Bottled Umbrellas.

There is, or was, a small shop in Cologne that sells nothing but umbrellas.

Finding myself marooned in this German city for a few months, about 19 years ago, there was little else to do except wander past this shop and it’s artistic window display of opened and half opened umbrellas.

And I started to imagine a short film that could be made using only two umbrellas as protagonists.

It would be a love story, boy meets girl, and the camera would only see the legs of the two people – in the background behind the umbrellas.

The opening shot would have been a face on view of the shop filmed from street level, and then we would see someone’s legs enter.

Maybe then a close up of the window and various umbrellas being taken out, replaced and finally one that does not return.

Then probably a close up of the front door opening and the tip of the umbrella exiting before the legs (carried of course – we might see a glimpse of gloved hand).

It would be nice if it started to rain then and we could have an aerial view of the umbrella being opened over someone’s head – maybe just a glimpse of long raven coloured hair, as I think we would start with the female role.

Then maybe a shot of a man’s legs descending from a tram, skipping over or through a puddle and running through the rain past the shop, coming to a stop, returning and obviously standing and looking in the window.

Perhaps another aerial view of another umbrella opening and it would be nice if we could have an overhead view of the street and our two umbrellas below exiting in different directions.

Later they would meet.

At the end they would be lying on a table together dripping.

I never made the film.

Probably won’t.

The new idea is one about a man who builds a raft from hundreds of discarded Volvic bottles.

But I did, later on, see the film –Les Parapluies de Cherbourg.

Weird!