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$12 General Admission, $9 Member, $7 child age 14 or younger

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Jacques Demy’s 1964 masterpiece is a pop-art opera, or, to borrow the director’s own description, a film in song. This simple romantic tragedy begins in 1957. Guy Foucher (Nino Castelnuovo), a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old Geneviève Emery (a luminous Catherine Deneuve), an employee in her widowed mother’s chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. umbrellas2On 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 accepting an offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant (Marc Michel, reprising his role from Demy’s masterful debut, Lola). A completely sung movie, THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG is closest in form to a cinematic opera. Composer Michel Legrand composed the score, modeling it around the patterns of everyday conversation.

“The Umbrellas of Cherbourg has stood the test of time as beautifully as Deneuve and seems likely to enchant future generations as fully as it has audiences over the past four decades.” -Kevin Thomas, LOS ANGELES TIMES

“A surprisingly effective film, touching and knowing and, like Deneuve, ageless.” -Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES