It takes nerve to make a pic in which all dialog is sung. Also, there is no dancing and this is not a filmed operetta or opera. [review of original release]
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg(Les parapluies de Cherbourg)
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
France, West Germany · 1964
Rated PG-13 · 1h 31m
Director Jacques Demy
Starring Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo, Anne Vernon, Mireille Perrey
Genre Drama, Romance
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
Guy Foucher and Geneviève Emery are desperately in love. But after Guy leaves for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, Geneviève realizes she’s pregnant. Now she must decide between waiting for Guy's return or accepting a proposal from a wealthy merchant.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Washington Post by Desson Thomson
Demy, his cinematographer Jean Rabier and production designer Bernard Evein created an operatic masterpiece of romanticism, which makes a modest but effective antidote to the harsh era of cynicism that has pervaded world cinema ever since.
A glorious romantic confection unlike any other in movie history.
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
Although most movies favor passion and true love, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg shows that another less demanding, more subtle kind of love has its own appeal.
Village Voice by Jessica Winter
The wonderful-terrible dervish of Umbrellas reaches peak abandon, worthy of Vincente Minnelli, when Geneviève sobs out a plaint for Guy as a carnival whirls outside the shop.
Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum
A heartfelt, passionate, tragic musical suite made up of these formulas, which the film both celebrates and wryly examines to discover their inner logic: how they actually work, what they do and don't do.
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg has stood the test of time as beautifully as Deneuve and seems likely to enchant future generations as fully as it has audiences over the past four decades.
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
A surprisingly effective film, touching and knowing and, like Deneuve, ageless.
Users who liked this film also liked
The 400 Blows
(Les Quatre Cents Coups)
The story of a misunderstood adolescent boy growing up in Paris.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1959
- Director François Truffaut
- Cast Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claire Maurier, Albert Rémy, Georges Flamant, Patrick Auffay, Robert Beauvais
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, Kanopy
Stolen Kisses
(Baisers volés)
Antoine knows what he wants to do ... his problem is doing it.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1968
- Director François Truffaut
- Cast Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claude Jade, Delphine Seyrig, Michael Lonsdale, Daniel Ceccaldi, Claire Duhamel
- Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel
Contempt
(Le Mépris)
A vivid display of conflict between passion and art.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Italy • 1963
- Director Jean-Luc Godard
- Cast Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, Jack Palance, Giorgia Moll, Fritz Lang, Raoul Coutard
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube
Vivre Sa Vie
(Vivre sa vie: film en douze tableaux)
A young Parisian woman’s existential crisis — and eventual turn to sex work.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1962
- Director Jean-Luc Godard
- Cast Anna Karina, Sady Rebbot, André S. Labarthe, Guylaine Schlumberger, Gérard Hoffman, Monique Messine
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Kanopy
The Young Girls of Rochefort
(Les demoiselles de Rochefort)
They're singing and dancing in the streets.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1967
- Director Jacques Demy
- Cast Catherine Deneuve, Françoise Dorléac, Jacques Perrin, George Chakiris, Grover Dale, Michel Piccoli
- Genre Music, Romance, Drama, Comedy
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Vudu, Amazon Video
Pierrot le Fou
(Pierrot le fou)
How is life going to look like if one is always on the run?
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Italy • 1965
- Director Jean-Luc Godard
- Cast Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina, Graziella Galvani, Dirk Sanders, Jimmy Karoubi, Roger Dutoit
- Genre Drama, Thriller
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube
Hiroshima Mon Amour
(Hiroshima mon amour)
The story of a young French actress and her affair with a Japanese man while on assignment in Hiroshima.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Japan • 1959
- Director Alain Resnais
- Cast Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada, Stella Dassas, Pierre Barbaud, Bernard Fresson
- Genre Drama, History, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube
Donkey Skin
(Peau d'âne)
Cinderella's fairy godmother helped her get married. Hers will help her get out of it.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1970
- Director Jacques Demy
- Cast Catherine Deneuve, Jacques Perrin, Jean Marais, Delphine Seyrig, Fernand Ledoux, Micheline Presle
- Genre Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Music, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel
You Are So Beautiful
(Je vous trouve très beau)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2005
- Director Isabelle Mergault
- Cast Michel Blanc, Medeea Marinescu, Wladimir Yordanoff, Éva Darlan, Benoît Turjman, Élisabeth Commelin
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Black Mor's Island
(L'île de Black Mór)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2004
- Director Jean-François Laguionie
- Cast Jean-Paul Roussillon, Jean-François Dérec, Agathe Schumacher, Mehani Taric, Yanecko Romba, Michel Robin
- Genre Animation, Adventure, Family
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Crooks in Clover
(Les Tontons flingueurs)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Italy, West Germany • 1963
- Director Georges Lautner
- Cast Lino Ventura, Bernard Blier, Francis Blanche, Claude Rich, Pierre Bertin, Jean Lefebvre
- Genre Action, Comedy, Crime
- Available on No streaming locations found.
First Name: Carmen
(Prénom Carmen)
When love and passion comes in the middle of a big plan.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1983
- Director Jean-Luc Godard
- Cast Maruschka Detmers, Jacques Bonnaffé, Myriem Roussel, Christophe Odent, Jean-Luc Godard, Valérie Dréville
- Genre Comedy, Crime, Drama, Romance
- Available on MUBI, Kino Now, Kanopy
Lola
A chance encounter with Lola has Roland falling in love, but she may not return his feelings.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy, France • 1961
- Director Jacques Demy
- Cast Anouk Aimée, Marc Michel, Jacques Harden, Alan Scott, Elina Labourdette, Margo Lion
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel
Bay of Angels
(La Baie des Anges)
Love is a game of chance.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1963
- Director Jacques Demy
- Cast Jeanne Moreau, Claude Mann, Paul Guers, Henri Nassiet, Nicole Chollet, André Certes
- Genre Romance, Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max
Touki Bouki
(Touki-Bouki)
Tired of poverty, two Senegalese men steal money and clothing, then book passage to France to begin new lives.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Senegal • 1973
- Director Djibril Diop Mambéty
- Cast Magaye Niang, Myriam Niang, Christoph Colomb, Mustapha Ture, Aminata Fall
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max, Max Amazon Channel
Tales of the Night
(Les Contes de la nuit)
Tales of the Night is renowned animation auteur Michel Ocelot's first foray into 3D animation.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2011
- Director Michel Ocelot
- Cast Julien Beramis, Marine Griset, Jonathan Kite
- Genre Fantasy, Animation
- Available on Hoopla, OVID, Vudu, Apple TV
One Hundred and One Nights
(Les Cent et Une Nuits de Simon Cinéma)
Centenarian Simon Cinema engages a young woman to tell him the stories of all the movies ever made.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, France • 1995
- Director Agnès Varda
- Cast Michel Piccoli, Marcello Mastroianni, Henri Garcin, Julie Gayet, Mathieu Demy, Emmanuel Salinger
- Genre Comedy, History, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel
My Tender Matador
(Tengo miedo torero)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Chile, Argentina, Mexico • 2020
- Director Rodrigo Sepúlveda
- Cast Alfredo Castro, Leonardo Ortizgris, Julieta Zylberberg, Amparo Noguera, Sergio Hernández, Paulina Urrutia
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on DIRECTV, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Vudu, , YouTube, Apple TV, Paramount Plus Apple TV Channel
My favorite musical! The use of colors in the film are amazing - especially how the wallpapers of each room coordinate with the actor's costumes in each scene.