In The Umbrellas of Cherbourg the whimsical sets, fit for a sugar sweet reverie, belie a bittersweet desperation and emotional fragility. The pastel coated whimsy is reigned in with a studied sophistication and restrained composition. The silhouette is ornate and soothingly opulent, but never sophomoric. The candy tone decadence is artfully crafted and skillfully executed. The rooms are lovingly appointed with all of the necessary accoutrements, and there is nothing left out or at risk of appearing excessive. There is a delicate mood to the interiors and through the wallpaper and the retro touches we can feel out the gentle touch of care and delight. 

The detail and arrangements of the interior facades provide an anchoring of sorts, a decipherable language of design through which we can orient ourselves and seek repose from the psychological tempest of the film.  

What I find compelling about the orientation of the set is that it appears to us as being alluringly distanced, perched behind an impenetrable barrier or perhaps frozen in time beneath a glass case. We are exposed to an interior museum of forms, where the preclusion of a participatory experienced engenders in us an unmediated desire. We are forever grasping and reaching out, but our calls go unanswered. This eternal distance between the viewer and the viewed cannot be broached and it casts a patina of desolation over the ostensibly whimsical bearings of Cherbourg.  

Candy Coloured Walls

Blue Florals

A Kaleidoscope of Umbrellas

Magenta Orange Wallpaper

Snow Globe Jewelers

Crimson Bearings

Mint + Magnolia

Art Deco Graphics

Orange Sidewalk Cafe

Teal and Azure

Melancholic Ruins

A Night on the Town

All Images Owned by: The Criterion Collection. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, 1964, The Criterion Collection. Images are screen stills taken by author.