The Young Girls Of Rochefort -1967- Criterion -... 〈2026〉

If The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) was Jacques Demy’s tragic opera in candy-colored pastels, then The Young Girls of Rochefort (Les Demoiselles de Rochefort) is his euphoric American musical dropped into the heart of provincial France. Released in 1967 and now preserved in stunning high-definition by the Criterion Collection, this film is a dazzling celebration of chance, coincidence, and the unstoppable rhythm of life.

The Young Girls of Rochefort has aged into a curious artifact: a musical about failure that feels like a triumph. Damien Chazelle has cited its color palette for La La Land ; Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch owes a debt to its theatricalized streets. But the film’s true heir is perhaps the lonely viewer who, after the final curtain call (and that breathtaking crane shot lifting over the sisters’ departing bus), rewinds to the opening number. Because Rochefort is a film that does not end—it only loops. Like the carnival’s mechanical organ, like the twins’ unanswered letters, like Dorléac’s ghost. The Young Girls of Rochefort -1967- Criterion -...

The Young Girls of Rochefort is a film about . Characters constantly walk past their soulmates by a matter of seconds, separated only by a door or a street corner. It suggests that while life is a series of "almosts," the dance itself is worth the effort. In an era of cynical cinema, its unapologetic sincerity and technical perfection make it a "feel-good" movie of the highest intellectual order. If The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) was Jacques

The documentary The Young Girls Turn 25 (1993) is essential—it catches up with the town of Rochefort, which hated the film crew but now throws an annual festival in Demy’s honor. Also, the interview with composer Michel Legrand reveals he wrote the overture overnight. Overnight. While smoking. The man was a machine. Damien Chazelle has cited its color palette for