Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.5
Overall		5.0

The Young Girls of Rochefort Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov July 3, 2014

Jacques Demy's "Les demoiselles de Rochefort" a.k.a. "The Young Girls of Rochefort" (1967) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the new restoration of the film; Agnes Varda's documentary film "The Young Girls Turn 25" (1993); an episode from a six-part series made for the Belgian television program Behind the Screen; archival video interview with Jacques Demy and composer Michel Legrand; and more. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The Garnier sisters

Note: The Young Girls of Rochefort is part of Criterion's upcoming The Essential Jacques Demy Blu-ray box set.

Jacques Demy and legendary composer Michel Legrand completed The Young Girls of Rochefort in 1967, three years after they introduced the equally charming The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. There are obvious similarities between the two, but The Young Girls of Rochefort was clearly meant to be something different.

Demy adored Vincente Minnelli’s An American in Paris and Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins’ West Side Story and wanted to film a musical that would be just as lavish and glamorous. Naturally, George Chakiris, who had already won an Oscar for playing Bernardo in West Side Story, and Gene Kelly were invited to join Catherine Deneuve, her sister Françoise Dorleac (who died shortly after The Umbrellas of Cherbourg premiered in French theaters), Michel Piccoli, Jacques Perrin, Jacques Riberolles, Danielle Darrieuxm and Genevieve Thénier in The Young Girls of Rochefort.

As its title suggests, The Young Girls of Rochefort is set in the provincial town of Rochefort where men and women of different ages dream of falling in love. The Garnier sisters, Delphine (Catherine Deneuve, Indochine) and Solange (Françoise Dorleac, Cul-de-sac), dream of meeting their ideal men who would show them the world. Yvonne (Danielle Darrieux, Scene of the Crime) had Delphine and Solange from a man she did not have the courage to marry. He left and she fell in love with another man, Simon Dame (Michel Piccoli, Dillinger Is Dead), but ran away from him because she did not want to be called Madam Dame. When he started looking for her, she asked a friend to tell him that she married a tycoon in Mexico. Now she regrets her decision and secretly dreams of falling in love again. After years of living alone in Paris, Simon has returned to Rochefort to open a music store. Out of the blue he is visited by an old friend, Andy Miller (Gene Kelly, Les Girls), who has become a famous composer in America. Like Yvonne, Simon is lonely and secretly dreams of having someone to share his life with. Maxence (Jacques Perrin, Cinema Paradiso) is a handsome blond sailor who has painted a portrait of the girl he wants to fall in love with. Though he does not know it yet, Delphine looks exactly like the girl from the portrait. There are also two carnies, Etienne (George Chakiris, Kings of the Sun) and Bill (Grover Dale), looking for beautiful girls to join them on their trip to Paris.

The Young Girls of Rochefort is a long musical with a complicated story. Unlike The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, it features elaborate dance numbers that are linked via short spoken interludes. Furthermore, while in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg the individual parts are sung by the cast in The Young Girls of Rochefort practically everyone is dubbed (only Danielle Darrieux sung her part). Finally, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is characterized by sorrow and ache while The Young Girls of Rochefort is genuinely light, sunny, and oozing optimism.

Note: In 1969, The Young Girls of Rochefort was nominated for Oscar Award for Best Music, Score of a Musical Picture/Original or Adaptation (Michel Legrand, Jacques Demy).

The Young Girls of Rochefort Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Jacques Demy's The Young Girls of Rochefort arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

There is a short note before the film begins which states that The Young Girls of Rochefort was restored in 2K from the original camera negative at Digimage in 2011, and that the color grading was supervised by Agnes Varda. Unless some additional work was done in 2011, I think that the information is incorrect. The 2K restoration of The Young Girls of Rochefort was first introduced in 2010 by Arte Video in France. On the French Blu-ray release, which has been reviewed here, there is a similar description which clearly states that the film was restored in 2010 with Cine-Tamaris' involvement.

