A wise man once said a great song becomes a picture in which you can imagine the words. Now imagine a visually created musical universe of individual thoughts, all created by the same words, the same song. I know that might sound a little heady but even a MUSICAL has dialogue; words.
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, an unwise man once commented, WAS a musical, it is not! After a while of watching the film you forget the dialogue is entirely composed of song, and even though there were no songs that i went away humming from this picture, the images slowly became something other than film, and the songs became something other than song.
With Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, Jacques Demy created something entirely new, something no other film maker has been able to achieve with film and music. Sure the great silent films of cinema's early days were able to achieve an atmosphere of people worship to which the entire film making industry the world over still suffers and although there was no dialogue and very little music, sometimes accompanied live with the showing of the film, silent films were never as Magical as this, simply because i have watched a few... and we always knew we were watching a film no matter how impressionable we were...
Not only does Demy manage to create a world in which nothing is real seem real, he creates a place, love and a film along with A song that you wish were a part of. No!!! that isn't what I want to say...what I want to say is this... If you see this film it becomes a part of you and you will become a part of it. And as I like to think...in ALL the old cinema's and film festivals and private living rooms where this film could, can, and will be played... I know where ever it is showing it just isn't the same without me.
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg stands as the only film ever made that is its very own genre. Others may have tried...but what sense does any art make if it doesn't at least attempt to be something original?
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, an unwise man once commented, WAS a musical, it is not! After a while of watching the film you forget the dialogue is entirely composed of song, and even though there were no songs that i went away humming from this picture, the images slowly became something other than film, and the songs became something other than song.
With Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, Jacques Demy created something entirely new, something no other film maker has been able to achieve with film and music. Sure the great silent films of cinema's early days were able to achieve an atmosphere of people worship to which the entire film making industry the world over still suffers and although there was no dialogue and very little music, sometimes accompanied live with the showing of the film, silent films were never as Magical as this, simply because i have watched a few... and we always knew we were watching a film no matter how impressionable we were...
Not only does Demy manage to create a world in which nothing is real seem real, he creates a place, love and a film along with A song that you wish were a part of. No!!! that isn't what I want to say...what I want to say is this... If you see this film it becomes a part of you and you will become a part of it. And as I like to think...in ALL the old cinema's and film festivals and private living rooms where this film could, can, and will be played... I know where ever it is showing it just isn't the same without me.
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg stands as the only film ever made that is its very own genre. Others may have tried...but what sense does any art make if it doesn't at least attempt to be something original?