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The Young Girls of Rochefort, 1967
In this musical that involves multiple, overlapping narratives, twins Solange (Francoise Dorleac) and Delphine (Catherine Deneauve) want to find romance and make their way out of the town of Rochefort. Along the way they cross paths with various characters, including a recently discharged navy man (Jacques Perrin), their mother's former flame (Michel Piccoli), and an American composer (Gene Kelly).
This w as a delightful little confection of a film, and it echoed everything that I really enjoyed about Umbrellas of Cherbourg. So much so, in fact, that I feel like this review might be something of a retread of my review of Umbrellas.
The colors, Duke, the colors! The action of Young Girls of Rochefort is taken outside far more often than that in Umbrellas, but the candy-bright color scheme remains the same. Deneuve darts across the front of a building that is the exact bright shade of yellow as her dress. The characters leap and twirl in primary colored outfits. The larger spaces allow for big-time choreographed numbers, which the film pulls off very well.
The stories themselves are also fun. In keeping with the structure of Demy's other films, there aren't really bad guys. Just a lot of people out there looking for love, some of whom will find it, some of whom won't. The relationships between the characters, and the way that they intersect or don't intersect, exists in a kind of soap-opera/farce level. It all works, of course, because the tone of the film is consistent throughout.
There were two little nitpicks I had with this film. The first was that the age gap between Kelly and Dorleac was just a bit too much. He's 30 years older than her. He looks 30 years older than her. They are both charming presences, but the romance felt like a stretch.
The other was the weird subplot about the man who killed a woman because she didn't return his affections. Like . . . why was this in this film? And at the end two of the characters are reading about it in the newspaper and he's like "Guess he cut her down to size LOL!" and I was like "WHAT IS HAPPENING?!". For me it was actually kind of a sour note to hit near the end of the film.
The dance numbers were great, and the performances were a lot of fun. I'd probably still give the edge to Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
The Young Girls of Rochefort, 1967
In this musical that involves multiple, overlapping narratives, twins Solange (Francoise Dorleac) and Delphine (Catherine Deneauve) want to find romance and make their way out of the town of Rochefort. Along the way they cross paths with various characters, including a recently discharged navy man (Jacques Perrin), their mother's former flame (Michel Piccoli), and an American composer (Gene Kelly).
This w as a delightful little confection of a film, and it echoed everything that I really enjoyed about Umbrellas of Cherbourg. So much so, in fact, that I feel like this review might be something of a retread of my review of Umbrellas.
The colors, Duke, the colors! The action of Young Girls of Rochefort is taken outside far more often than that in Umbrellas, but the candy-bright color scheme remains the same. Deneuve darts across the front of a building that is the exact bright shade of yellow as her dress. The characters leap and twirl in primary colored outfits. The larger spaces allow for big-time choreographed numbers, which the film pulls off very well.
The stories themselves are also fun. In keeping with the structure of Demy's other films, there aren't really bad guys. Just a lot of people out there looking for love, some of whom will find it, some of whom won't. The relationships between the characters, and the way that they intersect or don't intersect, exists in a kind of soap-opera/farce level. It all works, of course, because the tone of the film is consistent throughout.
There were two little nitpicks I had with this film. The first was that the age gap between Kelly and Dorleac was just a bit too much. He's 30 years older than her. He looks 30 years older than her. They are both charming presences, but the romance felt like a stretch.
The other was the weird subplot about the man who killed a woman because she didn't return his affections. Like . . . why was this in this film? And at the end two of the characters are reading about it in the newspaper and he's like "Guess he cut her down to size LOL!" and I was like "WHAT IS HAPPENING?!". For me it was actually kind of a sour note to hit near the end of the film.
The dance numbers were great, and the performances were a lot of fun. I'd probably still give the edge to Umbrellas of Cherbourg.