Directed by Jacques Demy
Screenplay by Jacques Demy
Director of photography: Ghislain Cloquet
Music by Michel Legrand
Cast: Catherine Deneuve, George Chakiris, Françoise Dorléac, Jacques Perrin, Michel Piccoli, Jacques Riberolles
Production: Parc Film, Madeleine Films

Jacques Demy surprised everyone at the Cannes film festival, where he also took the Palmed’Or with his movie The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. In fact, the world had never seen the like of it, a film in which there is not a single word in prose and everyone sings from beginning to end (not many similar films were made even later on, most recently Dreamgirls). On the basis of ‘don’t mess with a winner’, Demy used the same crew in making this similarly charming Young Girls of Rochefort, although singing another story and another city, with,naturally, Catherine Deneuve in the lead role. Colourful, beautifully-choreographed dance sets, farcical costumes and the music of Michel Legrand; these are main ingredients of this film communicating the sheer joy of freedom and a good life throughout. Michel Legrandpassed away this year.