Fashion and Social Critiques Unfolded: Exploring the Layers of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
In Jacques Demy's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, a treasure trove of timeless fashion ideas awaits. This cinematic gem delves into the realms of young love, personal and societal transformation, social class dynamics, and the profound impact of loss amid the backdrop of the Algerian War.
Ann Vernon as Madame Emery and Catherine Denueve as Genevieve Emery
Film Overview
Initially released in 1964, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, originally titled Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, stands as a seminal masterpiece of the French New Wave, artfully weaving a narrative of young love, societal change, social class dynamics, and the profound impact of loss against the backdrop of the Algerian War. Despite my initial skepticism towards its musical format, a genre I typically loathe due for a myriad of reasons, I approached the film with an open mind and found myself captivated by the breathtaking yet melancholic opening credit sequence that flawlessly set the tone for the entire feature.
Set in the enchanting coastal city of Cherbourg, France, the film traces the whirlwind love story of Genevieve (Catherine Deneuve), a 17-year-old working in her bourgeois mother's umbrella boutique, and Guy (Nino Castelnuovo), a 20-year-old auto mechanic employed at a nearby garage. The lovers vow eternal commitment to each other, but their lives and relationship undergo a profound transformation as the responsibilities of colonialism cast their shadow.
The film's remarkable cinematography, exquisite color palette, engaging writing, and superb acting and lip-syncing performances elevate it beyond the realm of ordinary melodrama, and captivated me until its poignant conclusion. Furthermore, writer & director Jacque Demy's skill in interweaving critiques of the Algerian War, the destructive effects of colonialism on the colonizer, the complexities of social class, and the realities of modern society, become apparent upon repeated viewings, adding depth and resonance to the overall experience. In short, despite its singing and colorful set pieces, this is a serious and mature film.
Starring Catherine Deneuve and the late Nino Castelnuovo, this profound and quirky classic is the second feature in Jacques Demy's "romantic trilogy." Watching the preceding film, Lola, is recommended as it adds a layer of depth to the plot of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and helps viewers appreciate one of the most unique flashback sequences in cinematic history.
Fashion
As the film explores modern French society, we are able to see the characters contrasted against the riches the country enjoys as a result of its colonialist exploits. Vibrant color blocking, lace veils, fur coats, yellow bicycles, and a vintage Mercedes Benz sedan are samples of the eye candy prominently featured in the film.
Demy's use of brilliant splashes of color is striking and visually arresting, becoming more apparent as the characters' outfits match the wallpaper in various scenes. From stylish dresses, slim-fit raincoats, and pastel dress shirts to sailor suits, pleated skirts, and one of the most striking postman hats ever captured on film, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg serves up a wealth of fashion ideas for women and men.
Wednesday Inspiration
The subject of this week's style inspiration is international cinema icon Anouk Aimee
The subject of this week's style inspiration is international cinema icon Anouk Aimee. The multilingual French actress exudes timeless style and sophistication. Her exceptional skill, elegance, versatility, and devastating beauty have inspired fashion magazine editors, designers, filmmakers, actors and models across the globe.
Recommended viewing: 8 1/2, La Dolce Vita, Lola, and A Man and a Woman.
2 or 3 Things Know About Her
The mother, suburban Paris, prostitution and the pinstriped raincoat.
Juliette and a John
Jean-Luc Godard’s 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her is a masterstroke that takes an honest look at modern western life. The film, which takes places over 24 hours, revolves around a middle-class housewife and mother, Juliette (Marina Vlady), in suburban Paris. Since her husband is content with their social standing, she spends afternoons prostituting to pay for the material things that will supposedly make her happy. During daytime hours, Juliette leaves her kids with a brothel owner/babysitter and goes about the business of turning tricks for money.
Juliette and her husband, Gerard.
The stifling environment they live in -- an isolated, nondescript, concrete high-rise development -- partially fuels her dissatisfaction. Cut off from the lively and intellectually stimulating world of Paris, she looks for an escape and sense of purpose through consumption. Advertisements for household products, clothing, appliances, vacations and services are featured prominently throughout the film, where the world seems to be inundated with a staggering number of consumer choices.
