The Young Girls of Rochefort

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Albus W Feb 6, 2018 It's so weird when you expect to love something and end up totally frustrated and disappointed by it instead. Let me start off by saying I love musicals, I love French yeye crap, I love mod fashion and I love romance movies. But this......... This was one of the most cloyingly saccharine and insipid musicals I've ever seen. First off, all of the songs are junk. Forgettable, poorly sung, bubblegum trash. Just flat out dopey bad. The dancing is similarly ridiculous, which is a goddamn shame for a movie with Gene MFing Kelly gracing it's undeserving set. Like how bad is this music? Well In between generic love songs and bland conversations set to music there is also a chipper song about murdering and cutting a woman up into pieces(?!?). Vom, snore. Then there's this like hit you over the head snoozy romances where everybody keeps missing everybody by a minute and there's no mystery as to who matches with who because they repeat the goddam stories and hopes and dreams over and over again. Mama Mia had more excitement than this crap. And if that's not enough there's also a guy who murders a woman and cuts her into pieces. And another dude who shoots paint balloons and stalks women. A beautiful love story, folks. What I can say about this movie - and it's what I knew I would love - is the wonderful technicolor sets and the AMAZING costumes. Beautiful beautiful beautiful. If only the movie hadn't been one of the most insincere musicals I've ever seen in my life. It was seriously like a sketch comedy of a terrible 60s musical. Demy is so hit and miss, man. Like SO hit and miss. See more

Poe W Aug 7, 2017 A more traditional musical from Demy with some truly delightful songs. He still finds a way to make it all incredibly weird which makes for an interesting mesh of style and genre. See more

Kylo S Jun 1, 2017 Like "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" this is another French confection we find a bit silly in a world of servers & bandwidth. But secretly we wish something similar could be experienced - & in France - where such things seem possible outside of a Hollywood that's grown cold in a CO2 climate taken-over by special efx gamer wizardos. Even Chazelle's "La La Land," supposedly inspired by "Young Girls ...," & its piano man seems joyless in a movie that otherwise is reminiscent. The '60's were a time of unabashed freewheeling romance, color, & the beginning of the end of male-female compatibility (in the USA), the beginning of a nebbish computer engineering culture drain as fronted by Zuckerbergian geeks with nothing but t-shirts & an occasional sadly tatoo'd girl. A cotton-candy look back, the women's styles do seem timeless for those wanting romance, color, & something better ... Great line that should be shown in the Movie Quotes: "The city is full of soldiers, sadists, and painters." Totally French! PS: The Legrand Twins song is infectious ... !! ;) See more

Poe W Apr 26, 2017 I have a deep abiding love for the classic Hollywood musicals that focus on romance with a little humor and elaborate song-and-dance sequences. Clearly Jacques Demy does as well, because The Young Girls of Rochefort emulates them in every single way. The pacing of this movie, the content of many of the songs, and even the cast are all reminiscent of those musicals from the past. The entire visual look of The Young Girls of Rochefort is gorgeous. So much planning went into the sets and costumes that the whole film feels alive with color. Likewise the camera is alive throughout. There are some impressive long takes in the film that flow so well because of the way the camera moves through the scenes. Each shot is framed just right, and it helps to show off the impressive dance moves from the whole cast. The entire tone of this film is pure unadulterated joy. Even the most dire moments are met with a smile and a song. It's absolutely infectious and so the smile never left my face either. I was tapping my toes, humming along, and grinning like a fool. I'll admit that I was a bit worried I would have a hard time connecting with a musical sung in a foreign language, and it is indeed a little off-putting at times. Yet the tunes are so well-written and catchy that I begin to ignore the words written on the screen and get lost in the melody. The story is basically perfect for me. The setup of all these romantic relationships is great, and I like that the audience becomes the omniscient observer. It's so fun knowing everything and waiting patiently for the characters to connect the dots. I can't count the number of times someone would meet another character for the first time, or talk about them and I'd instantly try to remember if they were there when a certain conversation took place so pieces might finally start to fall into place for the separated lovers. The cast is remarkable. They can sing superbly (or at least their dubbed-in voices can sing that well), they dance with so much beauty and grace, and they all seem to understand the light-hearted nature of the film. I was particularly delighted to see the great Gene Kelly show up. I had no idea he was in the movie until his face appeared on screen and that was a welcome treat. Perhaps the only actor I struggled with was Jacques Riberolles who seemed just a tad too dramatic for the film. The conclusion of The Young Girls of Rochefort was magical and heart-warming. It delivered some satisfying moments, and even left a little to your imagination. The restraint used in deciding not to share every little thing was impressive. I was delighted by this entire film and tempted to watch it again almost immediately. I never would have suspected I would find myself actually contemplating the purchase of a soundtrack to a foreign-language musical, but the tunes are still stuck in my head hours later. It's a masterpiece! See more

Anakin R Feb 21, 2017 Be a huge fan of the Umbrellas of Cherbourg, it's surprising how long I took getting around to this one. Slighter on story and not as strong melodically, Demy chose to incorporate dancing this time around and what better way than to include the maestro Gene Kelly who brings is panache to this charming story of twins hoping to find fame in Paris. It is easy to see how La La Land derived a great deal of its style from this particular movie and perhaps even the level of dancing as Kelly and Chakiris are the only two leads who are true dancers and it shows. Still, it's very charming, very colorful and the music is great. I cannot hum the tunes like I can with Cherbourg, but great nonetheless. See more

Leia S Apr 15, 2016 A feel good musical. 1001 movies to see before you die.

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The Young Girls of Rochefort

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