Moo's Review of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

Before I start, I'd like to remind you that the director, Jacques Demy, said he made this movie because wanted people to cry. So, if you don't want to cry, don't watch this movie. And don't read this review! I am recovering from tooth extraction right now, so my default feeling is pain and I'm watching movie pain to distract myself from real life pain. Be warned that this thing is gonna be loopier than usual.

Do you remember when you were 17? Well. I do. I remember feeling totally optimistic about everything at 17. Heck, I did even at 20. I thought it was a miracle that I'd like someone who also liked me back. I thought with 100% certainty I was gonna get married with that person.

Imagine you're having the first relationship you've ever had, and it's also the best one you ever had because well, you didn't have other ones besides this one. You're just so freaking amazed that this person exists and they're just, the best, smartest, most handsomest jerk in the entire world. And you get to be with him? No way! You're so stupidly happy you think you must have died and reincarnated as a saint now (or a cow if you think cows are happier than saints). And then, all of a sudden, your mom tells you you shouldn't see him anymore. Because you're too young and he's too poor to get married with. And now there's even more bad news for you, he tells you he can't even be here anymore. Because he got drafted for military service.

I can feel myself sitting there, saying “Oh well”, “Too bad”, “They weren't gonna be together anyway”. I just don't want to tolerate this bad feeling. I don't want to relate to Genevieve. The word devastation doesn't even begin to describe it. I feel like the movie is not an exaggeration, it just describes how that feels in that situation. And I totally don't want to be in it! Except I do now, because well, I am in constant paranoia that the blood clot inside of my face will fall out and I'll be in pain, so let's be sad instead.

It's hard to believe but I didn't like this movie 5 years ago, when my world view was more cynical. It was the pandemic and I was sitting in my room, angry and cursing humanity for how stupid it was. The scene where they lament about having to part ways is exactly where I tapped out. How dare you be so frivolous about not being a couple anymore? How dare you be singing it! I made fun of the singing, I made fun of the French, I even made fun of the colours they used for the walls. I thought this movie reminded me of a birthday cake with way too much icing on it.

But I just wasn't ready yet. I didn't have the space for it then. Their sadness is not frivolous. This is an extremely difficult thing to take in. It's loss, it's grief. Not only for Guy who is being forced to leave, but also who they are as little Genevieve and Guy of 17 and 20 years old. When Guy told his aunt, that he'd meet death before she does, it doesn't necessarily mean he'll die in the war, but rather, this innocent version of himself will die before she dies. It's grief for their innocence, grief for a dream they can never embody. Not because they did anything wrong but because the bloody circumstances forced their hands for them. It makes you realize you're just a tiny piece of cog in a big ugly machine you never asked for. It's growing up but being forced into it with violence. Breaking up is already brutal, people should at least have the freedom to do it on their own.

There were two scenes that I found most impactful. It was the scene right after Guy tells Genevieve he has to go to war as well as the sequence where they sing "I Will Wait For You", I sort of think of them as the same scene. And the very last scene at the end at the gas station.

I Will Wait For You

After being told that Guy is drafted, Genevieve and Guy stay in the same hugging position for like, three entire scenes! The hug in the streets. They hug on a bike, rolling down the streets! And they continue hugging while sitting down at a cafe. Is this ridiculous? Yes! It takes a long time so we get to take in how complex their emotion is. I think Guy and Genevieve both know more than the older adults around them give them credit for. Genevieve's mother dismisses her. Why is it that when people pass a certain age, they seem to just never relate to a younger person's pain anymore? I remember feeling that way. I was so frustrated my teachers and my parents didn't understand me. How could they be like that? They were this age once, surely. Don't they remember anything at all? But then, if you were to ask me to have a total heart-to-heart with a young person now, while I'm having to worry about paying their bills, I'm not sure if I could.

