The amazing color palette / matching wardrobe in ‘The Umbrellas of Cherbourg’ (1964)

The most obvious influence on Damien Chazelle’s “La La Land,” and probably the greatest musical of all-time, in a three-way tie at least, with "All That Jazz,'" and "Singin' in the Rain."

Jacque Demy's "Umbrellas" is a number really, there isn't particularly a highlight showstopper or number, but the catchiest and loveliest recurring melody is the love theme. 

Demy’
s adorable, sweet-sad film is deceptively meticulous in everything from its staging to the sherbet-fountain palette he uses throughout. It bears more in common with an opera than a regular musical in that even the most casual of conversational lines are sung,  a devious idea that could have easily backfired and has in other films that have attempted this. The lightness of the melodies and the voices (all dubbed) keep it fresh as opposed to heavy or overly classical. This is also Catherine Deneuve at her most dazzlingly beautiful as the daughter of an umbrella-shop owner whose lover is drafted and unknowingly leaves her pregnant with his child, don't expect "Belle de Jour," style eroitcism from the French actress, this is asurprisingly sweet-natured performance from her.  it is a slip of a plot really, but somehow it feels like life, and though it is always unassuming and intimate, the fate of these two separated lovers feels like the most tragic and epic love story ever to have mostly unfolded in gas stations and railroad cafes. Just completely gorgeous.