I came across a few references to the New Wave film classic The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) directed by Jacques Demy and felt the desire to see what it was about. 1964 was also the year it won the Palme d'Or at Cannes (it was also nominated for five Oscars). It was surprising for me on two levels, one I had no idea it was musical and two, once I realized that it was a musical I expected a more conventional storyline. That is I didn't expect a bittersweet mediation on love, loss, and life in a musical. That seems very progressive to me. The film is full of spectacular color and visual motifs and introduces the incandescent Catherine Deneve. It seems that Demy had somewhat of an uneven career and it doesn't look like there are any other essential films that I need to see after researching a bit about him.
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"It seems that Demy had somewhat of an uneven career and it doesn't look like there are any other essential films that I need to see after researching a bit about him."
This is a bit of a sad statement really. All of his films are worth watching, think Lola, Donkey Skin, even Model Shop!
I don't understand your statement at all, like who hasn't an 'uneven career' in the film business?
Puzzled, to say the least.
Posted by: Carl M | November 20, 2013 at 01:37 AM
To be precise, with all the great and celebrated films around that I haven't seen yet I can't imagine searching out more Demy films at the moment. But maybe that will change and I'll keep your suggestions in mind.
Posted by: MC | November 20, 2013 at 09:04 AM
It certainly takes a life time and maybe even more than that to watch all the great films made (so far). I don't understand though what brings you to the conclusion that Demy's films would not be part of the great and celebrated films?
Demy like Truffaut, Chabrol, Rohmer, Godard, Demy's wife Agnes Varda, Louis Malle, Melville, Resnais, Renoir and a few more, owns a permanent seat in the Pantheon of the film world. Not to mention that his preferred composer Michel Legrand made some of his best work for Demy's films.
What I'm saying is that for someone 'studying' film I'd expect a somewhat more open view - his work might not be to your taste as Ozu might not be to everybody's taste either BUT we are talking nevertheless about masters of film making and to judge them as 'not so important that I would spend time on' is as I said earlier, puzzling.
Not to mention that mostly all great directors were very familiar with what their peers were doing and as well heavily influenced. I.E. Godard had major influence on a number of Japanese directors and was widely copied for awhile. I could imagine that Rohmer closely studied Ozu's films, Kurosawa (!) was well aware of Renoir's work and so on.
Posted by: Carl M | November 21, 2013 at 04:11 AM
Actually after seeing an interview with cinematographer Raoul Coutard, I learned that he was the cinematographer for Demy's Lola, so I would be interested in seeing that, so I am more open-minded than you give me credit for;)
Posted by: MC | November 30, 2013 at 05:13 PM
I'm glad to hear that ;)
Posted by: Carl M | December 13, 2013 at 01:44 PM