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The Young Girls of Rochefort (Criterion Collection)

Jacques Demy followed up The Umbrellas of Cherbourg with another musical about missed connections and second chances, this one a more effervescent confection. Twins Delphine and Solange, a dance instructor and a music teacher (played by real-life sisters Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac), dream of big-city life; when a fair comes through their quiet port town, so does the possibility of escape. With its jazzy Michel Legrand score, pastel paradise of costumes, and divine supporting cast (George Chakiris, Grover Dale, Danielle Darrieux, Michel Piccoli, and Gene Kelly), The Young Girls of Rochefort is a tribute to Hollywood optimism from sixties French cinema’s preeminent dreamer.

DVD FEATURES:

• 2K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• French television interview from 1966 featuring director Jacques Demy and composer Michel Legrand discussing the music for the film
• Conversation from 2014 between Demy biographer Jean-Pierre Berthomé and costume designer Jacqueline Moreau
• Episode from Behind the Screen, a 1966 series about the making of the film
• Agnès Varda’s 1993 documentary The Young Girls Turn 25 (in the DVD box set, appears on the Une chambre en ville disc)
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum