Jacques Demy and production designer Bernard Evein transformed the actual city of Rochefort into a living backlot.
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. The Young Girls of Rochefort -1967- Criterion -...