Main Cast: Catherine Deneuve, George Chakiris, Françoise Dorléac, Jacques Perrin, Grover Dale, Gene Kelly
Release Year: 1967
Country: FR
Run Time: 124 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Jacques Demy directed this frothy tribute to the Hollywood musicals of the 1940s, a follow-up to his earlier success The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964). Twin sisters Delphine and Solange (played by real-life sisters Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorleac) live in the small coastal town of Rochefort, where they run a school teaching dancing and music. Both feel frustrated in Rochefort, and they dream of travelling to Paris, where they believe romance and opportunity awaits them. Meanwhile, their single mother, Yvonne (Danielle Darrieux), who runs a cafe in town, pines for her lost love, Simon (Michel Piccoli). One day, one of Yvonne's regular customers, a sailor with an artistic bent named Maxence (Jacques Perrin), shows her a painting of the imaginary girl of his dreams, and she looks just like Delphine, whom he's never met. Meanwhile, Simon has returned to Rochefort, bringing with him a close friend, American pianist Andy Miller (Gene Kelly); Simon has made friends with Solange and introduces her to Andy, who immediately falls in love with her. Sadly, Les Demoiselles de Rochefort was Françoise Dorleac's last film; she died in an auto accident shortly after completing the picture. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
When originally released, Jacques Demy's The Young Girls of Rochefort suffered in comparison with his earlier The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, but its reputation has grown in the intervening years. Although not without flaws, Rochefort is a tremendously appealing and utterly engaging musical trifle. Breezy and light, Rochefort is also gorgeous and a delight to the eye; Demy's sense and use of color is practically overwhelming, and is as important to the success of the film as any other element. Much of Michel Legrand's music is buoyant, bubbly and lively, with a distinct jazz bent that pays homage to the Swingle Singers style of vocal harmony. Legrand's more dramatic music is less successful, coming off too often as melodrama. At least in translation, the lyrics are rather too prosaic and don't move the story along as much as could be desired; this is unfortunate, but the film engenders such cheery goodwill in the viewer that he is happy to overlook this and other flaws -- such as the fact that the singing voices of almost all of the leads (including Gene Kelly) are dubbed. Kelly dances wonderfully, as do the marvelous George Chakiris and Grover Dale, and as does the chorus. The choreography itself is too lightweight and forgettable, but the danced basketball segment is impressive. Catherine Deneuve and Francoise Dorleac are sheer delights, and Danielle Darrieux is a treat. Demy followed the frothy Rochefort with the far different, American-made The Model Shop. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Danielle Darrieux - Yvonne; Genevieve Thenier - Josette--sung by Alice Gerald; Pamela Hart - Judith--sung by Christiane Legrand; Henri Cremieux - Dutrouz; Wendy Barry; Dorothée Blanc - Passerby; Earl W. Brown; Jane Darling; Albin Pahernik; Michel Piccoli - Simon Dame--sung by George Blaness; Jacques Riberolles - Guillaume Lancien--sung by Jean Stout; Sally Stevens; Bill Lee; Agnès Varda - Nun; Robert Tebow; Jackie Ward - Singer; Sue Allen; Veronique Duval; John MacDonald
Credit
Jacqueline Moreau - Costume Designer, Jean Barthet - Costume Designer, Jacques Demy - Director, Jacques Demy - Composer (Music Score), Michel Legrand - Composer (Music Score), Aida Carange - Makeup, Janine Jarreau - Makeup, Bernard Evein - Production Designer, Ghislain Cloquet - Cinematographer, Mag Bodard - Producer, Gilbert de Goldschmidt - Producer, Bernard Evein - Set Designer, Jacques Demy - Screenwriter
Michel Legrand composed the score. The most famous songs from this film score, which is generally less acclaimed than that for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Les Parapluies de Cherbourg), are A Pair of Twins (Chanson des Jumelles in French) andYou Must Believe in Spring(Chanson de Maxence).
The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Music and Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation).
Plot
The Young Girls of Rochefort takes place over the course of one weekend in the seaside town of Rochefort, where a fair is coming to the town square. The story centers on twin sisters Delphine (Deneuve) and Solange (Dorléac) — Delphine teaches ballet classes and Solange gives music lessons for a living, but each longs to find her ideal love and a life outside of Rochefort. When the fair comes to town, Delphine and Solange meet two smooth-talking but kind-hearted carnies Étienne (George Chakiris) and Bill (Grover Dale).
The twins' mother Yvonne (Danielle Darrieux) owns a cafe in the center of town, and pines for a fiance she left impulsively ten years prior due to his embarrassing last name of "Dame." Yvonne's cafe become a central hub for Étienne and Bill and well as most of the other characters in the film. In the cafe, Yvonne meets a sailor about to be demobbed from the navy, Maxence (Jacques Perrin). Maxence is a poet and painter, and is searching for his true feminine ideal. Little does Yvonne know, her former fiance, Simon Dame (Michel Piccoli), has recently opened a music store in Rochefort. He knows his fiance had twins from a previous relationship, but he never met them. Solange, an aspiring songwriter, enlists the help of Simon Dame (she is unaware of his relationship with her mother), who promises to introduce her to his successful American colleague Andy (Gene Kelly). As Solange is on her way to pick up her younger brother BouBou from school, she happens to bump into a charming foreigner, who turns out to be Andy Miller. However, the two do not exchange names.
Meanwhile, Delphine is unhappy in her relationship with the egotistical gallery owner Guillaume (Jacques Riberolles), so she ends the relationship. In the gallery, as she is about to leave, Delphine notices a painting that looks remarkably like her. The image was in fact painted by Maxence, as an image of his feminine ideal, but Guillaume does not reveal this to Delphine. Back in the square, the two female dancers in Etienne and Bill's show run off with sailors, so they ask Delphine and Solange to perform, offering them a free ride to Paris in return. On the day of the fair, the paths of all of the characters cross again at the town square and in Yvonne's cafe.
