| The Young Girls of Rochefort | |
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English-language DVD |
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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 Gene Kelly |
| Music by | Michel Legrand Jacques Demy (lyrics) |
| Cinematography | Ghislain Cloquet |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros./Seven Arts |
| Release date(s) | 1967 |
| Running time | 120 minutes |
| Language | French |
The Young Girls of Rochefort (French: Les Demoiselles de Rochefort; literally "The Young Ladies of Rochefort") is a 1967 French musical film written and directed by Jacques Demy, starring Catherine Deneuve, her sister Françoise Dorléac, Jacques Perrin, Michel Piccoli, Danielle Darrieux, George Chakiris, Grover Dale and Gene Kelly. The choreography was by Norman Maen.
Michel Legrand composed the score, to Demy's lyrics. 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 for Academy Awards for Best Music and Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation). The film was also another big success for Demy in France with a total of 1,319,432 admissions.[1]
Contents |
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. 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.
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