The Young Girls of Rochefort
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| The Young Girls of Rochefort | |
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| Directed by | Jacques Demy |
| Produced by | Gilbert de Goldschmidt |
| Written by | Jacques Demy |
| Starring | Catherine Deneuve Françoise Dorléac Michel Piccoli George Chakiris |
| Music by | Michel Legrand |
| Cinematography | Ghislain Cloquet |
| Distributed by | Warner Brothers/Seven Arts |
| Release date(s) | 1967 |
| Running time | 120 minutes |
| Language | French/English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Young Girls of Rochefort (Les Demoiselles de Rochefort) is a 1967 musical film directed by Jacques Demy, starring Catherine Deneuve, her sister Françoise Dorléac (who was killed in a car accident shortly after filming), Jacques Perrin, Michel Piccoli, Danielle Darrieux, George Chakiris, Grover Dale and Gene Kelly. The choreography was by Norman Maen.
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, are A Pair of Twins (Chanson des Jumelles in French) and You Must Believe in Spring (Chanson de Maxence).
The film was nominated the Academy Awards for Best Music, Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation).
[edit] 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 introducer 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.
