FILM · 1964 · FRANCE
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg
- Directed by
- Jacques Demy
- Runtime
- 93 min
- Studio
- Parc Film, Madeleine Films, Beta Film
25 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
This simple romantic tragedy begins in 1957. Guy Foucher, a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old Geneviève Emery, an employee in her widowed mother's chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. On the evening before Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, he and Geneviève make love. She becomes pregnant and must choose between waiting for Guy's return or…
25 Interesting Facts About Les Parapluies de Cherbourg
Interesting Facts (8)
- #001
The umbrella shop is still there, at 13 Rue De Port, Cherbourg, with a plaque recalling the film.
- #002
Jacques Demy knew Eastmancolor fades with time, and he couldn't afford genuine three-strip Technicolor, which had fallen out of favor by the 1960s. To protect the film's saturated colors, he had three 35mm separation masters struck from the original negative, printed on black-and-white stock later dyed yellow, cyan and magenta. Those masters became the basis of the 2013 restoration.
- #003
The children in the last scene are family: Geneviève's daughter Françoise is played by Rosalie Varda, adopted daughter of Jacques Demy and Agnès Varda, and Guy's son François by Hervé Legrand, son of composer Michel Legrand.
- #004
Rosalie Varda, who as a little girl sat in the black Mercedes at the end of the film as Geneviève's daughter, later worked on the team behind its 2013 restoration.
- #005
Early on, a black car pulls into the garage where Guy works and he's asked to sort out its problems. It's Roland Cassard's car, and it turns up twice more: when Roland comes to the umbrella shop to give Madame Emery the money for the pearl necklace, and as the wedding car. It's also the car Geneviève drives into Guy's service station in the moving final scene; the license plate in that last scene matches the one in the first.
- #006
Damien Chazelle calls this the main inspiration for his Oscar-winning La La Land (2016), and his favorite film of all time.
- #007
Every line of dialogue is sung, which makes it what's known as a sung-through musical.
- #008
Following a first 2K restoration in 2013, a 4K restoration was made in 2024 from a wet scan of the original negative, to further erase the marks time had left on the film. The sound was restored from the three-channel stereophonic music and vocal mix found in the Universal Music Publishing archives. The work was done by Éclair Classics and L. E. for Ciné-Tamaris at the Diapason laboratories in Paris, with support from CNC, Chanel and Sacem, and was overseen by Mathieu Demy and Rosalie Varda, the children of director Jacques Demy.
Production Story (13)
- #009
The umbrella shop at 13 Rue De Port in Cherbourg is still standing, and a plaque commemorating the film is mounted on it.
- #010
The children in the final scene have personal ties to the filmmakers: Geneviève's daughter Françoise is played by Rosalie Varda, Jacques Demy's daughter adopted with Agnès Varda, while Guy's son François is played by Hervé Legrand, the son of composer Michel Legrand.
- #011
Knowing that the Eastmancolor process fades over time, director Jacques Demy, unable to afford the genuine three-strip Technicolor that had fallen out of favor in the 1960s, struck three 35 mm separation copies from the original negative onto black-and-white film stock dyed yellow, cyan and magenta in order to preserve the film's saturated colors. These copies formed the basis of the film's 2013 restoration.
- #012
Rosalie Varda was one of the team members on the 2013 restoration project. She had played the little girl in the black Mercedes (Geneviève's daughter) at the end of the film.
- #013
Roland tells Geneviève's mother that he once loved a woman named 'Lola'. Lola (1961) is Jacques Demy's 1961 film, and Marc Michel plays the same character, Roland, in that film as well.
- #014
At the start of the film, a black car pulls into the garage where Guy works and he is asked to look after its problems. This car belongs to Roland Cassard and appears twice more: when Roland comes to the umbrella shop to pay for the necklace, and as the wedding car. The license plate is the same and can be seen both in this scene and at the very beginning. Geneviève drives the same car to Guy's gas station in the climactic final scene.
- #015
All the dialogue in the film is sung. This genre is known as the 'sung-through musical'.
- #016
After the first 2K restoration in 2013, a 4K restoration was made in 2024 by wet-gate scanning from the original negative; to reduce the traces time had left on the film, the audio restoration was based on the three-channel stereophonic mix of the music and vocals found in the Universal Music Publishing archives. The restoration was carried out for Ciné-Tamaris by the Éclair Classics and L.E. Diapason laboratories in Paris, under the supervision of director Jacques Demy's children Mathieu Demy and Rosalie Varda, with the support of CNC, Chanel and Sacem.
- #017
Oscar-winning composer Justin Hurwitz watches the film every time it is shown on the big screen in Los Angeles; Michel Legrand is also one of his favorite composers.
- #018
Stage adaptations were made in New York (1979), Paris (1979), Los Angeles (1979), London (1980), Tokyo (1983) and Denmark (2014).
- #019
Anne Vernon, who plays Catherine's mother in the film, is still alive; she is 102 years old and keeps getting older.
- #020
Patrick Bricard (the waiter) and composer Michel Legrand died on the same day, January 26, 2019.
- #021
This film was once included in Letterboxd's Official Top 250 Narrative Feature Films list, but it was later removed from the list.
Characters & Cast (2)
- #022
Roland tells Geneviève's mother he was once in love with a woman called "Lola." In Jacques Demy's Lola (1961), Marc Michel plays the very same Roland.
- #023
As Marc Michel (Roland) tells Geneviève's mother about loving a woman named Lola, the film shows the same shopping arcade with stairs that appears in Jacques Demy's Lola (1961), where he played the same Roland.
Career & Awards (1)
- #024
Oscar-winning composer Justin Hurwitz goes to see it every time it screens on the big screen in Los Angeles; Michel Legrand is one of his favorite composers too.
Life & Family (1)
- #025
Geneviève wants to call her daughter Françoise if she and Guy ever have a child. Catherine Deneuve's own sister was Françoise Dorléac, who was killed in a terrible car accident in Nice, France, in 1967, a few months after the sisters finished their only film together, The Young Girls of Rochefort.
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- Wikipedia
- IMDb
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