The Young Girls Of Rochefort -1967- Criterion -... -

By 1967, Kelly’s star in Hollywood had waned. Demy, an obsessive fan of Singin’ in the Rain , wrote a role specifically for him: Andy, the American composer passing through Rochefort. Kelly, fluent in French, performs his own dubbing and choreographs his own solo number.

But plot is secondary to vibe . Demy, working with composer Michel Legrand (who scored Umbrellas and later The Thomas Crown Affair ), crafted a town where the sidewalks are washed in pastels, the jazz orchestras play on flatbed trucks, and everyone spontaneously breaks into intricate choreography. The Criterion release allows modern audiences to appreciate the film’s most poignant subtext: the real-life bond between the two leads. Françoise Dorléac was a blazing talent—edgier, more cynical, and more volatile than her younger sister, Deneuve. Off-screen, they were inseparable. On-screen, their chemistry is electric, a genuine shorthand of sisterly exasperation and adoration. The Young Girls of Rochefort -1967- Criterion -...

In the pantheon of movie musicals, there are the stone-cold classics of the Golden Age ( Singin’ in the Rain ), the gritty rock operas of the 1970s ( Tommy ), and then—suspended in a bubble of pure, phosphorescent joy—there is Jacques Demy’s The Young Girls of Rochefort ( Les Demoiselles de Rochefort ). By 1967, Kelly’s star in Hollywood had waned

Watching Kelly—then 55 years old—tap dance through a French square while wooing a French waitress is surreal and joyful. The Criterion transfer captures the sweat and effort of his dance; you see the master at work, not a digitized ghost. It acts as a bridge between MGM’s golden era and the European art film, a handshake between Hollywood and the Left Bank. First-time viewers are often thrown by the film’s subplot: a murder mystery involving a traveling salesman and an art dealer. Why, in a candy-colored musical, does Demy include a severed head in a suitcase? But plot is secondary to vibe