The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)

Geneviève, 17, lives with her widow mother, who owns an umbrella shop in Cherbourg. She and Guy, an auto mechanic, are in love and want to marry (imdb)
Cast and Information
Directed By: Jacques Demy
Written By: Jacques Demy
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo, Anne Vernon, Marc Michel, Mireille Perrey, Ellen Farner
Genres: Romance, Drama, Musical
Franchise: Jacques Demy's Trilogy
AKA: Les parapluies de Cherbourg
Country: France, West Germany
Where to Stream
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The Umbrellas of Cherbourg belongs to 91 collections
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Stars | User | Rating | |
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MartinTeller | 66 28th |
While I "get it", it's not especially interesting or fun. Slightly charming at first, irritating after a while. The story itself is mundane and predictable, and a lame story with a clever quirky gimmick is still a lame story.
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djross | 98 99th |
The pinnacle of cinematic beauty. If the film is a "tragedy", it isn't because bad or terrible things happen, but because life is irreducibly characterised by a finitude and imperfection that means our efforts to muddle through are always struggles against circumstance that leave it ever tinged with sadness (but not only that). No other film keeps this viewer in such a state of perpetual affective tension (lump in the throat), no matter how many times it is watched.
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fortsigma | 83 89th |
i wish i watched this without subtitles
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PeaceAnarchy | 75 44th |
The story is cute, not great but not bad. The colour scheme is nice, though the DVD I watched didn't do it any favours. The movie's main gimmick is that the entirety of the dialogue is sung. If that appeals to you then you'll love it, personally I just kept thinking how much better this would be without the singing.
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adrianavb | 80 93rd |
I don't think I have ever seen a musical where every line is sung by the actors, it is magnificient well done. This story is sweet and has a point, and the blossoming of the romance is beautiful. The music is brutally awsome.
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Alex Watkins | 4 70th |
Surprisingly weighty, given its reputation as candy-coated fluff (and to be sure, it starts out feeling that way). What seems like a storybook romance gives way to something more nuanced and bittersweet, even while playing off oft-used tropes of young-and-in-love tales. The bookends with Guy were more interesting than the central (and, fortunately, briefest) section, but it all adds up to something rewarding beyond its merits as a fun, colorful musical.
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moraesfelipe | 90 95th |
Nouvelle Vague's heartbreaker, with Demy displaying a terrific sense of space and time by simply putting the narrative under the spell of constant singing. Not really a story of impossible love, but about the paths life takes us -- to a war, to marrying to someone else, to saying "hey, hope to see you soon" at a train station, to finally saying a mournful goodbye at a snowy gas station, as we go on dealing with our ghosts, broken hearts and the little joy of simply being alive.
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eveelun | 72 48th |
Breezy and fun. While I got accustomed to every line being sung, the music, while pleasant, eventually becomes kind of forgettable. I kind of wish they went the extra mile and had the songs in some sort of fixed structure, rather than the breezy, off the cuff style they used. The story is a soap opera, not a bad one, but still a little melodramatic and cheap.
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2 | daveylow | 100 98th |
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Unique French musical with enchanting music by Michel Legrand and poetic lyrics and direction by Jacques Demy. One of the most romantic films ever made.
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Moribunny | 65 65th |
Every single line in this very colorful movie is sung. It's very pleasurable audio-visually. I would have to call this a triumph of form over content, as the story itself, while not bad, has little going for it and the writing is trivial and banal. Still, it's a rather charming little film.
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Pickpocket | 9 93rd |
I never thought I would like this but wow - incredible. Have you ever seen a movie where the WALLPAPER is so visually amazing? The story is something everyone can relate too as well, I think.
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Suture Self | 6 54th |
The main problem with musicals is, unsurprisingly, the music, and the music here is forgettable. The melodies run together to the point where the songs become indistinguishable from one another. The main theme stuck with me, but that's about it. Try to hear specific songs from this movie in your head. I bet you can't. Now do the same for Singin' in the Rain. See? Much easier. Despite all of its strengths, the music problem had me exhausted by the end. But man, those colors...
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Stain | 40 23rd |
Why does everybody love this silly thing so much?
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Anomaly | 65 38th |
While I'm not a fan of musicals, I'm also not a hater of them. But when literally every line is sung, the music becomes less of an outpouring of emotion, and more of an enforced modality that homogenizes expression. That's not to say it can't be done well, but it would certainly need both better writing and better music than there is here. The mise-en-scène is amazing, and granted the main theme is pretty memorable, but little else is.
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aenluvsfilm | 90 85th |
Fantastic score and a beautiful love story. Love the use of color in this film as well.
