Jacques Demy; Directed ‘Umbrellas of Cherbourg’

Jacques Demy, 59, the French film director best known internationally for “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” a revolutionary concept in motion pictures in which every word of dialogue was sung to a score by Michel Legrand. Trained as an animator and documentarian, Demy specialized in romantic, eloquent films rich in color. “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” won the Golden Palm award at the 1964 Cannes film festival, but Demy never repeated its success despite the ambitious “Les Demoiselles de Rochefort” (The Young Girls of Rochefort), a similar picture that he directed two years later. Other films Demy directed and/or wrote in characteristic poetic style included “La Baie des Anges,” “Peau d’Ane” and “The Pied Piper,” filmed in Britain in 1972. He also made a film in the United States, “The Model Shop,” which met with limited success. On Saturday in Paris of leukemia.