The Young Girls of Rochefort

Friday, May 1 - Sunday, May 3, 2015

DCP projection

“From Jour de Fête to Céline and Julie Go Boating, there’s an enchanting minor strain in French cinema devoted to visually reproducing the heady sensation of going to the cinema. And so it is with Jacques Demy’s pastel-hued masterpiece THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT, a luminous musical about dreams, romance and destiny which lovingly reworks the classic Hollywood ‘putting on a show’ template into an essay on the emotional rollercoaster ride that is movie-going… the film centres on Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac as the ‘pair of twins, born in the sign of Gemini’ looking to escape the sleepy environs of Rochefort for life in the big city. When an all-singin’, all-dancin’ motorcycle roadshow rolls into town, the girls decide to give one last big performance before upping sticks and moving on. Pedants may feel inclined to pick holes in Norman Maen’s stuffy choreography and some of the less-than-subtle lip-synching, but most will already be swept off their feet by Michel Legrand’s scintillating jazz-pop score, charismatic supporting turns from Gene Kelly, Danielle Darrieux and Michel Piccoli, and – predominantly – Demy’s own infectious joie de vivre. See it, and swoon…” – Time Out (London)

• Country France
• Language In French with English subtitles
• Year 1967
• Running Time 125 minutes
• Director Jacques Demy

IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.