1967 French film
The Young Girls Of Rochefort (French: Les Demoiselles De Rochefort, lit. 'The Young Ladies Of Rochefort' or 'The Damsels Of Rochefort') is a 1967 French musical romantic comedy film, written and directed by Jacques Demy. The ensemble cast is headlined by real-life sisters Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac, and features George Chakiris, Michel Piccoli, Jacques Perrin, Grover Dale and Geneviève Thénier, along with Gene Kelly and Danielle Darrieux.
Michel Legrand composed the score for the film, to Demy's lyrics. The most famous songs from the film are "A Pair of Twins" ("Chanson des Jumelles") and Maxence's Song ("Chanson de Maxence"), which was later relyricized by Alan and Marilyn Bergman as "You Must Believe in Spring". The dance sequences were choreographed by Norman Maen.
The film was a success for Demy in his native France, with 1,319,432 admissions, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture — Original or Adaptation at the 41st Academy Awards.
A stage musical based on the film was produced in France in 2003, adapted by Alain Boublil and directed by Daniel Moyne.
It is now widely regarded as one of the best musical films of all time, one of the best films of French cinema, one of the best pictures of 1967, of the 1960s, as well of the 20th century and Demy's best film alongside The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
Plot summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.