The half-dead way she goes about life is reflects the isolating and stifling mediocrity that goes on around her. Most of the women she encounters are overqualified for their career fields. The majority of them are overworked and underpaid and many have accepted their depressing fates. Despite their complexity and wealth of interests, the women find themselves“prostituting” in dead-end jobs, while others actually work as hookers to make ends meet.
The men in the film are equally dissatisfied with their lives and careers. They immerse themselves in politics, technology, sports, and pseudo-intellectualism, or resort to paying hookers to act out sexual fetishes and fantasies (such as the American war correspondent who requires prostitutes to run around with flight bags on their heads before engaging in a threesome).
On the surface, this film seems similar to features such as Luis Buñuel’s Belle De Jour and Godard’s own Vivre Sa Vie. However, what sets 2 or 3 Things apart from those features is the extensive commentary on capitalism, consumerist culture, modern life, politics and communication.
The film features a whispered narrator (voiced by Godard), whose pointed commentary ponders the meaning of life, instead of solely advancing the story. Moreover, the characters break the fourth wall to convey highly intriguing, and often devastating, mini-monologues, where they discuss their life stories, innermost thoughts, desires, fears, interests, jobs, etc., in a brutally honest way they’re unable to communicate to the other characters. This plot device works beautifully, as it brings into focus the way our minds work in social interactions where we appear cool and detached as our thoughts are racing a mile-a-minute. It also highlights the wall we build up around ourselves in the fear of having our desires and insecurities exposed or misunderstood.
The film features is peppered with a number of quotable quotes. Critiques about the joining of political and corporate interests to reshape cities and countries are more relevant today than ever, as urban areas across the globe are being reshaped into banal, commodity-driven and culturally-devoid playgrounds, where every insecurity can be pacified, for a price. Additionally, the film’s discussion of our ability to forsake interpersonal relationships in favor of technology is even more penetrating in the digital age. One can only look at the film’s world -- as well as the present society we live in -- and wonder what’s it all for?
Arguably one of the best features in Godard’s filmography, 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her features standout performances from Marina Vlady, Joseph Gerhard and Juliet Berto.
Discussing fashion in a film that brutally critiques materialism seems -- for lack of a better word -- idiotic. However, as with all Godard features, the beautiful cinematography and wardrobe styling are second to none, so the clothing must be analyzed.
The bold prints, patterns and colors featured in the film have a timelessness style that will brighten any Spring or Summer season. Pinstriped raincoats, brightly-colored pencil skirts, vintage flight bags, and gradient-tint, full-rim glasses are prominently displayed in the film, offering a myriad of inspired ways to finish off your look.
Aviators & Trench Coats: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
Style wise, the Taking of Pelham One Two Three features a colorful cast of characters wearing outfits that range from conservative to the outlandish.
Robert Shaw as Blue
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is a classic New York heist film, featuring a who's who of cinematic icons. This 1974 crime drama revolves around four mustachioed hijackers commandeering a downtown 6 train with the intention of holding the passengers for ransom. This gritty, riveting and comedic film has been reviewed thousands of times. So, in the interest of brevity, I will simply say that the accolades are warranted as this is a must-see flick.
Robert Shaw working the fedora, bow tie & trench
Hector Elizondo as Grey
Style wise, the Taking of Pelham One Two Three features a colorful cast of characters wearing outfits that range from conservative to the outlandish. However, the gang of robbers steals the show (no pun intended) with a range of classically understated accessories that can be used to finish off any look. With their tortoise-shell aviators, neckties, bow ties, trench coats and hats, these on-screen criminals rank among the best dressed in cinematic history.
Walter Matthau rocking the plaid shirt, yellow tie and tweed blazer
Starring Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Jerry Stiller and James Broderick, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three was directed by Joseph Sargent.
Colorful Radicals: Jean-Luc Godard's Week-End
Violent car crashes, murder plots, infidelity, fashion and radicals: Jean-Luc Godard's Week-End.
Jean Yanne and Mireille Darc
Set largely on the French countryside, Jean-Luc Godard's Week-End is an experimental and challenging work that questions the seemingly senseless nature of modern life. The film follows a philandering middle-class couple as they head to the countryside to help an ailing family member meet his impending demise. Why? They wanted to expedite the inheritance process. Their adventure turns into more than they bargained for as they encounter a series of bloody car accidents, violent revolutionaries and historical reenactments that offer meditations on class struggle. A black comedy at its core, Week-End is one of Godard's noteworthy features.
