THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT (1967)

I was curious what Jacques Demy did as a follow up after ripping out my heart and stomping on it with THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG.  Well, I never would have guessed this.

THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT is the story of two happy young girls (Catherine Deneuve and her real-life sister Francoise Dorleac) in the town of Rochefort.  They teach instruments and dancing to young kids and in their spare time they happily dance and sing all over the joint.  Nobody finds this strange because everybody happily sings and dances almost nonstop in Rochefort!  It's like an insane asylum.  Most of the action takes place around the main square.  You got the two girls, their mom, a music shop owner, a pretty waitress, some motorcycle salesmen, sailors, a painter, Gene Kelly...Gene Kelly?!!!  That's right.  Around the 45 minute mark Gene Kelly, Monsieur Twinkle Toes himself, comes strolling onscreen and my eyes popped out.  What's he doing here?  Singing and dancing apparently.  The singing sounded to be dubbed, but his French dialogue was impressive.

Anyway, the story is pretty basic: people longing to fall in love, blah, blah,blah, people fall in love, The End.  None of it seems to be taken seriously.  The dancing and the feel of the film seem to be more important.  That said, I wasn't feeling it.  Some of the songs were nice, but the majority of them left me flat.  The dancing was alright, but nothing jawdropping.  Overall, it was a tolerable watch, but I was really hoping for something better.

One interesting thing I did notice was in inclusion of Michel Piccoli who would also appear the same year with Catherine in BELLE DE JOUR, but in a much darker role.

THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG (1964)

Teenager Genevieve (Catherine Deneuve) is in love with a local boy, Guy, who works at a mechanic's shop. Neither have any money, but they are madly in love and want to get married. Genevieve's mom understands how hot Genevieve is and won't let her meal ticket hook up with just any ol' guy.  He's got to be rich! I think you can see where this is going.

The story isn't that original, but what's remarkable about this film is the music.  Every single word is sang.  The music is very energetic and jazzy.  The colours explode off the screen and Catherine Deneuve is absolutely radiant.  Maybe the prettiest she's ever been...and that's saying something!

Incredible cinematography, bright colors everywhere, sad but realistic views on relationships, great songs and Catherine Deneuve looking so young and pure...hard to believe she was stabbing people just a year later in REPULSION.  Highly recommended. One of my favorite musical of all time.  My only complaint is I wish the final moments of the last scene were spoken. Highly recommended.