Described by director Jacques Demy as ‘a film in song’, the visually intoxicating The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Les Parapluies de Cherbourg) pays homage to the Hollywood musical and explores how youthful fantasy soon gives way to thwarted dreams. Guy Foucher (Nino Castelnuovo), a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, falls in love with 17-year-old Geneviève Emery (Catherine Deneuve), who works in her mother's umbrella shop. On the evening before Guy is to leave, Geneviève becomes pregnant and must choose between waiting for Guy's return or accepting an attractive offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant (Marc Michel, Lola). Featuring a cavalcade of colour, lavish cinematography and an ingenuous score by Michel Legrand, the profoundly romantic The Umbrellas of Cherbourg gave a young Deneuve her breakthrough role and was nominated for four Academy Awards – including Best Original Score – the film also won the Palme d'Or at 1964’s Cannes Film Festival.

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