This simple romantic tragedy begins in 1957. Guy Foucher, a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old Geneviève Emery, an employee in her widowed mother’s chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. On the evening before Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, he and Geneviève make love. She becomes pregnant and must choose between waiting for Guy’s return or accepting an offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant.

A candy-coloured knockout of a musical where every line is sung, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is pure cinematic emotion. Catherine Deneuve is luminous at the centre of it all, and Michel Legrand’s score is the kind that gets under your skin and stays there – including the unforgettable “I Will Wait for You.” Romantic, heartbreaking, and visually electric, this is one of those films that feels made for a theatre – you don’t just watch it, you get washed over by it. -TORONTO FILM SOCIETY