Review: Les Demoiselles de Rochefort

I don't know what it is about Demy and Legrand, but their opening scenes always have me grinning like crazy (I always find myself saying, "wow, this is fun"). They know how to start off with a bang. The opening number of Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (in English, The Young Girls of Rochefort), bursts with sunny jazz happiness and choreography that made me want to dance along. So the performers (specifically the ensemble) might not be the best dancers, or the most synchronized--so what? To me, the choreography was more of an unbridled celebration of movement, of what dance should feel like, of freedom. It made me happy, and that's what musicals should do.

I had more problems with the plot of this movie than I did with Demy's previous Les Parapluies de Cherbourg. I'm not sure if this was done on purpose, but the storyline was sloppily cliche and predictable to the point of being ridiculous. In the end, everything was suddenly and miraculously, all at once, resolved. Up until the character of Simon Dame entered the picture, I was enjoying myself--but from then on out, I was laughing at even the most dramatic of events. I couldn't take the characters, or their tangled storylines, seriously. Everyone had a complicated and intertwined backstory that met up with the other characters' "coincidentally" and unbelievably.

I much preferred Étienne and Bill to any other characters, but I am more than glad neither of them ended up shackled to either of the "twins." I did also like the character of Maxence; at least he fell for [the idea of] the less-annoying twin.

Françoise Dorléac, who played Solange Garnier, was difficult to watch. I feel bad criticizing her seeing as she passed away in a car accident three months after the film's French release, but the truth is that her performance was, if not horrendous, definitely obnoxious to the nth degree. I was cringing throughout the entire movie. Dorléac over-acted shamelessly in a style I'd describe as à la Marilyn Monroe, but more fake and over-the-top; I assume it was in order to appear more seductive. Alongside more natural actors, her lines and actions were really very bad. Next to her real-life sister, it is Catherine Deneuve who was proven to be, without question, the more accomplished actress.

Regardless, Catherine Deneuve was not as suited to Les Demoiselles as she was to Les Parapluies. The cast of this film, with big names such as Gene Kelly (whose voice was sadly dubbed more often than not), seemed a hindrance rather than a strength. Don't get me wrong, I have no complaints over the casting of George Chakiris (whom I love), but stars Deneuve, Kelly, and Dorléac lowered my ability to enjoy the film and seemed to be there more for their names than their talent. Only one out of the entire cast did her own singing--Danielle Darrieux as the mother, Yvonne Garnier--and I firmly believe that artists should only be dubbed if the actors are worth it to the character and film. These actors were not, and therefore did not warrant their participation without singing for themselves. Les Demoiselles would have been better served to have cast actors who were equally up to the task of singing and truly fit the parts.

The costumes were repetitive: many of the characters (almost all of them) each had a signature outfit which, with rotating versions in a couple of different colors, they sported throughout the entire film. And the twins always wore the same thing, in different colors. They always matched. Ew. So much more could have been done with the costuming of this movie.

Although the plot and characters sometimes made me want to scratch my eyes out (my mother and sister told me to "never show me this movie again" as the ending credits rolled), I really did love [most of] the music and dancing. This musical reminded me why I love musicals, what summer feels like, and how my body itches to dance with abandon. This is a movie without much substance, completely contrasting Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, and one must go into it without expectations for plot or people, but just sit and enjoy the colors (oh, Demy and color!) and sunniness of the show. For it is, in one word, "sunny." Where Les Parapluies was a gushing raincloud (generally more my style), Les Demoiselles de Rochefort is a sky without a cloud to be seen.