The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

The day after Lidong, the Start of Winter. A classical Chinese almanac defines the season as the point when all things are gathered in and stored away. Today pairs two films that store a love that could not run its course inside a song. In Casablanca (1942), Rick forbids Sam ever to play 'As Time Goes By' again, sealing Paris inside a melody that must not sound; in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), every line about umbrellas, garages and petrol stations is sung. Twenty-two years apart, one monochrome and one candy-coloured, they keep the same thing by opposite means: prohibition, and total song. Behind each stands a war, the Second World War and the Algerian War. Both ask what a person can actually keep when life cannot continue as planned.

1957 年 11 月，诺曼底港口小城瑟堡。母亲和 17 岁的 Geneviève 经营一家快撑不下去的雨伞小店，Guy 是照顾病中教母的年轻修车工。两人打算结婚，连第一个孩子的名字都取好了。一纸征兵通知把他送去阿尔及利亚。影片分成离别、缺席、归来三段，之后几年怎么走，这里不提前说。

It won the top prize at the 17th Cannes Film Festival in 1964 - though the award was officially named the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film that year, and the Palme d'Or name returned only in 1975. Fritz Lang, whose Metropolis and M are already in this archive, presided over that jury. The film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 37th Academy Awards and received four further nominations at the 38th, including Best Original Song and Best Original Score. What sets it apart is form: the dialogue is entirely sung, with no spoken lines at all, and the score made Michel Legrand's name. BBC Culture's 2018 poll of the 100 greatest non-English films placed it 51st. Musicals usually reserve song for peaks of feeling; Demy has people sing about umbrellas, bills and car repairs, and so lifts the ordinary into opera.