I’m always thankful to the Enzian Theater in Maitland, Florida, for showing hard-to-see classics, but The Umbrellas of Cherbourg?! I waited 50 years for the restoration of that? I actually admired the originality of the all-singing structure, and the color was beautiful. The trouble is almost everything else stank. I suppose if you enjoy contrived and even unintentionally laughable scenes, underwhelming emotional moments, annoyingly cool 60s jazz and a total lack of character motivations, this might be your bag. It was not mine.

Perhaps most disappointing was the botched chance at a brilliant ending. Just when you thought director Jacques Demy might give us a Splendor in the Grass moment of lost-life heartbreak, he digs deep – and comes up with absolutely nothing in the way of an emotional impact. Groundbreaking? Yes. Interesting and colorful? Certainly. But don’t expect anything more.  2 stars (on 0-5 scale)