1905 Movie Network Special ArticleWhen you hear that every line of dialogue in a movie is sung, do you think this is an unprecedented bold attempt in art history?
In 1964, director Jacques Demy brought such an innovative audiovisual spectacle - "The Umbrella of Cherbourg".
The film continues the "French New Wave" live-action shooting and flexible moving cameras, creating a completely different character of French musicals than American musicals - it is a musical, but there are basically no dance sequences.
Jacques Demi and his cinematic poems
Among the many talents of French cinema, director Jacques Demi is definitely in a league of his own. As a member of the New Wave movement, Demi was not content with the traditional method of cinematic narration, and his films were always full of color, music, and soulfulness, transforming the everyday into fluid art.
"The Umbrella of Cherbourg" directed by Jacques Demy
Jacques Demy, born in Nantes, France in 1931, is a biopic about his childhood and career. In the midst of the war, in the opposition of his father, and in the loneliness of not being understood by those around him, Jacques Demi insisted on his obsession with cinema. The biopic is directed by Jacques Demy's wife, the legendary French "grandmother of the New Wave", Agnès Varda.
Poster for the movie Jacques Demy of Nantes
There has never been a shortage of dazzling screen couples in the history of cinema, such as Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in Hollywood, Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina in France...
But it's rare for a director couple like Jacques Demi and Agnès Varda to be as big as that of a director for a long time. The husband and wife duo, one of the most famous directors in the history of French cinema, married in 1962 and used their work to reflect each other's artistic visions and together forged the golden age of French cinema.
Agnès Varda and Jacques Demy
The emotional storm behind the melody
Every frame of the movie "The Umbrella of Cherbourg" is like a painting painted with musical notes. The music of the film was composed by the talented composer Michel Legrand, and every note and melody carries the voice of the character, and each melody tells a different love story, which not only promotes the development of the plot, but also deeply touches the hearts of the audience.
This music became the soul of the film, and it also made "The Umbrella of Cherbourg" transcend the limitations of time and become a timeless classic. In the rain, a story is hidden under each colorful umbrella, and each melody tells a quest for love and dreams.
Wonderful tribute
Each of director Damien Chazelle's films contains a shadow of a more or less homage to Hollywood's Golden Age. In his debut film, Guy and Adeline on the Park Bench, the male and female protagonists are named Guy and Madeline, respectively, which is the name of the character in Jacques Demy's classic musical "The Umbrella of Cherbourg".
Greta Gerwig, the director of "Barbie," once praised Demy's work, and then talked about the similarities in her own films: five different shades of pink or red in one shot without clashing with anything else. One of Barbie's hairstyles is a tribute to Catherine Deneuve.
Everyone has an umbrella in their hearts, let's hold up the umbrella and walk into this week's best movies together and listen to the dreamy melodies.
【Welcome to this episode】
CCTV-6 Movie Channel "A Date with a Good Movie"
Saturday, May 4th
22:22 Saturday Launch Edition
22:31The Umbrella of Cherbourg
Sunday, May 5th
13:43 The Umbrella of Cherbourg
15:16 Sunday Movie Review Edition