A hymn to beauty, youth, and love – the 1964 musical film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is returning to the big screen. In honor of this momentous event, we decided to recall the most interesting facts about the film and how it is connected to the sensational La La Land.

How The Umbrellas of Cherbourg Was Created

Our story begins in 1961, when Jacques Demy began writing a series of scenes for his new film La Belle Amour. According to drafts, the action was supposed to take place in a glove shop. In November of that same year, Demy started working on the soundtrack with composer Michel Legrand, who convinced Demy to eliminate spoken dialogue and have the characters sing throughout the entire runtime.

Once the main aesthetic was chosen and the setting of the renamed Les Parapluies de Cherbourg was moved to a small umbrella shop, Demy used another great example of the genre as his primary inspiration — the film Singin' in the Rain by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly (which is especially evident in the scene where all three main characters of Singin' in the Rain dance with umbrellas).

But the film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg still had a long way to go, as at the time producers believed that a musical of such scale simply had no place in French cinema. The fact is that Hollywood musicals in France were consistently met with moderate indifference by the public and were not very popular. Thus, according to the studios, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg was doomed to commercial failure.

Faces and Voices of Cherbourg

A rather serious challenge was the search for an actress to play the lead role of Geneviève, a young umbrella salesgirl. Initially, the creators invited the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, Isabelle Aubret. Unfortunately, during preparations for filming, Aubret was involved in a car accident and could not participate due to serious injuries.

Then, a very young Catherine Deneuve stepped into the spotlight, who turned twenty only after the filming process was completed. Needless to say, following the film's release, she woke up a world star?

Since the cast actors were not professional singers, they were all dubbed. The soundtrack for the film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg was written much earlier than the film itself was shot. Interesting fact: two singers had previously participated in dubbing projects for Disney studios. Danielle Licari (who performed the part of Geneviève in the film) was the French voice of Aurora from the animated film Sleeping Beauty, and Christiane Legrand (Madame Emery) became the French Julie Andrews from the live-action film Mary Poppins.

A rather amusing situation arose with the youngest actors appearing on screen at the very end of the film: the boy was played by Hervé Legrand, the son of Michel Legrand, and the girl by Rosalie Varda, the adopted daughter of Jacques Demy from his marriage to Agnès Varda. The irony of fate is that many years later, in 2013, Rosalie would join the team that would work on the restoration of the film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.

Legacy and Source of Inspiration

The film was finally released in 1964 – the first French musical in color. And it had the effect of a bombshell.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and received several Academy Award nominations. For Michel Legrand, the nomination was the first in his career – the composer would later earn three statuettes for the films The Thomas Crown Affair, Summer of '42, and Yentl.

The musical has undergone several stage adaptations: in America in 1979, the United Kingdom in 1980, Japan in 1983, and even in Denmark in 2014.

The film itself became a clear prototype for the short musical film Les Bicyclettes de Belsize, which falls just short of being a parody. The music and lyrics for the title song were composed by Les Reed and Barry Mason, and it was later covered by Mireille Mathieu and Engelbert Humperdinck, in French and English respectively. And both versions climbed to the top of the charts in 1969!

So what does La La Land have to do with it? Here it is! Director Damien Chazelle openly calls The Umbrellas of Cherbourg his favorite film and the main source of inspiration for his movie. And Oscar-winning composer Justin Hurwitz tries never to miss screenings of this film in Los Angeles, confessing his adoration for Michel Legrand.

P.S. By the way, the little shop itself still stands in Cherbourg at 13 Rue De Port, as a sign of respect and recognition for the film.

The film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg can be seen on the big screens in the coming days; find information about the schedule and tickets here.