From the Southwestern desert to candy-hued France, two glorious restorations hit the Cinematheque, to January 14

Thelma & Louise and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg are part of the theatre’s Essential Big Screen 2024 series

By Janet Smith

Thelma & Louise; Umbrellas of Cherbourg.

The Cinematheque screens Thelma & Louise December 21 and 27 and January 2; and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg December 21, 27, and 30, and January 14

TWO FANTASTIC FILMS THAT play with gender roles—one subtly and one boldly—have gorgeous restorations set to show at the Cinematheque’s Essential Big Screen 2024 series.

It’s hard to overstate the debate that Thelma & Louise set off when its feminist twist on the road movie blazed into movie theatres in 1991. In many ways, today it still has the power to “strike a nerve”, as a TIME cover headline trumpeted at the time.

Written by Callie Khouri, the film starts with housewife Thelma (Geena Davis) joining her waitress friend Louise (Susan Sarandon) on a short fishing trip. But it turns into a frantic police chase toward Mexico after one of them shoots a guy who tries to sexually assault the other.

Director Ridley Scott heightens the entire story by filming it against the vast red cliffs and dusty roads of the American Southwest, giving the female-powered classic an epic treatment usually reserved for male action heroes.

All of that makes it well worth this rare chance to see it on the big screen again—right to its now ceaselessly referenced ending in the Grand Canyon.

On the surface, Jacques Demy’s famously candy-hued 1964 film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg might not seem to play as much with gender expectations. But the sung-through musical about young amour, recently restored and also screening over the holidays, slyly pushes the conventions of its time.

Catherine Deneuve’s Geneviève runs the umbrella shop of the title, for starters, but she also knows what she wants when she embarks on a relationship with Guy (Nino Castelnuovo). Similarly, the way Demy treats a character’s unexpected pregnancy feels progressive for 1960s France—and an intriguing dose of realism amid the fairy-tale atmosphere. A departure from masculine ideals, Guy’s young mechanic is nervous and emotional when they meet and when he’s called to the war in Algeria. Take note of how Demy symbolically switches up pink and blue in this dreamily visual feast. (The wallpaper! The rain-slicked cobbled streets! The hair styles!)

Sit back, swoon to the famous duet "Je ne pourrai jamais vivre sans toi", and contemplate "plus ça change...".  

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