In Cherbourg, 1957, mechanic Guy is in love with Geneviéve, who lives with her mother, Mme Emery above an umbrella shop owned by her mother and Guy's elderly aunt, Elise. Mme Ebury believes Geneviéve is to good for Guy, and unsuccessfully tries to prevent the two young people seeing each other. Guy is called-up to fight in Algeria and the night before he leaves, he and Geneviéve make love for the first time. The next year, a pregnant Geneviéve is distraught not to have heard from Guy. Mme Ebury invites wealthy diamond dealer Roland Cassard to dinner and, when he expresses willingness to bring Geneviéve's child up as his own, pressures her daughter into marrying him. Guy returns from Algeria, having been injured in the leg, to find Roland and Geneviéve living in Paris with his child, and this, combined with his aunt's death, makes him go to pieces.
Review:
A vivid musical from director Jacques Demy, every line is sung and the film itself developed in a saturated Technicolour process, meaning the colours are extremely bright and glowing. Catherine Deneuve very much made her name with this movie and she is ideally cast as the waif-like Geneviéve, torn between her lover in the Army, and the kind-hearted obviously sincere Roland, willing to raise Guy's child. Wildly sentimental and unashamedly heartstring-tugging, the totally sung format may seem twee in parts, certainly when the only dialogue is really small talk, but Demy has fashioned an unashamed tear jerker.
