History casts a mournful shadow over Rochefort. Françoise Dorléac—exuberant, witty, and then a bigger star than her younger sister—died in a car accident just weeks after the film’s Paris premiere. She was 25. Watching her perform “Deux Filles au Soleil” (“Two Girls in the Sun”) is now an act of séance: her laugh, the way she nudges Deneuve during the dance break, feels impossibly alive.
Criterion includes a 1988 documentary, Les Demoiselles ont eu 25 ans (The Young Girls Turned 25), directed by Agnès Varda, Demy’s wife. In it, a visibly heartbroken Deneuve revisits the now-drab real Rochefort, walking through the same squares where fake storefronts once glittered. The documentary is a masterful companion piece—not a making-of, but a meditation on how cinema petrifies youth, and how reality corrodes it.
The centerpiece of Criterion’s release (Spine #718) is the 4K digital restoration undertaken by Ciné-Tamaris, Demy’s own production company, in collaboration with the Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage. For decades, home video releases of Rochefort suffered from faded hues and unbalanced contrast, draining the film of its lifeblood. The original 35mm negative—shot in Eastmancolor but printed in glorious Technicolor—had aged poorly, with the cyan and yellow layers shifting unpredictably.
The restoration process was painstaking. Using a wet-gate scanner to minimize damage to the original nitrate elements, colorists referenced Demy’s own production notes, costume swatches, and the original 1967 release prints. The result is revelatory: Delphine’s (Catherine Deneuve) auburn hair now burns with nuance, and the twin pastel pinks and blues of the portside façades are no longer muddy but distinct, creating a deliberate visual rhyme with the film’s score. Criterion’s Blu-ray presents the film in its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio, preserving the intimate yet expansive compositions of cinematographer Ghislain Cloquet.
Set over the course of a single weekend in the picturesque seaside town of Rochefort, the film weaves together the lives of several characters searching for love and artistic fulfillment. The Young Girls of Rochefort -1967- Criterion -...
The central figures are twin sisters, Delphine and Solange Garnier, played by real-life sisters Françoise Dorléac and Catherine Deneuve. Delphine teaches dance, while Solange teaches music; both dream of escaping their small town for the bright lights of Paris. Around them orbits a colorful cast of characters: a former pianist turned painter (Jacques Perrin) searching for his muse, an American musician (Gene Kelly) passing through town, and a suspicious fairground operator (Michel Piccoli).
The brilliance of the script lies in its structure of "missed connections." Characters constantly cross paths, nearly meeting their soulmates, only to just miss one another until the grand finale. It is a symphony of coincidences, choreography, and chance.
If you have only ever seen The Young Girls of Rochefort on a worn VHS tape or a fuzzy television broadcast, you have not seen it. The film’s entire philosophy is built on color.
Production designer Bernard Evein painted entire city blocks of Rochefort in pastel pinks, yellows, and aquamarines to match the costumes. The 1967 Criterion digital restoration, sourced from a 4K scan of the original 35mm camera negative, is revelatory. The previous home video releases often leaned toward a muddy orange or faded pink. The Criterion edition restores the original Technicolor brilliance. History casts a mournful shadow over Rochefort
Director: Jacques Demy Starring: Françoise Dorléac, Catherine Deneuve, Gene Kelly, Michel Piccoli, and George Chakiris. Available on: The Criterion Collection
While Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) is famous for its tragic, rain-soaked romance, its follow-up, The Young Girls of Rochefort (Les Demoiselles de Rochefort), is a celebration of life, color, and boundless optimism. Released in 1967 and now preserved in stunning high-definition by the Criterion Collection, this film is widely considered one of the greatest movie musicals ever made—and arguably the quintessential "French New Wave Musical."
The film is a time capsule of 1960s elegance, anchored by the luminous presence of the Deneuve-Dorléac sisters.
One of the film’s greatest curiosities is the presence of Gene Kelly. By 1967, Kelly was a god of MGM musicals. His casting was a strategic move by Demy, who wanted to pay homage to Singin’ in the Rain and An American in Paris. Kelly plays Andy Miller, a frustrated composer who drives a boat-shaped Cadillac. Watching her perform “Deux Filles au Soleil” (“Two
Critics in 1967 were divided. Some found Kelly’s presence jarring—a slab of American beefsteak in a delicate French soufflé. But viewed today, his role is the film’s thesis statement. Demy isn’t just making a French musical; he is arguing that joy is a universal language. When Kelly dances with Dorléac on a soundstage designed to look like a traveling carnival, the artifice is the point. They are not in Rochefort; they are in the shared dream of cinema.
No discussion of The Young Girls of Rochefort is complete without confronting the tragedy of Françoise Dorléac. The elder sister of Deneuve, Dorléac had a feral, chaotic energy that balanced Deneuve’s glacial perfection. In the scene where Solange sings “Chanson des Jumelles” (“Song of the Twins”), the two women circle a tiny apartment like planets locked in orbit. Their harmonies are tight, but their eyes tell different stories: Deneuve’s longing for safety, Dorléac’s longing for chaos.
Dorléac burned through the screen. She improvised physical stunts that terrified the crew. She chain-smoked between takes. She was, by all accounts, the heart of the production. When she died in a fiery car crash at age 25, the film became a eulogy. The Criterion edition captures this poignancy without wallowing in it. When Solange boards a train to Paris at the film’s climax, you feel the weight: she made it, but the actress did not.