The 2K restoration is wonderful. From start to finish image depth and clarity are outstanding, while colors are lush and vibrant. The outdoor performances during the second half of the film, in particular, look fantastic. There are no traces of problematic degraining corrections -- grain is evenly distributed and beautifully resolved. Also, there are no problematic sharpening adjustments, though there is one short sequence in the very beginning of the film where some extremely light sharpening can be spotted. Overall image stability is outstanding. There are no large damage marks, cuts, debris, stains, or scratches. All in all, this is a wonderful presentation of The Young Girls of Rochefort which should please fans of the film. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

The Young Girls of Rochefort Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. For the record, Criterion have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

Arte Video's release of The Young Girls of Rochefort has a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track, which I liked a lot. Criterion's release has only a DTS-HD Master Master Audio 5.1 track, which sounds equally impressive. I did some direct comparisons between the two and I could not hear any obvious discrepancies in terms of dynamic intensity. During the big outdoor performances depth is also identical. There are some sequences where the crowd noise is perhaps slightly more prominent, but in my opinion sharpness and crispness are identical on both tracks. There are no audio dropouts, hiss, pops, cracks, or distortions to report in this review.

The Young Girls of Rochefort Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for the 2K restoration of The Young Girls of Rochefort. In French, with optional English subtitles. (2 min, 1080p).

• Cinema - presented here is an archival interview from a 1966 episode of the French television program Cinema in which director Jacques Demy and composer Michel Legrand discuss the music of The Young Girls of Rochefort, some of the key differences between The Young Girls of Rochefort and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and some of the dilemmas composers face when scoring a film. In French, with optional English subtitles. (11 min, 1080p).

• Jean-Pierre Bethome and Jacqueline Moreau - film scholar Jean-Pierre Berthome talks to costume designer Jacqueline Moreau, the wife of production designer Bernard Evein, about her and her husband's friendship and collaborations with Jacques Demy. (In Paris, Jacqueline Moreau, Bernard Evein, and Jacques Demy also became good friends with many of the Cahiers du Cinema writers/directors). Jacqueline Moreau explains how the different costumes for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg were chosen and created and how specific wallpapers were printed for key sequences from the film, and discusses some of the challenges The Young Girls of Rochefort presented. (Apparently, Jacques Demy wanted to have more pastel colors to contrast with The Umbrellas of Cherbourg). The conversation was recorded exclusively for Criterion in 2013. In French, with optional English subtitles. (26 min, 1080p).

• Behind the Screen - in 1966, documentary filmmaker Andre Delvaux made a six-part series about the production of The Young Girls of Rochefort for the Belgian television program Behind the Screen. Presented here is episode two, which features Bernard Evein discussing designs for the film. The episode also features plenty of raw footage from the dance rehearsals and shooting sessions. In French, English, and Dutch, with optional English subtitles where necessary. (35 min, 1080p).

• The Young Girls Turn 25 - The Young Girls Turn 25 a.k.a. The Demoiselles Turned 25 is a documentary film by Agnes Varda which offers an in-depth look at the production history of Jacques Demy's beloved film. Director Agnes Varda and Catherine Deneuve visit many of the locations in Rochefort where the film was shot, while various cast and crew members discuss their contribution to it. The Young Girls Turn 25 was restored in 2K by Digimage in 2013. Agnes Varda supervised the color grading. In French, with optional English subtitles (67 min, 1080p).
  
  1. Return to Rochefort
  2. Dream cast
  3. Memories of the shoot
  4. Demy on set
  5. Take after take

The Young Girls of Rochefort Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Young Girls of Rochefort is unquestionably Jacques Demy's most effectively scored film. Michel Legrand's jazzy tunes are absolutely fantastic and superbly timed with the colorful visuals. Like the rest of the films in Criterion's upcoming box set of Jacques Demy films, The Young Girls of Rochefort has been restored in 2K and looks marvelous in high-definition. Also included on this disc is a very recent 2K restoration of Agnes Varda's documentary The Young Girls Turn 25. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.