The Young Girls of Rochefort

The Young Girls of Rochefort

Directed by Jacques Demy • 1967 • France
Starring Catherine Deneuve, Françoise Dorléac

Jacques Demy followed up THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG with another musical about missed connections and second chances, this one a more effervescent confection. Twins Delphine and Solange, a dance instructor and a music teacher (played by real-life sisters Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac), long for big-city life; when a fair comes through their quiet port town, so does the possibility of escape. With its jazzy Michel Legrand score, pastel paradise of costumes, and divine supporting cast (George Chakiris, Grover Dale, Danielle Darrieux, Michel Piccoli, and Gene Kelly), THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT is a tribute to Hollywood optimism from sixties French cinema’s preeminent dreamer.

The Young Girls of Rochefort
  • The Young Girls of Rochefort

    Directed by Jacques Demy • 1967 • France
    Starring Catherine Deneuve, Françoise Dorléac

    Jacques Demy followed up THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG with another musical about missed connections and second chances, this one a more effervescent confection. Twins Delphine and Solange, a dance instructor and...

Extras

  • “Cinéma”: Jacques Demy and Michel Legrand

    In this interview from a 1966 episode of the French television program “Cinéma,” director Jacques Demy and composer Michel Legrand talk about their process for creating the music for THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT.

  • Jean-Pierre Berthomé and Jacquline Moreau on THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT

    In this conversation, recorded in 2013, film scholar Jean-Pierre Berthomé talks to THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT costume designer Jacqueline Moreau, the wife of production designer Bernard Evein, about her and her husband’s decades-long collaboration with director Jacques Demy.

  • “Behind the Screen”: Bernard Evein

    In 1966, documentary filmmaker André Delvaux made a six-part series about the production of THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT for the Belgian television program “Behind the Screen.” Presented here is episode two, which features Bernard Evein discussing his designs for the film.

  • The Young Girls Turn 25

    Directed by Agnès Varda • 1993 • France

    For this documentary about the making of THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT, filmmaker Agnès Varda, director Jacques Demy’s widow, returned to the town of Rochefort for the film’s twenty-fifth anniversary. In it, she interviews actors Catherine Deneuve, Jacque...