movies. Demy tried to repeat the magic a few years later with Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (also with Deneuve), but he couldn't; that's a much weaker movie. Only quibble with Cherbourg: Isn't the constant product placement for Esso a bit too much?

Wonderful.
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)

I'll start this review off by saying that, for the most part, I loathe musicals. I've seen one or two over the course of my life that I would watch more than once. That said, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is not your momma's musical (well, since it's now over four decades old, it's actually your grandma's musical), and in one quick decision, Demy eliminated the one thing that drives me up the wall most about musicals-- the situation of people suddenly breaking into song while otherwise trying to be realistic. Here, every line of dialogue is sung, and it gives the movie a much smoother feel.

The story follows young lovers Genevieve (the great Catherine Deneuve) and Guy (Nino Castelnuovo, who got his greatest American exposure in this film), determined that their love will last forever despite the meddling of Genevieve's mother and Guy's impending service in the French war against Algeria. Just before Guy leaves for the front, Genevieve becomes pregnant, and things get more complicated...

Why is it that films made in countries other than America are so much better at examining human emotions than films made here? Whatever the reason, I'm thankful someone does it right. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg presents its situation, presents its characters, then sits back and lets them work it out for themselves. Despite the unreality of the setting, the characters themselves react just as you'd expect them to. There's never a feeling that something got forced in because a muckety-muck at a studio (or, worse, a test audience) thought it should. You forget how nice that is, when you have a steady diet of American movies on your plate.

That alone would make this movie well worth your time, but there's also the spectacle of a nineteen-year-old Catherine Deneuve singing. It doesn't get much better than that. The supporting cast all do their jobs quite wonderfully as well, and the technical aspects of the film are also quite nice; the cinematography and set design work on the American "garishly-colored-musical" formula, but never get overwhelming (except, arguably, in the opening credits). This is a movie that's got it all. ****

SPEND A ROMANTIC,LIGHT-HEARTED-EVENING
THIS IS SIMILAR TO A LIGHT OPERA BECAUSE MICHELE LEGRAND'S MUSIC IS SUNG THROUGHOUT THE MOVIE RATHER THAN THE SPOKEN WORD. THE ROMANCE BETWEEN 2 YOUNG LOVERS AND THE WAR IN ALGIERS SETS THE TONE. THE MOVIE REMINDS US THAT LOVE IS EVER PRESENT AND NEVER LEAVES OUR THOUGHTS.