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JakeAesthete | 97 97th |
It would be enough if this were merely one of the most beautifully, sumptuously stylized films ever made. But on top of that, it has a far more real and truthful perspective on love and how life actually works than a lot of more "realistic" movies, which is just the icing on this already deliriously candy-colored cake.
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DavidBlast | 90 92nd |
Awesome gimmick movie that takes the genre to it's extreme and contrasts the colorful sets with the rather grim and realistic story. Probably the best new wave film I've seen, complete with long tracking shots and characters looking into the camera. Oh, and might I on a personal note add, that I'm pleased to finally see a director that obviously hates musicals as much as I do.
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SeanBerndorff | 100 99th |
The only movie that is capable of breaking my heart every time I see it... My favorite movie of all time.
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PetrosTser | 90 96th |
I know: singing every word instead of simply uttering it is weird. But don't give up: by the end, you'll have found it absolutely normal. It's a risky yet entirely successful experiment, at the core of which lies one of the most beautiful love stories ever told on celluloid. The cast (especially Anne Vernon and Catherine Deneuve) also deserves kudos for capably coping with such a major peculiarity. And it's a film in which there's someone wearing clothes matching the tapicerie in every scene.
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thereeldeal | 70 50th |
I'm heartbroken. Not because of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg's plot, but everything else. I love musicals and thought the concept was brilliant. I saw the bright, blooming colors and that this was a French movie and assumed that Demy foresaw my birth and created this movie just for me. Upon starting it, reality hit. It seems that the music was written before the dialogue, and every line sounds forced into the score with the same vocal melody and endless use of falsetto. Recommended, unexcitedly.
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Monisit | 89 83rd |
What may seem like a gimmick of an all sung musical with no spoken dialogue is surprisingly melancholic. In fact, it actually seems like life set to song, void of many dance numbers and is surprisingly dark. It is always visually engaging, and surprisingly flows well with its lyrical dialogue.
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BattleToad | 70 37th |
Umbrella's use of constant music makes the film one song. It tells of love and memories, but it overall tells of loss. It sounds kind of poetic, and at times it is, but the film becomes incredibly dull at other times. Worth seeing, but don't be fooled by its insistant one-of-a-kindness. Meh!
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supergloo | 9 76th |
The fact that the movie is so highly stylized helps immensely--I don't think I would've given two hoots about the story otherwise. A beautiful example of style matching content perfectly!
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walkabout | 100 99th |
it's a shame they don't make films like this anymore.
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twincinema | 75 64th |
A rich, colourful film that was unfortunately dulled by the DVD copy I rented from the library. The final scene is masterful.
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AFlickering | 5 75th |
the daughter scrubbing snow off the car door is the most perfect thing.
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roujin | 90 99th |
Absolutely lovely.
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KasperL | 80 86th |
A technically superior curiosity. It's a romantic tragedy served well by a downbeat melancholic ending. The constant singing is almost insufferable but the magnificent score underneath is mindblowing. Been humming it for the last week.
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torontodog | 75 77th |
I don't usually like musicals, but this one is more like a regular movie where everyone happens to sing.
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umka | 30 18th |
I could not stand the non-stop singing! I didn't finish it.
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andagh | 100 97th |
This movie blew me away, unbelievably good.
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billkerwin | 89 80th |
One of the most romantic films ever made, and--as all great romances must be--incredibly sad.
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AndreasThau | 95 97th |
I don't know if it is the stunning beauty of a young Catherine Deneuve, so perfectly caught by a great cinematographer, or solely the fact that I remained interested throughout in spite of the singing (some achievement, I dare say), but I loved it. Sometimes I even forgot they were singing. Such great coordination, such great acting with such hard terms to deal with. One I won't forget in a long time, and only for positive reasons. Last, but not least, the use of colors was truly magnificent.
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TrixRabbi | 89 96th |
Beautiful. It's like a Hemingway novel turned into a cheery musical. And it's wonderfully vibrant. I want a house with that wallpaper.
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loc42 | 75 68th |
This is a musical without dance and its very important. Normally, dance gives a feeling of enthusiasm and festivity, but with this film, the absence of dance gives a melancholic tone which is in line with the reality of an unfulfilled lovestory. Beneath its pop story, Demy actually narrates the bitter reality of a class society with a Marxist attitude: a car-mechanic can never merry a beautiful girl when a rich man competes with him, he should fight in the war as rich men get what they want.
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lisa- | 8 97th |
i cried again rewatching this delirious, bittersweet ode to love. though guy is a bit of a dick, impregnating geneviève the night before going to war.
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1 | RottenT | 98 96th |
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Jacques Demy elevates the basic drama of everyday life into a soaring opera full of bittersweet passion and playful charm, featuring a timeless performance from Catherine Deneuve.
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k177105 | 94 88th |
Life.
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Average Percentile 68.36% from 1272 Ratings | ![]() |