The Young Girls of Rochefort (1968)

Two beautiful girls and their lovely mother find singing, dancing, and love in the seaside town of Rochefort. Delphine falls for Maxence (the least convincing looking sailor since Popeye), Solange falls for Andy (Gene Kelly, who is more than twice the age of his paramour) and mother Yvonne finally yields to the man she jilted years ago (because he had a silly name). This romantic confection is delivered wrapped in exquisite colours, spontaneous dancing, and pretty, if not memorable, music. The film has some odd touches: for some reason, a gruesome murder is rolled into the plot, allowing for a little black humour and for a while all of the conversation seems to be in rhyming couplets (or at least the subtitles were). Most of the lead's singing voices were dubbed in (sometimes not particularly well) but I was quite impressed by the rhyming song subtitles (clever, albeit not always accurate, translations). Overall, a fun, colourful and very French musical (although not nearly as French as Remy's great 1964 musical "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg"). A sad footnote: Françoise Dorléac, Catherine Deneuve's actual sister who played her twin sister in this film, was killed in a car accident shortly after this film was released in Europe.

Deciding to watch 100 French films over 100 days I began to talk to a fellow IMDber about what French cinema they enjoy.With having good memories from seeing auteur French New Wave film (FNW) maker Jacques Demy's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg after a rec from IMDb's Indian Cinema board,I was happy to spot this IMDber rec another Demy Musical,which led to me getting ready to meet the girls of Rochefort.The plot:Teaching ballet and music in the small town of Rochefort,sisters Delphine & Solange Garnier dream of meeting the love of their life as their single mum Yvonne runs a coffee shop,and Boubou goes to school. Arriving to perform in a circus, Étienne and Bill cross paths with the sisters and fall for them,but soon find out that they are not the only ones who have fallen for the girls of Rochefort.View on the film:Reuniting with Demy, Catherine Deneuve gives a sparkling performance as Delphine Garnier,whose glance at the mysterious painting Deneuve entwines with a long to identify the artist.Looking just as beautiful as her real sister, Françoise Dorléac gives a feisty performance as Solange Garnier,whose eyes Dorléac firmly sets on the present,and not the "what if." Delaying filming by 2 years due to other projects, Gene Kelly rewards Demy's patients with a great performance as Andy Miller,with Kelly's charms soaking the title in Golden Age Hollywood glamour.Originally planned as a companion piece to Cherbourg, (until the lead actor ran off!)writer/director Jacques Demy and cinematographer Ghislain Cloquet expand on the map set out by Cherbourg,from immaculate colour coding of everything that the Garnier's wear,to the streets of Rochefort looking like they have been covered in candy.Entering the coffee shop run by Yvonne Garnier, (played by a very good Danielle Darrieux) Demy lavishly gives his Musical numbers a depth of field with dazzling,gliding mirror shots casting the dreamy world of Rochefort out for miles and miles.Drastically re-writing the screenplay to replace the nods to Cherbourg,Demy bends the social issues of the French New Wave with the glitz of a high-kicking Musical. Leaving Yvonne without a partner,Demy touches on single parenthood with a smooth Musical touch which gives the FNW subject a light atmosphere stops the movie from slipping into a heavy-handed manner.Turning down the volume on the more poppy side of things from Cherbourg, Demy and composer Michel Legrand spin the Garnier's into swinging Jazz,which whilst sanding out some of the catching melodic sides does allow for the Garnier's optimism to shine over the stage,as Étienne and Bill meet the young girls of Rochefort.

In many ways one is obliged to rank this film highly by virtue of its daring. As if The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg were not extraordinary enough - a through-sung musical, with a bittersweet story of provincial France rendered in in-camera Technicolour - then Les Demoiselles surely tops it. Not through-sung this time (there is spoken dialogue, though one stretch is spoken entirely in verse) there is more dance in its stead. The colour of the film is once again highly co-ordinated but heightened by the film shot almost entirely in bright sunlight. Finally, the perhaps predictable small-town love stories are fleshed out with a bizarre murder red herring and a well-controlled tension.On top of all this, the film has Gene Kelly. His smattering of appearances culminates in a formal set piece that simply assumes yo know what'll happen next and gets on with it, as if God himself had a cameo. Kelly is probably the only person in the world who might have upstaged Catherine Deneuve in a film at this time, and so it comes to pass. Even George Chakiris, the Puerto Rican prince so familiar from West Side Story, brings panache but can't eclipse the world's greatest movie-musical star.Michel Legrand's score is more varied though marginally less pungent than before. His music and the film works best when its fulfilling its camp or extrovert conviction - thought this doesn't extend to a diegetic set piece, where the girls do a Gentlemen Prefer Blondes-type routine.It's charming and baffling in one meringue-like trifle. The way to approach it is in exactly the manner that the film opens, floating into town on the Rochefort-Martrou Transporter Bridge. 7/10

The Young Girls of Rocheford (1967)It's kind of amazing this kind of film was even ever made. It's both wonderful and horrible. The horrible aspects kept me from really watching every minute, but the wonderful aspects made me try. This is a French musical that is almost all singing. The plot moves along, barely, and lacks the clarity of say a Fred Astaire musical (or any other American affair), and it doesn't have dance very often (or very well done). But boy does it go from one song to another.The stylizing is terrific--every set is modern and clean, inside and out on the streets of 1960s Paris. If you are a fan of Catherine Deneuve, she's a bit inaccessible beneath the heavy wig and makeup and amidst all the singing. In fact, there is nothing sincere going on here, unless you can reach beneath the veneer of the music and its styleThat's the trick here, adapting to this very very different way of telling a story. I don't think it's brilliant, but it has elements that will appeal to people already comfortable with the vocabulary, and the arch falseness of it all. Because, actually, deep down, and very shallowly hidden, is a heart-rending story of two young woman wanting true love. Of course, they are impossibly beautiful and the fact they are even marginally single is hilarious, but such is a movie, and a musical.You might recognize a song or two here, but for the most part the musical aspects are vehicles for replacing normal dialog. What a cool idea...if only done with more verve and imagination. Even the filming, for all its clean perfection, is a bit dry, at least compared to the muscular films of American 1950s Leonard Freed vintage. Furthermore, the two sisters who are the leads are a bit stiff physically (not natural dancers, I guess) and the entire movie, including their parts, is dubbed in later recordings, and it sounds and looks a bit odd. The 1960s were a rough time for feature movies everywhere, and this is struggling to create a paradigm that surpasses television and is rich and sparkling and perfect. The production values are high, for sure. But be prepared. It's a stiff, stilted narrative and the music is not overly memorable. Two large stakes driven into a somewhat stiff corpus. There's even a dance with a supposed basketball dance troupe. Oy.You know what? I think if you've gotten this far, watch the first ten minutes. You'll either barf or fall asleep or be really curious. It's a fair sample of the remaining two hours. Good luck!