Other musicals would have the background people all sing along with them, in a flash-mob. But everyone in the streets completely ignores Guy and Genevieve, never giving them a second glance. It makes them feel extra alone. Genevieve is not naive. No matter how sincerely she believes she'd wait forever, she knows in the back of her mind, that they will both have to move on. Two years is an eternity. It's fairy tale. But she can't help but hope they'll like each-other this much, forever. That they'll stay this way forever. I think Guy doesn't realize it. He still believes they'll be exactly the same after he gets back, he's even using his relationship with Genevieve a little bit as motivation to make it through military service.

She says “you'll meet other women, and you'll forget about me”, and he says “I will think of only you”. She's just trying to be realistic here buddy, why aren't you listening? Why do guys never listen when you tell them stuff?

The part where the train goes off, and it picks up speed and moves away, and she gets smaller and smaller, is the saddest thing ever. I hate saying good bye to people. God-damn it. Good for you Jacques Demy! Good for you Michel Legrand! You did it. You made me cry and I wasn't even born when you made this movie yet. I hope ghost Jacques Demy is happy. I hope ghost Michel Legrand is happy.

Ending scene at the Gas Station

I feel like this wasn't quite as sad as people say it is? I feel more frustrated with it. I think Guy is angry at Genevieve, because he thinks she betrayed him. They realize how bittersweet their lives are now. She's named her daughter Francoise just like they talked about. Guy named his son Francois, and opened his own gas station with white floors and an office like they talked about. Yet, they are not a family, just two strangers at a gas station.

I feel like, Genevieve's life is much sadder than Guy's. She married another guy out of circumstance. Her daughter is the daughter of Guy, the one that got away. She's probably reminded of him everyday. And he doesn't even want to meet his daughter! Guy on the other hand, married someone he loves just as much. And he has a son with her and seems genuinely happy about it. I think Genevieve must realize that Guy no longer holds her in the same regard. I don't know if she had some kind of illusion that maybe he still liked her a little bit. I would guess that she did. And the illusion is completely broken now. Her prediction that he'll meet other women and forget about her came true. What a nightmare! As for Guy, he's witnessing that Genevieve is in a completely different social class, she's in the same class as his asshole customers. It's perhaps somewhat humiliating. A nail to the coffin to any fantasy he may have had. But he accepts it. He has a happy family now with Madeleine. It makes me so mad. It's so not fair. Genevieve did what she had to do under the circumstances! She had no choice but to marry the other guy! Why does it feel like she was punished for this? Why does he get to be happier than she is? But... I guess it's good, because he survived being drafted to Algeria, shouldn't she be happy that he gets to even have a life at all? At least, he is doing well. Anyway, I'm a bit angry at this ending. I'm angry at reality, really.

On the fifth viewing of this movie, I picked up that Madeleine refers to her son as “our little boy”, and not by his name, Francois. Well not at first, anyway. Francois is a name Guy chose with his memory of Genevieve. Maybe it bothers her. Also, Francois is dressed in yellow, just like Genevieve did in the beginning of the movie. Also, in the final scene, Guy is the one playing with Francois and carrying him inside the station, not Madeleine. She enters it ahead of them, by herself. I find it a bit comforting, that at least Guy remembers Genevieve enough to be dressing his son in yellow. Their family is not quite as perfect as it seems.

The story is about the pains of growing up. How fitting is it that I watched this movie during a wisdom teeth saga? I'd like to think of wisdom teeth as a symbol for people maturing, growing up, entering a new stage of life, and not just my teeth knocking on other teeth and needing to be taken out of my face due to pain. Come on, where's your sense of romance? The timeline follows Genevieve from 17 to 23 (25 if you round up), exactly when people normally have their wisdom teeth taken out. Moo here has a surprise late-in-life wisdom teeth eruption at 39, it's not exactly a parallel. But the movie does adequately reminds me of a time in my life long ago, when I was that young. It helped me mourn that time a bit, even if it's such a delayed mourning. Does The Umbrellas of Cherbourg still feel like a Birthday cake with too much icing on it? Yes, sometimes. But I liked it very much.

Edit: This article was originally posted on September 21st, I edited it on September 22nd, fixing some technical mistakes I made, specifically about the scene names and the fact that Madeleine does call her son by the name Francois, just not initially.