directed and "scenario et dialogue" by Jacques Demy
My first foreign film to review on this site and it's certainly a different one. It's essentially an opera (without the booming, overpowering opera voices). Every single word of dialogue is sung. This film would never ever work if it was done in English. I wonder how the French felt watching this...was it weird for them to see their native language sung like an opera? It wasn't the least bit weird for me, but about halfway through, I was saying to myself that there is no way I wouldn't be laughing if this was in English and I was hearing someone sing "Bring me some tea. There's water in the kettle." In French, it wasn't so weird...in English, I'd have probably turned this off.
The plot is super-simple...almost too much so. Told in three parts, in part one, "The Departure," we meet two young lovers -- Guy and Geneviéve -- living in the small town of Cherbourg. Guy gets called off to war (let's not even get into the fact that a Frenchman is going to war which in and of itself is laughable), ending the first part with a beautiful song -- "I Will Wait For You" -- and a beautiful shot at a train station. Part Two -- "The Absence" -- focuses on Geneviéve dealing with Guy being gone. Something rather surprising is unveiled early on in this segment and it ends rather sadly. Unfortunately, Part Three entitled "The Return" bring Guy back, but things are not even close to the same as when he left. The plot is simple, as I've already said, but things don't always go the way you think they would in a French romance.
The film is intriguingly shot. At times, there are some odd directorial choices, but it works for some reason. In other movies, I might think these shots would scream "PRETENSION!" but in this basic story, they work. Apparently, the film is noted for its use of colors and there is certainly a wide palette on display, which adds to the visuals without a doubt.
The music is also superb with enough changes in tempo to never grow boring. It's not that you're going to be able to sing the songs (they're in French, obviously), but you may be humming the music at the end. As I mentioned above, the song "I Will Wait for You" has a stunningly beautiful melody that is played several times throughout the film. Additionally, I found it incredibly intriguing that it never looked like the actors were lip-synching. For all I know, maybe they were singing live on-set, but I can't imagine that they were (as that hardly ever happens in a musical). Nevertheless, the lip-synching was dead-on perfect all the time.
So, if you can get past the fact that there is no spoken dialogue, this one is definitely worth a look. You'll never have seen any film like it, I can guarantee that.
The RyMickey Rating: B+
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