The Young Girls Of Rochefort -1967- Criterion -... Repack [REAL ✮]

The Criterion Collection's Blu-ray release of The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) features a 2K digital restoration of Jacques Demy’s musical, starring Catherine Deneuve, Françoise Dorléac, and Gene Kelly. This edition includes special features such as the 1993 documentary "The Young Girls Turn 25" and archival interviews with Demy and composer Michel Legrand. For more details, visit Criterion Collection.

Rating (Criterion Edition): ★★★★ ½ (Essential for all musical lovers and French New Wave completists) Final Note: Do not skip the restoration demonstration. Watching the “before” footage—faded, pinkish, flat—is necessary to appreciate the miracle of the “after.” The Young Girls of Rochefort -1967- Criterion -...

• Musical Innovation: Unlike Hollywood musicals of the era, Demy’s film features all dialogue sung (recitative style, composed by Michel Legrand), merging operetta with everyday conversation. The songs advance the plot organically.
• Visual Style: The film is a masterpiece of color design. Entire town squares and buildings were repainted in pastel pinks, yellows, and blues to create a heightened, utopian reality. Every frame is meticulously composed.
• Choreography: Gene Kelly, at Demy’s request, choreographed the American-style dance numbers, most notably the balletic “Les Amants Parallèles” sequence on a rotating set piece. This marks Kelly’s only non-English-language film role.
• Tragic Subtext: While joyous on the surface, the film is infused with melancholy. The real-life death of Françoise Dorléac (the sister of Catherine Deneuve) in a car accident a few months before the film’s release lends an irreversible poignancy to the twin dynamic. Demy often used artifice to explore deep emotional vulnerability.
• Influence: The film is a touchstone for later “sun-drenched” musicals and directors like Damien Chazelle (La La Land directly references its opening crane shot and color palette) and Wes Anderson (The French Dispatch).

Set over a single weekend in the seaside town of Rochefort, the plot follows twin sisters Delphine (Catherine Deneuve) and Solange (Françoise Dorléac)—sisters in real life as well—who dream of finding big-city love and artistic success. The town is transformed into a literal stage: Demy had hundreds of shutters painted pink and blue to ensure the real-world location matched his stylized palette. The Michel Legrand Score The Criterion Collection's Blu-ray release of The Young

and a comprehensive suite of historical and retrospective supplements The Criterion Collection Criterion Special Features Musical Innovation: Unlike Hollywood musicals of the era,

A Musical Like No Other

Michel Legrand: His score is the heartbeat of the film, blending traditional French sensibilities with American big-band jazz. Why It Matters Today

5. Strengths of the Criterion Edition