Metrograph

A whirl of pastels, as sweet and sad and sometimes marvelous as life itself, though bigger than life by far, The Young Girls of Rochefort finds Demy, after the international success of his The Umbrellas of Cherbourg making a film that matches in scale and ambition the MGM blockbusters that he so admired—even creating a great, late role for a star straight from the Freed Unit, Gene Kelly, unutterable moving as he sets out to dance one more time. But this isn’t Hollywood: the score by Michel Legrand has bounce and brio, and the cast, including sister act Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac, have charm and beauty to burn, but Demy also introduces an undercurrent of unease to the proceedings, flavoring the eternally young musical with adult ruefulness.

Distributor: Janus Films