THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG

you can buy me a vintage 1965 poster from the japanese theatrical release for only three-hundred twenty-five euros here. the film is just as charming -- and definitively new wave-y -- as it should seem from the poster. in case you don't read japanese: it won the palme d'or at cannes, and it's a musical. what the poster doesn't tell you is that "the umbrellas of cherbourg," directed by jacques demy, was a certain influence (and a strong one) on the work of contemporary french director christophe honoré. (it's understandable. after all, honoré wasn't born until five years after "the umbrellas" was released in japan.) honoré's "love songs" takes both its narrative structure and many of its technical elements directly from demy's film. in fact, i think i'm obliged to admit that i couldn't have been a true fan of honoré's until i saw "the umbrellas," which kicked off the northwest film center's "deneuve dozen" series last night. i think i'm also obliged, now that i'm properly informed, to suggest that honoré probably should have followed demy's lead in simplifying his lyrics. the english subtitled version of "love songs" requires some serious suspension of disbelief -- or at least a generous grant of poetic license to its translators. then again, demy did have agnes varda working as one of his, so maybe a comparison isn't fair. the matter might possibly have been out of honoré's hands. (incidentally, demy and varda's "the young girls of rochefort" screens tomorrow at four.) but demy also has that breathtaking shot of catherine deneuve, in a pale blue twin set (or was it white? or was it even twin?), reading a letter from her absent lover (gone to algeria) as she walks (and the camera moves! a la france, 1964) from one side of a blue wallpapered room to stop (but doesn't stop singing) in front of a window where she's almost completely whitewashed from the frame by the light and the snow outside as they blend with her blond hair, her pearly complexion and her ensemble. and nino castelnuovo looks damn fine in pants throughout. even so, deneuve doesn't wait. is love more than a handsome face? you don't care: you just want to be at the movies. one down, eleven to go.