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The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967,
Fr.) (aka Les Demoiselles de Rochefort)
In Jacques Demy's beautifully-choreographed, bright
and colorful, joyful musical - a fairytale about finding an ideal
or dream love (with lots of missed opportunities or connections and
aborted chances, but also chance meetings) - featuring a Michel Legrand
original musical score - a follow-up film to Demy's all-singing musical The
Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964, Fr.):
- the opening musical number (during set up in the
main square of a traveling carnival company) in the small, southwestern
seaside town of Rochefort during a weekend's fair, when a flash-mob
of singers and dancers exploded onto the town's central Colbert
Square
- the story of two twin sisters who ran a ballet dance
school studio (overlooking the square) and were seeking love: ballet
teacher Delphine Garnier (Catherine Deneuve) and piano music teacher
and aspiring composer Solange Garnier (Françoise Dorléac,
Deneuve's real-life sister); their unmarried mother Yvonne (Danielle
Darrieux) owned and managed the town's modern shop/cafe near the
square, and pinned for her long-lost fiancee whom she rejected because
his name was Monsieur Dame (she would have been known as 'Madame
Dame')
- the introduction of the fair's two carnies: visiting
sailor Étienne (George Chakiris) and Bill (Grover Dale) -
who performed the song and dance: 'Nous Voyageons De Ville En Ville';
the two later recruited the twins as dancers for their song-and-dance
show in the carnival
- the catchy, repeated duet and tune for the two twins
as they danced in coordinated pink and yellow hats: 'Chanson Des
Jumelles' - their first song together in the film: "We are a
pair of twins, born in the sign of Gemini. We're two demoiselles
who took to the boys long ago. Our mama brought us up on our own.
Working herself all her life to the bone. Make sure our minds could
expand. She's spent all her time behind a French fry stand. Papa
was somebody that we never knew. But when we undress one thing is
true. In the small of our backs in the very same place. There's the
same beauty spot he had on his face. We are a pair of twins, born
in the sign of Gemini. Who love catchy tunes silly puns and repartee.
We're a pair of carefree young things Waiting for the joys that love
brings, When our blood races When our heart stops, We're ready to
shout it from the rooftops We are delicate souls, two romantics in
love with art, music and antics Where's that man? The man we long
to find - Mr. Right - A few faults we won't mind...."
- the inevitable pairing of the three females with their
ideal mates:
- Yvonne with her former fiancee Simon Dame (Michel Piccoli) - unbeknownst
to her, the proprietor of a music shop in Rochefort
- Solange with Simon's American friend and composer Andy Miller (famed
American actor and dancer Gene Kelly)
- Delphine with blonde ex-sailor, poet and painter Maxence (Jacques
Perrin), who painted a portrait that resembled Delphine (his "feminine
ideal"), that was exhibited in the gallery of Delphine's rich
boyfriend Guillaume (Jacques Riberolles) (ultimately dumped)
- the film was most noted for the two chance meetings
between Solange and Andy when he helped her pick up items dropped
onto the street, and afterwards, his exuberant and spontaneous dances
(including with some of the passersby) about having found love as
he happily romped through the streets, and in the second instance
jumped up onto his white convertible after tap-dancing with a crowd
of street children
- the show-stopping performance 'Chanson D'un Jour D'été'
of Solange and Delphine on stage at the fair, in glittering and sparkling
red gowns, homage to Monroe and Russell in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
(1953)
- in the film's conclusion, a second graceful, courtship
dance (to the tune of a Legrand ballet concerto) by Andy when he
was ultimately reunited with Solange in the interior of the white-walled
music shop - ending with a kiss and the couple in each other's
arms as they walked away
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