By A.A. Crayley

Watching Jacques Demy’s film Les Parapluies de Cherbourg is a delightfully sensual experience. The colours of the film pleasantly refresh us with their intensity and candour as though we’d been caught without an umbrella in a sudden downpour. The characters sing and move with a graciousness that conveys their exuberance for the joys of life and love. It is a beautiful film, not because tragedy and loss are absent but precisely because tragedy, loss and joy mix so effortlessly.

In contrast, the empty streets and restrained monochrome of Demy’s film Lola convey desolation and even a sense of despair. Sounds and conversations are muted. We have the feeling that Nantes is a deserted town, inhabited by people who are struggling through life and who only seem to encounter each other by chance. Roland embodies this mood of purposelessness by being unable to arrive on time, hold a job or win the woman he loves. The walls and corridors of buildings in Nantes are like steep gorges on either side of a river, reflecting the characters’ voices and longings upon one another like echoes. The buildings, small rooms and narrow streets exacerbate the sense of helplessness we can feel as we watch the characters trying to swim yet being channelled through the confines of their lives.

Longing saturates both films in the way that so many days in Cherbourg pour with rain. There is the aching longing of 14-year old Cecile in Lola, dismissed as being just a girl by her mother, while struggling to be recognised as an adult, to follow the American sailor Frankie to Cherbourg and pursue her dream of becoming a dancer. In the beautiful, slow motion scene where Cecile looks up at Frankie on the carousel, we instantly understand the intensity of her admiration for him, her innocence and her longing to be loved. Lola and Michel’s mother long for Michel to return, Roland longs for Lola to love him, and Cecile’s mother longs for Roland to love her. In Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, Genevieve and Aunt Elaine long for Guy to return from Algeria, Genevieve’s mother wants Genevieve to marry a “successful” man, Madeleine longs for Guy’s love, and Guy prays that Genevieve will keep loving him and faithfully await his return.

Despite the universal presence of longing in both films, each person’s longing is rarely rewarded by the person or outcome they desire. In the few cases where someone does receive what they desire, such as Lola when Michel finally returns, there is a strange sense of regret and emptiness rather than the jubilation and deep satisfaction we might expect. Lola’s new longing is expressed in her backward glance toward Roland as he walks dejectedly along the street and she heads toward her idyllic future with Michel. Her look is not merely one of sympathy. Genevieve’s mother did see her daughter marry a “successful” man in the form of Roland; ironically the audience knows Roland’s success depends on the illegal trade of gemstones. The passing of Genevieve’s mother in the final scene also shows us that she never gets to enjoy life with the family she worked so hard to create.

Could Demy’s portrayal of longing be trying to express the idea that longing for someone, or something, is futile because we are always destined to have our desires frustrated even when we receive what we hope for? Perhaps these films are offering another possibility. The universality of longing in both films – particularly the longing for love – is an essential and inescapable part of the human condition. It is part of who we are and lends energy, momentum and purpose to our lives, a reason to strive and seek to improve our responses to life and our service to each other. Many characters in both films are restless and always on the move. There is dynamism in their lives and in the ways episodes of their lives intersect and propel them toward each other.

Perhaps the alternative Demy proposes is for us to pause and reflect on what we long for, and why we long for it, because these considerations are of ultimate importance. The distinction in what we long for and why is highlighted in the contrast between Madeleine and Genevieve. Madeleine is patient in her love for Guy; she remains cautious and ensures he is not using her as a substitute for Genevieve. Madeleine wants to deepen her relationship with Guy on the right terms. She wants nothing less than for their love to be wholehearted and built on solid foundations. In contrast, Genevieve ardently expresses her love for Guy after a short time before he leaves for Algeria. She longs to be with Guy after he completes his military service, but once he has left, Genevieve finds it difficult to maintain her faith in their relationship and loses courage when Guy’s letters go astray. She assumes Guy has left her and reluctantly agrees to marry Roland. The tragedy of Genevieve’s faithlessness is apparent in the rapid sequence of scenes where she prepares for her wedding day – she is expressionless, showing none of her previous exuberance, and is moved like an automaton rather than moving with her own energy and purpose.

By considering the questions of how and why we may long for another person, Demy challenges us to ask whether we try to replace the irreplaceable and invaluable with something that is transient and superficial. Frankie and Lola’s liaison is only temporary and both know that they are not drawn together by love for each other, but because each reminds the other of someone else they long for. Lola says that Frankie reminds her of her lover Michel, who was also a sailor and left her seven years ago to find his fortune, and would one day return. Frankie likes Lola because she distracts him from the boredom of being away from his home in Chicago, where his “real” life and fiancé await him. Each is a substitute for the longed for “other” who is absent from their life.

Genevieve and Roland represent how the eternal element of love can grow over time by contrasting an organic, spontaneous love with a more sedate, expansive and mature love. Genevieve uses the intimate, familiar French form when she exclaims “Je t’aime, Guy!” to express her passionate desire for Guy. Later, we see Genevieve meditating on the benefits of marrying Roland as though she were considering a business proposition. When Roland uses formal French to express love to Genevieve, “Je vous aime, Genevieve”, we understand his respect and regard for her, but it is a clear signal that the intimacy, warmth and spontaneity of their relationship is yet to develop. Instead, we are shown that Roland’s love for Genevieve has another deep and unexpected dimension, because he offers to love and marry her in spite of the fact that she is pregnant with Guy’s child.

Through glimpses of the transient and ephemeral elements of life, our understanding of what is eternal and essential deepens, our insight sharpens and we are better able to discern what is important. The dynamism of longing and love in these two wonderful films could be seen to represent the continual coming of the Kingdom of God, which exists in the future yet is also manifest in the present and is brought into being through selfless acts of love. The characters in Lola and Les Parapluies de Cherbourg are continually growing in their awareness and coming into being through their love and longing. We can partake in their joy and suffering through our own struggles and experiences of coming into being.