Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (Die Regenschirme von Cherbourg)

LES PARAPLUIES DE CHERBOURG is one of those films that justify cinema, should it ever have to defend its existence. A musical comedy in which the sublime - "Oh, how I love you" - is sung just as much as the profane - "A customer is coming, I must hurry". In a reality that is veristic in its love for Cherbourg's places, whose objectivity is repeatedly accentuated by strong brushstrokes, new colours on gutters or frames that sing just like the clothes and decorations, copied from existence and transformed as life should be. For a story that is like life: you fall in love, you have to leave, someone else takes away your love, which remains, but in the end counts for less than a roof. All of this against the backdrop of the great taboo of Algeria - the elephant that smashes the empire in the living room: a reality whose cruelty is not felt only by those who consider cinema to be a plaisance. (Olaf Möller)

Photo: Austrian Film Museum