Juliet Berto as the Radical
Fashion wise, the film features an impressive array of 1960's clothing. The exquisite styling offers a wealth of ideas as the sunglasses, dresses, skirts, shoes and haircuts are timeless.
Released in 1967, Week-End stars Mireille Darc, Jean Yanne, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Yves Afons and Juliet Berto.
Heathers
Popularity, staged suicides, 80's fashion, and the American teenager.
Heathers
Epic teen flicks reigned supreme during the 1980s as movies such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, the Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink drew big audiences to theaters. However, the 1988 cult film, Heathers, is - in my humble opinion - the best teen flick of the generation, and arguably, one of the greatest social satires of all time. The timeless film has even inspired an Off-Broadway Musical, which is currently packing in audiences in New York.
Set in the seemingly idyllic town of Sherwood, Ohio, the film chronicles the struggles of Veronica (Winona Ryder), a newly-minted member of the popular Heathers clique at fictional Westerburg High School. Veronica quickly becomes disenfranchised with the group's nefarious leader - Heather Chandler - whom she often wishes were dead and begins to question why she became a member of such a heartless and idiotic clique in the first place.
Love her outfit
The Heathers are a ruthless group that gets off on pranking the school's most vulnerable students. They make the social clique in 2004's Mean Girls look silly by comparison. Additionally, their use of the shortened phrase "So Very" predicted truncated, present-day vernacular, including "Whatves," "Ridic," and "Totes."
Enter Christian Slater as the mysterious and brooding, J.D., a character that embodies every loner stereotype. He's moved around a lot, dresses in black, wears earrings and a trench coat, rides a motorcycle, and is well read. He's also a sadistic sociopath with a love of guns and explosives. J.D. catches Veronica's eye in the school cafeteria, and they bond over their loathing of the brutally cruel, popular crowd.
The pair engages in a torrid affair and ends up murdering the leader of the Heathers' clique. When Heather Chandler meets her demise, J.D. and Veronica set about concocting a forged suicide note that makes Heather seem more intelligent and thoughtful than she actually was.
This pattern repeats itself several times throughout the film; in each instance, the handling of the staged suicides by the media, classmates, parents, and school faculty is used to highlight how shallow, callous, short sighted, vapid, and self-serving people can be. Additionally, the film deftly tackles homophobia, religiosity, parenting, consumerism, social class, body image, group think, date rape, media sensationalism, and a myriad of other issues plaguing the postmodern world.
Biting, thought provoking, timeless, and darkly hilarious, Heathers captured the essence and nuances of American life.
Nice Monocle
Style wise, the film features some of the wildest 1980s fashions captured on celluloid. Winona Ryder's character steals (no pun intended) the show with a range of hats, dresses, blazers, and skirts. She even sports a monocle, which looks stylishly whimsical with her curly mane. The other female characters' styles were memorable as well. They wore an assortment of patterned blazers, short sets, stripped shirts, and accessories, such as suspenders and high-waist belts, that will provide a wealth of style ideas.
Heathers stars Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Beverly Hills 90210's Shannen Doherty, and the late Kim Walker.
Le Bonheur: Spring & Summer Style
Are monogamous relationships realistic in an increasingly self-center society? Agnes Varda questions fidelity and the idea of happiness in her fashionable and explosive 1965 film, Le Bonheur.
Agnes Varda questions fidelity and happiness in her explosive 1965 film, Le Bonheur. When a (seemingly) good-natured husband and devoted family man becomes involved in a steamy affair with a beautiful postal worker, he believes that happiness -- or bonheur -- is attainable if his two separate loves are combined into a harmonious three-way relationship. This challenging film uses a seductive mix of a picture-perfect family, cheery visuals, and beautiful Mozart soundtrack to mask an undercurrent of selfishness that forever changes the family's idyllic world through a dramatic turn of events.
Visually, Le Bonheur is reminiscent of a present-day French Connection, Club Monaco, or J. Crew catalog. The characters are dressed in vibrant Spring and Summer attire with bold prints, patterns, and colors. The wife and mistress characters sport cropped pants, cardigans, tops with bold prints, tasteful accessories, and an array of patterned form-fitting sun dresses. The husband/adulterer wears everything from slim-fit tees and skinny jeans, to linen tops and long sleeve oxford shirts. The children are exquisitely styled as well, the daughter in beautiful dresses and the son in colorful overall shorts and tees.
