Twins Delphine and Solange, a dance instructor and a music teacher (played by real-life sisters Catherine Deneuve and Francoise Dorleac), long for 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, The Young Girls of Rochefort is a tribute to Hollywood optimism from sixties French cinema's preeminent dreamer. Director: Jacques Demy Cast: Catherine Deneuve, George Chakiris, Francoise Dorleac, Michel Piccoli, Jacques Perrin, Grover Dale, Genevieve Thenier, Gene Kelly, Danielle Darrieux Jacques Demy was a French filmmaker and lyricist. He appeared at the height of the French New Wave. Demy's films are celebrated for their visual style, which drew upon diverse sources such as classic Hollywood musicals, the plein-air realism of his French New Wave colleagues, fairy tales, jazz, Japanese manga, and the opera. His films contain overlapping continuity (i.e., characters cross over from film to film), lush musical scores (typically composed by Michel Legrand), and motifs like teenage love, labor rights, chance encounters, incest, and the intersection between dreams and reality. Screening followed by a discussion with Walter Frisch (Professor of Music at Columbia University) and Jane Gaines (Professor of Film and Media Studies at Columbia University)
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