📅 Friday, February 7th – Thursday, February 13th, 2025
🕐 Showtimes vary by day
📍 SIFF Cinema Downtown: 1501 4th Ave, Seattle (Downtown)
💰 Regular $15, SIFF members $10
🎶 If it takes forever
I will wait for you
For a thousand summers
I will wait for you 🎶
If you only know those words as a Johnny Mathis song or as the absolutely crushing end of the 2002 Futurama episode “Jurassic Bark” (R.I.P. Seymour), then you are in for the treat of the year. Presenting The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Jacques Demy’s swooning, heart-obliterating 1964 musical in a newly struck 4k digital restoration.
French filmmaker Demy made a name for himself inhaling disparate styles like a Film School Kirby and heaving a new concoction directly into our souls—the lush Technicolor of the Hollywood studio system, the emotional realism of the French New Wave, the grandeur of opera; all mashed together—and Umbrellas is regarded as his reigning achievement, winning the Palm d’Or and receiving five Oscar nominations.
The story: Catherine Deneuve (in her breakout performance) and Nino Castelnuovo (Rocco and His Brothers) play an umbrella boutique employee and a mechanic who meet cute in the titular northern France coastal town, only for family intervention, war, and the inevitable march of time threatening their affair. The relatively short but passionately evocative film features songs by Michel Legrand (Yentl) and is entirely sung-through.
💁♂️ Pro tips
🎟️ Reserve early—SIFF revivals often sell out
🍿 Full bar and concessions available
🚗 Several parking garages nearby
🎬 Stay through the credits for the full experience
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