“The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” — A Worthy Antecedent
I don’t want to offend classical movie lovers by the choice of this title, however I just can’t help but juxtapose this impassioned musical with what it inspired — La La Land.
When I saw La La Land for the first time I was dumbstruck by how perfect the film was. I wanted to speak so much about it but cautiously chose not to, for I found myself unable to articulate the utter perfection of the film. HOW? — That’s the first question that I encountered every time I watched it. “How did they pull it off? How did they make it happen?” This piece though, isn’t about La La Land. There are multiple reasons for it to not be about La La Land; one being I still am at a loss of words to articulate myself in a manner which would do justice to the film and I still don’t have any answer for the ‘how’ being another. I figured however that the answer to this ‘how’ might become a little less obscure if I follow the ‘what’. What galvanized Chazelle to make this musical? It is this ‘what’ which took me from the extroverted streets of Los Angeles to the shy suburbs of Cherbourg.
The twentieth century was a dreadful period for the human civilization. Humanity inflicted upon itself some of the most dastardly deeds ever in ths epoch. 1960s France had a very clear image of what diabolic cruelty looked like — it had come out of The Second World War and was still a combatant in The Cold War. It was to this somberness that Jacques Demy decided to add colors. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is colorful in its appearance and has contrast at its heart. It is charming but not wholesome. It is sacrificial but not disloyal.
The film begins with a montage which shows Guy (Nino Castelnuovo) hastily leaving the mechanic shop where he works to meet his love Genevieve (Catherine Deneuve) who works at her mother’s umbrella shop. They sing and dance and make vows. Both actors embody these characters perfectly. You don’t need subtitles to understand what they say and feel. Language is a distraction not a barrier. It is their innocence that you fall in love with first, their love second. It is also because of this innocence that Genevieve listens to her mother’s taunts and Guy takes care of his sick aunt. No matter how righteous you are, life questions your integrity. Guy gets drafted and Genevieve becomes pregnant. Both of them are pulled out of their shades, forcefully, to see the world for what it actually is — Cruel. Guy sees how humans quench their blood-thirst by killing one-another, Genevieve discovers the embarrassment that comes forth with social stigmas. It is this reality-check that Guy’s aunt wanted to give to him, it is this society that Genevieve’s mother talked ill about. Eventually both of them come to terms with their realities, but the price they pay is their innocence. Rationality dwells over them way more than morality ever did. After all “People only die of love in the movies”.
Celebrated music director Michel Legrand composed the music of this film and he is as good as they come. No matter how trying times get in Cherbourg, the music never feels forced. There are in total seventeen songs in the film with none of them lasting for more than five minutes. It is no small feat to compose these songs keeping in mind that each is a different conversation but it is even more difficult to interconnect all of them. Such is the craft of Legrand that he does both of these things perfectly. Every song has a different piquancy to it while also being consistent with the overall theme. A certain Hurwitz, who was born 20 years from the release of this film, would take these cues and create some gems of jazz in another much lauded film. But that is, as I said, a story of some other time.
Demy should also be praised for the way he frames and blocks a scene. Framing and Blocking are important aspects of any kind of film-making but they are even more valuable for musicals. In musicals there is not as much reacting as there is performing — Hence your job as a director is also that of a show-runner. There isn’t a single scene in this film that doesn’t flow smoothly, not a single scene in which the performance suffers.
Even though Genevieve and Guy go their separate ways, but this by-no-means mean that the film doesn’t believe in the alchemy of love. It is because of this belief that Ronald (Marc Michel) doesn’t pay heed to societal norms, it is because of this belief that Madeleine (Ellen Farner) truly wants to curb Guy’s addiction. People might die of love only in the movies, but they surely get revived by it in reality. Love might not be anybody’s last option, but it surely is everybody’s second chance. The thing about incomplete romances is that they leave you with a one-of-a-kind bittersweet after taste. Genevieve and Guy would tell you that, and so would Mia and Sebastian.
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