Rent Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967)

Charming musical - Les Demoiselles de Rochefort review by EB

Maybe rather more sentimental than Les Parapluies de Cherbourg but an attractive watch with some lovely dancing - one of the leading men was in West Side Story.

a cheerful break from sixties French cinema - Les Demoiselles de Rochefort review by mc

Following Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, the pastel shades combine with a singing dancing street scene, which spills over into a cheerful tale of love lost and found. An enjoyable escape movie of the sixties.

Unalloyed joyful sunlit exuberance - Les Demoiselles de Rochefort review by AP

Filmed in Rochefort whenever the sun was shining, carefully crafted with a palette of white and (mostly) pastel colours - all pinks and blues and greens and yellows - with splashes of brighter oranges and reds and blues, this musical film that bursts with song and dance has a magic about it that you need to witness at least once in your life. It is extraordinary, and never ceases to amaze me, that in the middle of this French film who should appear but Gene Kelly. The fact that Kelly doesn't outdance anyone is testament to the ensemble cast who all have equal value - they are all, it seems to me, the stars of the show HUGELY enjoying themselves.

True, the dance pieces are not as polished or perfected or as glossy as an American musical, but thank goodness for that, I say: it's fresh,certainly a little untidy choreographically by American standards, but sparkling with something more rooted in ordinary life, less fantastical than a Hollywood piece if only because there are no sets, just whatever Rochefort provides in all that glorious sunshine.

And the story? Various young - and not so young - people are looking for opportunity, fulfilment and love in their lives: two sisters, a dancer and a musician, looking for something more enticing than just their hometown; their mother who runs the cafe on the square and who had a fling and a love child by - big joke in French - a Monsieur Dame, wondering where her lover is; Monsieur Dame himself, now setting up a music shop in the town unknown to his former lover and not knowing she lives there, and his composer friend, Andy Miller, visiting from the USA; two truckers selling motor boats and motorbikes, both chancers, taking what life offers them as they meet it; and finally, a painter on military service with the Marine in Rochefort, looking for his feminine ideal. The narrative of the film follows their progress towards their happy endings, and is conducted mostly in song and with a score written by Michel Legrand who is on record as saying of all his collaborations with Jacques Demy this was his most joyful. And we can feel that.

The disc Cinema Paradiso sent has some equally joyful extras celebrating both the making of the film and Rochefort's celebration on the 25th anniversary of its release. It's a wonderful movie, just - to this viewer - wonderful!