In the seaside town of Rochefort, love and romance swirls around the inhabitants and visitors over a long weekend. Yvonne Garnier (Danielle Darrieux) runs the cafĂ© in the central square. Her twin daughters Delphine (Catherine Deneuve) and Solange (Françoise DorlĂ©acâDeneuveâs real life sister) teach dance to children but want something more, which they hope to find in Paris. Delphine also wants to find the perfect man while Solange is destined to meet a foreigner. Maxence (Jacques Perrin) is an artist who frequents the cafĂ©, waiting out his last week in the navy before he can run off in search of his âfeminine idealââhis painting of which bares an uncanny resemblance to Delphine. That painting hangs in the gallery of Guillaume Lancien (Jacques Riberolles), who wants Delphine for himself, but is clearly not going to get her. Simon Dame (Michel Piccoli), mourning a long lost love, has set up a music store in town, and is drawn toward Solange. He promises to help her by getting her in touch with Andy Miller (Gene Kelly), a successful musician in Paris, but Andy has chosen this time to visit Rochefort. Entering into this mob of possible lovers are a pair of âcarnies,â Bill (Grover Dale) and Etienne (George Chakirisâthe guy from West Side Story), here for the weekend carnival. Their interest in women is of the short term variety, and when they lose their dancers/bed partners, they are in need of replacements. All these people meet, or just barely miss each other, and then do it again. Thatâs a whole lot of characters, but itâs easy to follow.
A candy coated concoction, The Young Girls of Rochefort (which really should have been translated as âThe Young Ladiesâ as weâre talking about mid-20-year-olds) is the follow-up to Jacques Demyâs The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. They share the jazzy musical style, actress Catherine Deneuve, and a complete lack of interest in reality. But while Umbrellas was mournful, Young Girls is celebratory. One is regret and rain, the other possibilities and sunlight. This is non-stop happiness and popsicles and hope and joy. Nothing gets this movie down. There is a literal sadistic killer in the film, and even that feels cozy.
Though filled with references to Hollywood musicals, the average American will find The Young Girls of Rochefort unusual. In classic film musicals, people burst into song; here they slip in and out of it. Speaking and singing are all the same. Likewise someone might walk a bit, then dance a bit. Main characters will chat normally while in the background others dance, or they may dance while everyone else is still. With a few exceptions (mostly the âtwinsâ songâ), the music isnât melody driven. It just an accompaniment when speaking turns to singing and for all that dancing.
There’s no equality in dance. Some (obviously Kelly & Chakiris) are experts while others are barely more than amateurs, but the film doesnât care. Nor does it worry if two or more dancers are in sync. They arenât there to perform routines, but to express their love or desire or longing, or just because itâs sunny. As for the voices, almost everyone is dubbed when singing, and some when speaking. Gene Kelly is mostly dubbed (which is very odd for those of us who know his voice well), but every once in a while he speaks with his own. This fits perfectly with this unreal world, this beautiful unreal world. Everything, and everyone, in every frame, is beautiful. Sometimes itâs hard to choose where to look on the screen as so much is going on and all of it is worth seeing.
Call it joie de vivre, the movie. Thereâs lots of regret, but thatâs in the past (for the most part) and itâs clear from the first remarkable dance on a crane bridge, that things will work out. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, with its more serious look at life, has tended to leave this film in the shadows, but I find The Young Girls of Rochefort both more emotional, and more meaningful. If this doesnât give you direction in life, nothing will.
My other reviews of musicals with Gene Kelly: Cover Girl (1944), Anchors Aweigh (1945), Ziegfeld Follies (1946), The Pirate (1948), Words and Music (1948), On the Town (1949), Summer Stock (1950), An American in Paris (1951), Brigadoon (1954), It’s Always Fair Weather (1955), Les Girls (1957).