THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG

Directed by Jacques Demy
Starring Catherine Deneuve

(1964) Rain splashes on cobblestone streets, multi-colored parapluies pop up against pastel walls, and ardent lovers rendezvous, while music fills the air. Nothing like Jacques Demy’s 1964 musical fantasy had ever been seen before – or has since – as Bernard Evein’s color-splashed production design and Demy’s own artistry transformed the actual rues de Cherbourg, on which Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo meet, into the most ethereal of creations; while every line of dialogue, from mundane car mechanics’ jargon to the transcendence of the young lovers’ impassioned “I Will Wait For You” vows, is sung to Michel Legrand’s now-classic score. This jeu d’esprit of the French New Wave wedded the movement’s stylistic innovations to the worlds of Marcel Pagnol, Frank Borzage, and Vincente Minnelli; and made Legrand, Demy and 20-year-old Deneuve internationally famous; took the top prize and Best Actress award at Cannes; garnered five Oscar nominations; and, in its overwhelming romanticism, capped by a snow-blanketed Christmas climax at an Esso station, reduced packed houses around the world to bittersweet tears. Palme D’or, Cannes Film Festival. DCP. Approx. 91 mins.
3:00, 7:20

“Elevates the quotidian to the spectacular…Umbrellas’ palette of sherbet-colored pastels remains undimmed.”
– Melissa Anderson, Village Voice

“A BOLD, ORIGINAL EXPERIMENT.”
– Roger Ebert

“Demy’s MASTERPIECE!”
– Mike D’Angelo, A.V. Club

“Retains its direct appeal to the eyes, ears, and tear ducts.”
– Slant

“[A] gently stylized and gorgeously photographed ‘film opera’…It is a small picture, a boutique musical. But it’s lovely…The scope of the picture may be finite, but it’s a big-screen experience to the core.”
– Chicago Tribune

THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT

Directed by Jacques Demy
Starring Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac

(1967) Real-life sisters Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac are music-teaching twin sisters whose dream is to blow Nantes and find love; dancers in the upcoming fair George Chakiris (West Side Story) and Grover Dale need new partners; their mother Danielle Darrieux mourns lost love Michel Piccoli, who has returned, and awaits colleague Gene Kelly; while poet/painter and about-to-be discharged sailor Jacques Perrin dreams of an ideal, whose portrait resembles Deneuve. Do they all meet? Some actual dialogue, but mainly non-stop singing and dancing through the sunny streets of the port. DCP. Approx. 124 mins.
12:30, 4:50, 9:10

“A euphoric swirl of sherbet colors, Jacques Demy’s Hollywood-musical homage elevates even the most mundane actions to the spectacular: Simply crossing the street occasions an ecstatic choreography of cartwheeling and front-flipping passersby.”
– Melissa Anderson, Village Voice

“DEMY’S SUBLIME MUSICAL MASTERPIECE! Michel Legrand’s splendid score is a key component, weaving seemingly incompatible musical styles—jazz, pop, classical—into an ethereal emotional through line.”
– Keith Uhlich, Time Out New York

“A luminous musical about dreams, romance and destiny which lovingly reworks the classic Hollywood ‘putting on a show’ template into an essay on the emotional rollercoaster ride that is movie-going.”
– David Jenkins, Time Out (London)