The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) & The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967)

A double feature at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, and yet another reminder of how, even though there's traffic and pollution in Los Angeles, that it's worth it to live here, because where else (besides New York or Paris) can you get a chance to see two amazing musicals from Jacques Demy on the big screen, the way they were meant to be experienced?

I haven't seen Demy's other films, but what these two have in common is that they're musicals set in commonplace, everyday settings; Cherbourg is about a pair of young (very young) lovers in the late '50s separated by France's war in Algeria and economic insecurity, while Rochefort is about a pair of sisters in a smallish town in western France yearning for love and more out of life. Demy shot his films on location, in apartments and shops instead of the traditional Hollywood practice of filming on lushly designed soundstages, and it gives the films a typically French New Wave feeling of existing in the real world instead of in the Hollywood dream factory - to a point.

The Young Girls of Rochefort is a reinvention of the frothy Hollywood musical, taking place in a world that's still recognizable down-to-earth, yet nonetheless a fantasy construct nonetheless with a plot that's straight out of a Shakespearean comedy, or an Astaire/Rogers movie: twin sisters played by Catherine Deneuve and Francoise Dorleac are searching for their true loves, not knowing that their fantasy men are lurking just around the corner in the town, or arriving on the same day they're planning to leave, and so on. It's the kind of movie where one character will exit a scene and their unknowing romantic-partner-to-be will enter, seconds later, from the other side of the frame, not knowing what they narrowly missed. The music, by Michel Legrand, is jazzy and hummable, the widescreen, pastel-colored visuals are bright and attractive, people will drop into dance for no reason at any moment, and the whole movie is pretty irresistable, like a fine fizzy champagne.

After seeing a concoction like Rochefort, Demy's earlier film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg feels a little dingy and narrow, but that feeling disappears once Catherine Deneuve (incredibly young and beautiful) and Nino Castelnuovo sing their first duet, a puppy-love ditty that succeeds because of the movie's charm and conviction. Where Rochefort is a more typical people-break-into-song-and-dance musical, Cherbourg is a mini-opera, no dancing, all singing. And what really elevates Cherbourg, for me, is that it's not just a fizzy musical designed to give the audience a fun time (although it is that) but it also takes its characters seriously as real people with real, relatable problems instead of turning everybody into an archetype, and there's real depth and tragedy in this story of the teenage blonde who gets pregnant when her boyfriend gets shipped off to war.

The reviews I've seen of both films say that the primary theme linking Demy's films was that of fate, or destiny, which comes through pretty clear in Rochefort, where every character has a clearly delineated romantic partner that they end up with by the end of the film, in spite of all the ups and downs along the way. Cherbourg, on the other hand, has a more sensible perspective: even though the young loves proclaim their undying love to each other in the film's first act (as everyone does in a musical), the long separation and changes in their lives make them very different people by the end of the movie. When they meet again after years apart, there's a wistful quality in their interaction, but also an awkwardness, and the sense that, whatever used to be, is no longer; the two of them each look satisfied with their new family and lifestyle, and predestination seems not to be a factor.

What links the two films, though, is how totally pleasureable and invigorating they each are. I haven't been a fan of most of the new wave of Hollywood musicals in the last few years - they've mostly struck me as clumsy (Dreamgirls) or trying too hard (Moulin Rouge) or just kind of flat (Phantom of the Opera, Hairspray) so it's nice to see a pair of absolute must-see musicals in the middle of the Summer.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg: 9/10
The Young Girls of Rochefort: 8/10

Across the Universe (2007)

The stupidest thing about this movie is its insistence on trying to work its collection of musical numbers into a single coherent narrative, which just doesn't work. This movie would have worked better as a loose collection of thematically related musical interludes, more like Pink Floyd: The Wall than Moulin Rouge. It means that the filmmakers have all manner of stupid contrivances, including characters named Jude, Lucy, Prudence, and Jojo. Try not to throw something at the screen when Maxwell shows up brandishing a certain burnished household tool for no good reason. This framework forces the movie towards some of the most mindlessly literal interpretations of the Beatles' songs possible.

The second stupidest thing about this movie is setting it in the 1960s, which leads to all manner of tired cliches about hippies and the anti-Vietnam movement and peace and love and stuff that we've seen in movies about a thousand times before. If the film had been set in the present, or better yet, in a stylized anytime, it would have worked a lot better, been more resonant. I don't need a hippied-up Bono telling me he is the walrus, and the same obligatory urban riot that exploded into Dreamgirls strikes again here.

In spite of these massive impediments to success, the movie does have a few scattered moments where it all works, mostly when plot isn't around. The early number "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" is simple, timeless, and heartfelt. It's probably the best thing in the whole movie. Evan Rachel Wood's performance of "If I Fell" and Jim Sturgess's "Something" are pretty damn good too. Julie Taymor knows how to craft an image, and the sights of this movie are often spectacular, but she needs help in getting them to really flow and intersect with each other in truly provocative ways. I'm sure there are going to be people who will love this movie, but chances are they're people who haven't seen the older, better movies in this tradition. It's too bad because the music presented is mostly wonderful, and the messages that are still relevant deserve an intelligent, stimulating presentation.