The Young Girls of Rochefort

A Film by Jacques Demy, 1967

Film musicals have gained a reputation for being purely entertainment, glittering but lacking depth. French director Jacques Demy defies this categorization of musicals as his two masterpieces The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort embrace happiness and sorrow and are works of nuanced emotional complexity.

The Young Girls of Rochefort takes place in a town on the western coast of France. The titular “young girls” are a set of twin sisters, Delphine and Solange Garnier, played by real-life sisters Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac (both were in their mid-twenties when the film was shot), living near the center of Rochefort with their mother, a café-owner named Simone, and their younger half-brother, BooBoo. “We’re a pair of carefree young things,” they sing, “waiting for the joys that love brings” as they dance around their music studio in matching pink and yellow outfits. The plot is set into motion with the arrival of a traveling carnival that brings to town many romantic prospects. At the same time Maxence, a sailor who can’t stop painting the face of a woman he sees in his dreams, ponders her existence. Gene Kelly even makes an appearance as a composer looking for love. The Young Girls teases the audience by showing a series of missed opportunities between couples and then, of course, ultimately brings them together.

The entire cast is wonderful, but Dorléac (who died soon after the film was made) is a revelation, especially in her tastefully erotic dance sequence with Kelly. Michel Legrand’s jazzy score is a treat, the dance sequences are great fun, as well as the over-the-top set design. Real life should be so colorful. Barbie and La-la-land are two recent films that were strongly influenced by The Young Girls of Rochefort. In addition to its visual appeal, its balance of tragedy with hopefulness is something that very few films achieve.

This is not a film to miss.

Highest recommendation.