If you have only ever seen The Young Girls of Rochefort on a worn VHS tape or a fuzzy television broadcast, you have not seen it. The film’s entire philosophy is built on color.
A feature-length documentary by Demy’s widow and fellow New Wave icon, Agnès Varda. It chronicles the lasting impact of the film on the town of Rochefort.
A Pastel Masterpiece of Pure Joy: Jacques Demy’s The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) on Criterion
The brilliance of the script lies in its structure of "missed connections." Characters constantly cross paths, nearly meeting their soulmates, only to just miss one another until the grand finale. It is a symphony of coincidences, choreography, and chance. The Young Girls of Rochefort -1967- Criterion -...
You cannot discuss The Young Girls of Rochefort without celebrating the legendary partnership between director Jacques Demy and composer Michel Legrand. Unlike The Umbrellas of Cherbourg , which was entirely sung-through, Rochefort adopts a traditional American musical format, balancing spoken dialogue with show-stopping song-and-dance numbers.
The film’s enduring legacy is inseparable from the legendary score by . Legrand’s music fuses classical jazz, big band brass, and traditional French chanson into an infectious, wall-to-wall soundtrack. Numbers like "Chanson des Jumelles" (The Twins' Song) establish the film's breezy, rhythmic heartbeat, while Gene Kelly's jazz-infused street choreography bridges the golden age of MGM with the European avant-garde.
The Young Girls of Rochefort remains a masterclass in cinematic camp, formal ambition, and emotional sincerity. It subverts the traditional Hollywood musical by injecting it with French modernism, proving that high art can be unashamedly fun. For anyone looking to understand the full emotional bandwidth of the French New Wave, Criterion’s presentation of this masterpiece is an indispensable treasure. If you want to dive deeper into this cinematic era, Provide a curated list of other . If you have only ever seen The Young
Visually, the film is an explosion of pastel pinks, soft blues, and bright yellows. Demy and his production crew repainted hundreds of shutters and facades across the actual town of Rochefort to turn the real-world location into an idealized, dreamlike stage.
Demy did not just film in Rochefort; he transformed it. The production team painted hundreds of shutters and facades in vibrant shades of pink, yellow, and blue. This stylized reality creates a dream world where utility workers, sailors, and cafe patrons can instantly break into synchronized dance.
A feature-length documentary directed by Demy’s widow and fellow New Wave icon, Agnès Varda. This moving retrospective revisits the town of Rochefort a quarter-century later, capturing the lasting impact of the production on the locals and featuring emotional interviews with the cast. It chronicles the lasting impact of the film
The town is simultaneously descended upon by a traveling carnival troupe led by Étienne (George Chakiris) and Bill (Grover Dale), who inject the streets with athletic jazz choreography. Meanwhile, a sailor and painter named Maxence (Jacques Perrin) wanders the cafes searching for his "feminine ideal," unaware that his dream woman is Delphine.
When Jacques Demy released ( Les Demoiselles de Rochefort ) in 1967, it arrived as a radiant, pastel-hued counter-statement to the angst of the French New Wave. While his contemporaries were capturing the political unrest and existential alienation of Paris in gritty black-and-white, Demy took his cameras to the maritime town of Rochefort, painted its facades in vibrant pinks and blues, and unleashed a jazz-infused explosion of pure cinematic joy. Now beautifully preserved and celebrated through its Criterion Collection release, this cinematic masterpiece stands as the absolute pinnacle of the French musical. A Perfect Counterpart to Cherbourg
Criterion includes crucial documentaries by Demy’s widow and fellow New Wave titan, Agnès Varda. Her retrospective documentary, The Young Girls Turn 25 , looks back at the lasting impact of the shoot on the town of Rochefort, offering an emotional look at the enduring love the locals held for the production decades later.
The onscreen chemistry between Deneuve and Dorléac radiates genuine sisterly affection, a warmth that is rendered deeply poignant by the tragic death of Dorléac in a car accident shortly after the film's release.
If Wes Anderson ever admits to stealing his entire color palette from this film, I owe him nothing. He owes Demy everything.