How did I miss this?!?

Has anyone seen it?

Fellas (and ladies), I saw "Umbrellas" about six years ago, projected at the National Gallery of Art. It's one of the grandest moviegoing experiences of my life. If you can make this showing, by all means, do so. The movie is a complete knockout. It left me giddy. My laserdisc just can't match the theatrical presentation, and I'm sure the DVD also is no match.
If you don't know much about the movie, as I didn't when I first saw it, that's all the better.

I not only saw this when it was re-issued a few years ago, I got a review copy of the two-disc soundtrack. It's a beaut, to be sure.

BTW, Alan, any chance you could shrink the photo a little, so it doesn't stretch this thread beyond the margins of screens like mine?

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BTW, Alan, any chance you could shrink the photo a little, so it doesn't stretch this thread beyond the margins of screens like mine?

I just removed it...

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The movie is a complete knockout. It left me giddy. My laserdisc just can't match the theatrical presentation, and I'm sure the DVD also is no match. If you don't know much about the movie, as I didn't when I first saw it, that's all the better.

Yeah, that's right. Giddy is a nice word. The film is absolutely magical, and the restoration that came through a couple (?) years ago was brilliant. Still for those who want the dvd, Facets mail order is selling it for $10 right now. Quite a bargain. But, like Christian said, don't miss a chance to see it large.

J Robert

The DVD is available from Netflix.

For those (like me) who aren't going to get to see this wonderful film in theaters, there is a new DVD (with a new transfer, I believe) coming out on April 6th by Koch.

Languages/Subtitles:
Original Language: French
Subtitles Available: English
Audio/Video Features: Widescreen, Anamorphic16x9; Color; 5.1 Surround
Product Features: Cast/Crew Biographies
Special Features: Jacques Demy Featurette

Yes! I saw it at the DFT Monday night series back around the same time that Christian caught it. Went with The Babe. She was suspicious. Late teens and early twenties, I was a fan of Michel LeGrand and that was the draw for me. And of course, all singing. No dialog. These were just the sort of things that Dena was suspicious of. She loved it as much as I. We have the DVD. Still, NOTHING, NOTHING can match the BIG screen. Go to see it.

Just to get ready for catching Umbrellas soon I went out a snagged both Lola and Bay of Angels to refresh my memory on Demy. The recent Bay of Angels release actually has a snippet from The Universe of Jaques Demy in which we watch people talking about events that led to the film, the making of the film, and various anecdotes that Varda is so good at rooting out. Well worth seeing.

Lola is fantastic. It has Coutard's touch all over it, great tracking shots, perfect angles on the streets, and touching interior moments. Bay and Umbrellas have such a different feel to them, probably because Rabier did the cinematography on these two. He is also the one who worked with Varda on her first great film Cleo..., and Happiness a little later. He also did most of Chabrol's films from the 60's and into the 80's (Chabrol has made way too many films).

One notable Chabrol (my favorite one) that Rabier didn't do was Les Bonnes Femmes which was suprisingly enough done by a guy named Henri Decae, who did Truffaut's cinematography in [drum roll] The 400 Blows. Les Bonnes Femmes has a great late 60's Cahiers du Cinema feel to it: textured, environmental, and edited with a reckless honesty. We can't say this about many of Chabrol's films.

So Chabrol's films are really affected by who he uses as a DP/Cinematographer. Same with Demy. Lola feels so connected to the New Wave because it is, right through Coutard. Unfortunately, I am more of a fan of Demy when he is not working with Rabier than when he is.

I am struggling with how to fit Demy into the history of the New Wave. He is just as tough to pigeonhole as Varda is. Neither of them made many films (relatively), and Varda actually made more than Demy so we don't have too much to work with. I am really interested in seeing Umbrellas again in this context.

I don't want to cast dispersions on Bay of Angels because it wasn't done by my favorite DP, it really is a fantastic story. The melodrama is a bit tawdry at points, which may be the reason why I have a hard time really equating it with other New Wave films at the time. Truffaut, Godard, Rivette, and others were masters at the gentle touch when it came to moments that could be melodramatic. (At least while they were young.) But by and large Bay of Angels is a great little film.

Mark Steyn writes a love letter to the film.

FWIW, I just realized that my own review, for the student paper I co-edited back in the mid-1990s, is on page 12 of this PDF file.

How timely. I just scratched out a review of this film, which has caused a reorganization of my top 20 list.

He says this:

"Some critics I respect compared Moulin Rouge to Umbrellas of Cherbourg: the later film is certainly as style-obsessed as its predecessor, but the glibness of that style suffocates the movie. Les Parapluies manages to be, at critical moments, both stylish and naturalistic."

That is too true.