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The Young Girls of Rochefort by Demy, Jacques
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DVD Cover InformationActor: Dorothée Blank, George Chakiris, Grover Dale, Henri Crémieux, René Bazart Director: Demy, Jacques DVD: Region Code 1 Audio: French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled) Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen Picture Format: 2.35:1 Running Time: 125 minutes DVD Release Date: 2002-01-22 Audience Rating: G (General Audience) Studio: Miramax
Movie Reviews of The Young Girls of RochefortMovie Review: fun but fluffy Summary: 3 StarsWill Delphine meet the sailor who painted her portrait without ever seeing her? Will Mr. Dame (you heard right) reconnect with the woman who dumped him years ago? Will Solange run into Gene Kelly ever again? Of course they will, this is a movie. But you'll have to be patient and slog through elevator muzak by Michel Legrand (not his best); mediocre, repetitious dance numbers; and a silly subplot about a geezer who turns out to be an axe murderer (say what?). On the plus side, the skies are always bright blue (no need for umbrellas, hint hint) and the two Dorleac sisters (Catherine, later Deneuve and Francoise) are adorable and traipse around in skimpy attire showing off their delightful figures. In this picture, Cathy is sweet and charming and doesn't do her ice queen bit. Fran flaunts her freckles and red hair and just has a good time--if you believe she can compose music, as the movie claims, there's a famous bridge available for sale, cheap. It's too bad she couldn't find someone to drive her to the airport that fateful day or else she might have lived to make more movies.
Summary of The Young Girls of RochefortA wonderfully entertaining musical fantasy, THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT features big-screen legend Gene Kelly (THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT) and international star Catherine Deneuve (BELLE DE JOUR) in a delightfully lighthearted story about two charming sisters waiting for their perfect love to arrive! In the picturesque seaside village of Rochefort, Delphine (Deneuve) teaches dance while her twin Solange (Francoise Dorleac) composes and gives piano lessons. As the girls dream of success and romance in the far-off big city, they don't realize that true love may be just around the corner! An exuberant musical treat that earned rave reviews from critics everywhere, this beloved classic has been beautifully restored to its original magnificence! The French director Jacques Demy scored a worldwide hit in 1964 with The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, a bittersweet candy-colored romance in which all the dialogue was set to music. Equally enchanting is the musical that reunited Demy with the star and composer of Umbrellas, Catherine Deneuve and Michel Legrand. The film is The Young Girls of Rochefort, an effervescent concoction about traveling players and dreamy-headed demoiselles in a seaside town. Deneuve and her real-life sister, Françoise Dorléac (who died in a car accident not long after the movie was made), play twins who fantasize about life in Paris. But before they leave town, they are distracted by the weekend fair and its colorful singers and dancers. They're also destined to meet an American composer--gloriously, it's Gene Kelly, carrying the aura of classic MGM musicals in his lighter-than-air wake. He was 55 at the time, but much younger in movie years. (Another American, George Chakiris, also dances his way through the film.) Legrand's music isn't as powerful as his Cherbourg score, and some of the choreography would fit right into an Austin Powers discotheque sequence. And the costumes--well, the excesses of '60s mod designs have not aged well. Yet the crazy hairstyles and vinyl boots fit right into the film's sense of gleeful fun. There is a sunny, daffy spirit to this movie that becomes positively infectious. It deserves to be better known. (Try to catch a widescreen version, if possible.) --Robert Horton
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