Fun fact: the family shown on film is depicted by a real-life family of actors. Le Bonheur stars Jean-Claude Drout, Claire Drout, Olivier Drout, Sandrine Drout, and Marie-France Boyer.
Impeccable Style: Monica Vitti in L'Avventura
A missing person, Monica Vitti, high fashion, and the leisure class in Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Avventura.
Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Avventura (the Adventure) is a visual masterpiece that chronicles the search for a woman who mysteriously disappears during a yachting trip. The fruitless search reveals a great deal about the participants' self-indulgent lives and lack of humanity, which boils over into a shocking affair between the missing woman's boyfriend and best friend. Filmed in Rome, Sicily, and the Aeolian Islands, L'Avventura is an intellectually-stimulating masterpiece that turns a critical eye to the idle rich and post-modern life.
L'Avventura also contains some of the finest fashions ever featured on the silver screen. Monica Vitti's blonde locks and perfectly-tailored outfits are the stuff of legend. From gorgeous dresses, fisherman's sweaters, pencil skirts, and deep V back one piece swimsuits, to button-down blouses, bold prints, oversized handbags, and the finest Italian footwear, Vitti's wardrobe in the film is simply stunning.
Released in 1959, L'Avventura stars Gabriele Ferzetti, Monica Vitti, and Lea Massari.
Color Block: Made in U.S.A.
Paris, Atlantic City, shoe slapping, gangsters, and vibrant colors: Jean-Luc Godard goes Stateside with Made in U.S.A.
A lesser-known (in the U.S., ironically) entry in Jean-Luc Godard's legendary filmography, Made in U.S.A. features Anna Karina in her last performance for the iconic director. Due to legal issues, the film is rarely screened in the States, but the Criterion Collection offers a beautifully-restored print that gives the feature new life.
Plot wise, Made in U.S.A. is a near-future noir about a woman traveling from Paris to Atlantic City to find the men who murdered her boyfriend. Gangsters, neon signs, philosophical discussions, shoe slapping, and a challenging narrative abound in this intriguing film that often leaves viewers scratching their heads.
Despite the demanding plot, Made in U.S.A.'s stunning visuals are a feast for the senses. The legendary director's eye for detail is on display throughout, as the characters are dressed in vivid 1960's fashions that beautifully complement the color-drenched cinematography. From color blocking, bold patterns, and trench coats, to fedoras, smokey eyes, and gradient-tint glasses, Made in U.S.A. offers a range of style ideas for fashion lovers.
Released in 1966. Starring Anna Karina and Jean-Pierre Léaud.
Brooklyn Style: She's Gotta Have It
Sexual liberation, natural beauty, Starter jackets, vintage Cazals, drop earrings, & Brooklyn: Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It.
Cue up the boom box and dust off your Air Jordan's as we appreciate the cinematic style of Spike Lee's landmark debut film, She's Gotta Have It. Released in 1986, this timeless classic chronicles the life and times of a desirable and rebellious spirit as she circumvents societal constraints and monogamous relationships. Tracy Camilla Jones stars as Nola Darling, an artistic and stylish 1980's libertine who found the secret to the perfect relationship: openly dating three distinct men.
Running a little under 90 minutes, She's Gotta Have It is a beautifully written film that challenges ideas about relationships and monogamy. Moreover, the film's captivating cinematography perfectly captures 1980's Brooklyn in all of its gritty, frenetic, and artistic glory.
Fashion wise, She's Gotta Have It runs the gamut of 1980's style, from the Air Jordan 1, Button-up Starter Jackets, "BROOKLYN" cycling caps, drop earrings, and tanks, to natural hair styles, skinny fit suits, oversized blouses, high-waisted jeans, and vintage Cazal frames. 1980's fashion has been on the rise over the last few years, and the film offers an array of ideas to finish off your look.
Nola's boyfriends: Spike Lee as Mars Blackmon, John Canada Terrell as Greer Childs and Tommy Redmond Hicks as Jamie Overstreet.