Page 48 - Sports Energy News, Cornwall, Issue No 119

48 Issue #119 December 2022 www.sportsenergynews.com

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In Reel Time

Mais Oui. . . Parapluie

divided into three parts (each with a
By Nikolai Adams
distinctive and very different tone),
anding somewhere in between the first being The Departure. Love
LFrench New Wave, older classic is in the air, specifically, first love, as
French features and the grand the seventeen year old daughter of
Hollywood musical, Jacques Demy’s Madame Emery – an umbrella store
1964 colourful kaleidoscopic owner (Anne Vernon), Geneviève
romantic drama, The Umbrellas of (Catherine Deneuve), is attached
Cherbourg, is most definitely not at the hip to a local mechanic, Guy
your typical movie musical. Foucher (Nino Castelnuovo). . . a
Firstly, there is no dancing (a twist on the age old story of star-
standard in musicals), rather, crossed lovers. The cobblestone
Demy orchestrates many lengthy streets, bubblegum colours, and Photo Submitted
choreographed takes with his camera striking patterned wallpapers coming
– it adding the graceful movement to life much like the burgeoning
that would usually be asked of the relationship – as if the city itself was
actors. But, more importantly, and intertwined with the ardour of the The Absence and The Return. Will their own first loves, and how life, at
at greater risk, every single line young couple. the couple find love once again or times, can be bittersweet. Geneviève
of dialogue in Cherbourg is sung. Yet, fate raises its uncaring will war and time force them apart? and Guy are young, still blissfully
Perhaps a bit daunting to movie hand and Guy is drafted into the A fascinating example of film innocent, though circumstances that
audiences, it does, in some ways, army, soon to be sent to Algeria. making, Demy wrote the dialogue, arise change that quite quickly.
make sense. I have never bought Likewise, Madame Emery is behind having no clue as to what the music With her beloved leaving for war,
into the idea that people would just on payments, meaning that she and would sound like. Working with she must deal with an unexpected
randomly break into song and dance her daughter must sell off her prized Michel Legrand, they developed predicament, as well as the
at any given time. . . only a few films jewellery to a wealthy bachelor the jazzy score (that would push the persistence of Roland, who has also
giving some sort of reason for this jeweller, Roland Cassard (Marc story forward like an opera), having been ensnared by her beauty. As
(see Singin’ in the Rain and La La Michel). . . ahh, the complications of to time it to the very second along for when Guy returns, he is a shell
Land), so it is more plausible, in this life. with what would happen onscreen of the man he once was. He does
vividly toned movie landscape, that Spending their first night together (as the movements and dialogue not fit into the joyfully shaded areas
people naturally sing all the time on the eve of his departure, it will be were intricately timed). The actors, of Cherbourg he once thrived in,
– this means no distracting breaks at least two years before the pair will not being singers, had to lip sync to now finding his way to the earthier
between song and talk. see each other again – though both the music with clockwork precision. toned railway station and docks. He
Shot on location in the streets, shops proclaim their respective love for the With stellar character arcs, the is wounded, unkempt and no longer
and apartments of Cherbourg, France, other, and insist that they will wait. ordinary individuals at the centre of has the same cherub-like demeanor,
Demy’s tale (which he also wrote), is This leads into parts two and three: the narrative remind the viewer of
Continued on page 49