595 - The Young Girls Turn 25, France, 1993. Dir. Agnes Varda.

Tuesday, February 5, 2019

595 - The Young Girls Turn 25, France, 1993.  Dir. Agnes Varda.

From bridge to square, all Rochefort remembers the film Jacques Demy shot there in 1966, The Young Girls of Rochefort.

Tourists still ask for Demoiselles Square, and folks often reply by singing the famous song composed by Michel Legrand.

--The Narrator.

I won't let painful emotions overwhelm me--I hope. - Catherine Deneuve.

The pleasure of memory will win out. - Catherine Deneuve.

It was a film about joy.  I've come back to find that joy again. - Michel Legrand.

The city had been preparing for weeks.  Dance classes.  Balloons.  The music.  The crane.  The loudspeakers.

If you're shooting outdoors with music, it turns into a party. - Catherine Deneuve.

[I was] trying to create something new, or at least something personal--but the characters sing and dance like in a Hollywood classic. - Jacques Demy.

He loved Hollywood musicals.  They fed his dreams. - Agnes Varda.

But he was after something much more French and classical, and Rochefort was just right for it. - Agnes Varda.

When we saw Colbert Square, we jumped for joy. - Agnes Varda.

I think Demy needed actresses who could play female leads who were both distant and innocent.  And Deneuve really conveys those qualities in the film.  Demy and Deneuve were like Hitchcock and Grace Kelly. - Bertrand Tavernier.

I think Jacques found something he'd been searching for in Deneuve.  An actress with star quality. - Bertrand Tavernier.

He had 1000 shutters repainted.

The sisters had to learn to lip-sync the song.

Francoise had ballet training.  Catherine did not.  But he wanted Francoise to be the singer and Catherine the dancer.  So they learned.

I learned a lot from Gene.  It was terrific.  I wanted him to choreograph the whole film, but he said No.  He'd come to France, but just for three weeks, so as not to be away from his kids.  He did his numbers and helped plan the shots.  He's a real ace.  He knows it all--how the camera relates to the dancers and everything. - Jacques Demy.

Agnes Varda interviews a lot of the locals who are still there, including men who were in the fifth grade at the time and worked as extras in the film.

"Gene Kelly picked us out of the whole fifth grade."

I'd known Danielle for years.  Things were so simple and intimate with her.  We're very much alike in not dwelling on certain things but taking them lightly, and in physical resemblance that Jacques played on. - Catherine Deneuve.

Then about her sister Francoise Dorleac, who died at the age of 25 in the same year the movie was released:

We arrived on set like two teenagers.

We had lost that sisterly bond, but we renewed that sisterly bond before the film and all through the film.  I felt this melancholy when we went home, her to her loves, me to my life.  But I'd recovered something I had missed. - Catherine Deneuve.

It's like there's a time lag, these desires that are always out of sync.

A four-month party.

Lots of new costumes.

Agnes Varda observes the history of Begonias in Rochefort.

Jean-Louis Frot, the current mayor, posing beside a pot of begonias, a plant from Martinique, imported by Father Plumier, at the time Begon was intendant to Louis XIV.

The flowers were renamed in honor of Madame Begon.  The camera looks at the Rue Begon.

Rochefort is famous for four things:
1)  begonias of all varieties
2)  writer Pierre Loti and his orientalist fantasies
3)  The Young Girls of Rochefort
4)  and by extension, twins

A local leader observes, "Though the shipyards are closed, the town can live again."

The arsenal was restored along with the rope factory.  It now houses the Oceanic Center, the Bird Preservation League, a library, and a media center.

While the people are there visiting, the town dedicates two locations.  An avenue for Jacques Demy.  A place for Francoise Dorleac.

Demy's sister Helene christens the Avenue Jacques Demy.

Catherine Deneuve christens the Place Francoise Dorleac.

Jacques Demy was like a brother to me.  Long ago I dedicated more than a street to him.  It was a main artery, an artery leading from my heart. - Michel Legrand.

He did not seek to impress.  He was just him.

It was amazing to see George Chakiris and Gene Kelly here in Colbert Square. - Catherine Deneuve

Jacques' lines were really chiseled to a fraction of an inch.  He loved alexandrines.  He wanted it to move fast. - Michel Legrand.

And to relive the Summer of 66, all you have to do is film.  All you have to do is love. - Agnes Varda.