Les Demoiselles ont eu 25 ans (1993)

Les Demoiselles ont eu 25 ans is a French documentary film first released in 1993, directed by Agnès Varda.  The film stars Jacques Demy, Catherine Deneuve, Françoise Dorléac, Gene Kelly and Michel Legrand.  It has also been released under the title: The Young Girls Turn 25.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


Twenty-five years after the making of Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, Agnès Varda – the wife of the film’s director, Jacques Demy – returns to the French town of Rochefort with some of the film’s cast and production team.  They – and some local people – recall the happy times they had making the film, a film that has since passed into cinematic legend.

This pleasing documentary from Agnès Varda offers an interesting insight into the making of one of French cinema’s triumphs, Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, and the impression it has since left.  Varda skilfully edits together filming of the 1992 reunion with her personal souvenir footage, filmed with a handheld camera during the making of the film in 1967.  This work is as much a loving tribute to Varda’s husband, Jacques Demy, as it is to the popular French musical.

Significant contributions are made by Michel Legrand (who composed the timeless music for the film) and Catherine Deneuve (star of the film with her real-life sister, Françoise Dorléac, who tragically died soon after the film was released).  However, most satisfying are the recollections of the local people, for whom the film was genuinely a life-changing event; all are genuinely proud of their small part in a significant piece of film legend.  As in many of Varda’s documentaries, it is the seemingly least significant characters who bring the most magic and charm to her film.

© James Travers 2004

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