The Criterion Collection edition of Jacques Demy's The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967)
features a variety of supplemental materials and technical upgrades. Special Edition Features
2K Digital Restoration: Features a high-definition transfer with a 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack.
The Young Girls Turn 25: A 1993 documentary by Agnès Varda that revisits the town of Rochefort 25 years after the original production.
Archival Interviews: A 1966 French television interview with director Jacques Demy and composer Michel Legrand discussing the film's music.
Behind the Screen: An episode from a 1966 Belgian television series documenting the making of the film, including behind-the-scenes footage of choreography and sets.
Costume Design Conversation: A 2014 discussion between Demy biographer Jean-Pierre Berthomé and costume designer Jacqueline Moreau.
Jonathan Rosenbaum Essay: A printed essay by the film critic, included in the accompanying booklet.
Original Trailer: The theatrical trailer for the film's restoration. Sounding Cinema - Apple Podcasts
Report: The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) – Criterion Collection Edition
1. Overview
2. Synopsis
The Young Girls of Rochefort is a Technicolor musical romance that follows twin sisters, Delphine (Catherine Deneuve) and Solange (Françoise Dorléac), who dream of leaving their quiet Atlantic coastal town of Rochefort for the glamour and artistic opportunities of Paris. Delphine seeks true love; Solange aspires to be a renowned composer.
Over the course of a single weekend during a summer fair, their paths cross—often narrowly—with several charming men: Maxence (Jacques Perrin), a sensitive painter and poet who has drawn the face of his ideal woman (who unknowingly resembles Delphine); Simon Dame (Michel Piccoli), a music publisher; and an American composer, Andy Miller (Gene Kelly). Meanwhile, their mother, Yvonne (Danielle Darrieux), who runs a café, rekindles feelings for a former lover. The film is a tapestry of missed connections, mistaken identities, and joyous coincidences, all leading to an exuberant, dance-filled finale.
3. Criterion Collection Presentation
The Criterion edition presents the film in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 (widescreen CinemaScope) on Blu-ray with a restored 4K digital transfer supervised by cinematographer Ghislain Cloquet. The audio is an uncompressed monaural soundtrack (LPCM 1.0). Key features include:
4. Critical and Historical Significance
5. Strengths of the Criterion Edition
6. Weaknesses / Considerations
7. Conclusion
The Young Girls of Rochefort is not merely a musical; it is a cinematic prayer to chance, art, and the bittersweet optimism of youth. The Criterion Collection’s edition is the definitive home video release, presenting Jacques Demy’s masterpiece with the vibrant, restorative care it deserves. For cinephiles, fans of French New Wave-adjacent cinema, and lovers of Technicolor musicals, this release is essential. The Young Girls of Rochefort -1967- Criterion -...
Final Rating (for the Criterion release): ★★★★½ (4.5/5) – A near-flawless presentation of a joyful, wistful classic.
Keywords: Jacques Demy, Michel Legrand, Catherine Deneuve, Françoise Dorléac, Gene Kelly, French musical, Criterion Collection, Technicolor, cinema du look, romantic coincidence.
Jacques Demy’s The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) is a vibrant, jazz-infused tribute to Hollywood musicals, available in a 2K digital restoration from The Criterion Collection
. The film features a famed soundtrack by Michel Legrand, Agnes Varda's documentary The Young Girls Turn 25
, and extensive interviews highlighting its blend of technicolor joy and wistful romantic connections. Explore the full release details at The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection AI responses may include mistakes. Learn more The Young Girls Turn 25 - The Criterion Channel
Jacques Demy’s 1967 musical masterpiece, The Young Girls of Rochefort Les Demoiselles de Rochefort ), is a centerpiece of the Criterion Collection
. A colorful homage to Hollywood’s Golden Age, the film stars real-life sisters Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac as twins seeking love and adventure in their seaside town. Amazon.com Availability and Features
You can find the film in several formats through the Criterion Collection: Standalone Edition : Available on and Blu-ray, featuring a 2K digital restoration. Essential Jacques Demy Box Set : Included alongside other Demy classics like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg : Periodically available to stream on the Criterion Channel Notable Bonus Content
The Criterion release is packed with supplemental material that dives deep into the film's production and legacy: The Young Girls Turn 25
: A 1993 documentary by Agnès Varda (Demy's widow) capturing the town’s anniversary celebrations. Behind the Screen : A 1966 episode showing rare behind-the-scenes footage of the production. Archival Interviews The Criterion Collection edition of Jacques Demy's The
: Discussions with director Jacques Demy, composer Michel Legrand, and costume designer Jacqueline Moreau. Critical Essays
: Includes "The Young Girls of Rochefort: Not the Same Old Song and Dance" by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum. The Criterion Collection Cultural Impact High and Low - The Criterion Collection
If you require grit, realism, or moral complexity, The Young Girls of Rochefort will drive you insane. The characters are archetypes. The coincidences are laughably implausible. The villain is a jilted lover who threatens the twins with a knife—only to be disarmed and forgotten two scenes later.
But if you need a reminder that cinema can be pure, unironic pleasure—that a camera can spin, that colors can sing, that two sisters in matching sundresses can dance through a French square to a jazz sextet—then there is nothing better.
The Criterion Collection’s The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) is not just a film about happiness. It is happiness. It is the cinematic equivalent of a perfect summer day: fleeting, impossible to hold onto, but so beautiful while it lasts that you spend the rest of your life chasing the feeling.
Go ahead. Put it in your cart. “You Must Believe in Spring.” Preferably on a Tuesday. Preferably with a glass of rosé. Rochefort is waiting.
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No discussion of Rochefort is complete without Michel Legrand’s magnum opus. Where Cherbourg borrowed from Puccini, Rochefort swings with the brassiness of Stan Getz and the lyricism of French chanson. The songs are deceptively simple—“Chanson des Jumelles” (“Song of the Twins”) opens as a nursery rhyme before modulating into a complex round. “À Chacun Son Histoire” (“To Each His Story”) delivers existentialist philosophy in waltz time.
Criterion’s release includes an isolated music track, allowing listeners to fully appreciate the orchestration—particularly in the legendary “Dance of the Matelots,” where Legrand’s 5/4 time signature gives the sailors’ choreography an off-kilter, giddy anxiety. Gene Kelly, approached to choreograph the film, instead agreed to act and dance, with Norman Maen handling staging; Kelly’s solo to “You Must Believe in Spring” (cut from the original international release but restored here) is a quiet masterclass in screen vulnerability.
History casts a mournful shadow over Rochefort. Françoise Dorléac—exuberant, witty, and then a bigger star than her younger sister—died in a car accident just weeks after the film’s Paris premiere. She was 25. Watching her perform “Deux Filles au Soleil” (“Two Girls in the Sun”) is now an act of séance: her laugh, the way she nudges Deneuve during the dance break, feels impossibly alive. Report: The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) –
Criterion includes a 1988 documentary, Les Demoiselles ont eu 25 ans (The Young Girls Turned 25), directed by Agnès Varda, Demy’s wife. In it, a visibly heartbroken Deneuve revisits the now-drab real Rochefort, walking through the same squares where fake storefronts once glittered. The documentary is a masterful companion piece—not a making-of, but a meditation on how cinema petrifies youth, and how reality corrodes it.