Rating: 
Summary: Excellent! Very good film!
Review: A semi sequel to Umbrellas of Cherbourg. It is not as good as Umbrellas but it is still an excellent film in its own right. Very good musical scores and the story line is quite good as well. A must see. (WARNING for those not knowing any better...this film is presented somewhat feminine from normal american film.)
Rating: 
Summary: Highly Engrossing Musical
Review: Along with "The Sound of Music", this is definitely one musical set to launch a thousand other copycat musicals to come. It is not hard to see the inspiration, a la this Jacques Demy's gem, behind Woody Allen's "Everybody Says I Love You". Gene Kelly was captivating, so was the young Jacques Perrin, who sadly did not age quite as gracefully as Catherine Deneuve. (For those who have problems recognising who Jacques Perrin is, he was the one playing the grown-up Toto/Salvatore role in Giuseppe Tornatore's wonderful "Cinema Paradiso").
Rating: 
Summary: Comme Ci Comme Ca
Review: Although I loved the colours and the clothes, and few of the tunes were catchy, overall I felt the film was rather bizarre. Catherine Denevue and her sis would have been better served with flattering wigs. Catherine was also very graceless in her moves, dancing and other. A strange flick, no doubts.
Rating: 
Summary: Not At All What It Seems to Be
Review: First of all, I didn't realize that this movie was in French when I got it - after all, Gene Kelly, doesn't speak French, does he? No, he doesn't. Kelly - who does not appear until late in the film - is dubbed by someone who doesn't sound remotely like him - a major disappointment.This movie is an old-fashioned farce, with people's lives being intertwined, and with characters just missing running into each other. The dancers are good, but are not in synch with one another; it looks as if the numbers were not rehearsed enough. The songs are forgettable (there are only about three, and they are repeatedly reprised over and over). The little dancing given to Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac is more than they can handle, their voices are okay, but not great. A somewhat enjoyable movie, but a disappointment because of Kelly's lack of screen time.
Rating:
Summary: Fairytale set in reality
Review: Firstly: this isn't a musical like 'Cherbourg'. It has only a few themes, each belonging to certain people - and you can quickly find out, that people who belong together sing the same tune, only with different words. Which is a charming idea and won me over. And it isn't the kind of fairytale that many Demy's films are. The people move about in a realistic place, doing things that at least remind things that happen in reality, but wearing things that make them and the dancers - who walk by casually and start and stop dancing absent-mindedly - stand out of others. There are very few big dancing scenes here. Even though Gene Kelly is in the cast. The cast is great: Danielle Darrieux, Francoise Dorleac, Catherine Deneuve, George Charikis, Michel Piccoli, Gene Kelly and Jacques Perrin - with his hair blonde, wearing a sailor costume that looks like the ones little boys wear. They all seem to fit in this story that has nothing to do with real life, just happens in real surroundings. The pastel coloured clothes, the way people move without finding each other, unexpected, haphazard dancers on the streets... Apparently Demy had fun lending musical-like features while still trying to do something else. Deneuve, Dorleac and Darrieux are lovely, of course, the men are all handsome and charming (Charikis should be sold in bottles!) and the music is lovely. This time Legrand made recognizable songs, each belonging to certain people. The plot? There isn't much to tell about. Two lovely girls, musically talented, are looking for love and a better future, their mother keeps a cafe and remembers the love of her life she rejected because the man had a silly name. The fare brings new people to Rochefort and the girls get a chance to leave, maybe to Paris. But men keep crossing their path... Oh yes, I love this film. Even though I don't care for musicals that much. Or pure romantic soap. There is something disarming in this one, though it's useless to find great big truths of life or magnificent singers. Perhaps that's what is so charming: these people can hold a tune and dance a bit, but they aren't so good you couldn't do the same thing yourself - if you had the balls to take a few steps or to sing a nice tune as you walk down the street and feel like it. I suppose I finally fell for this film in the end, when one of the main characters is leaving alone, then gets up on a truck and the theme grows stronger and bigger than ever. The lovers meet, though it isn't shown. And by the way: in my mind it's one of the best themes Legrand ever composed. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: If You Like This Movie You Will Like It
Review: For the first twenty or so minutes the movie feels awkward but once this past, it became a charming musical.
The best thing about this movie was Francoise Dorleac and Catherine Denevue. They play twins in this movie and this was the only time the sisters were able to work together. They make a great team. Dorleac though was so much prettier than she is presented in this movie. She was almost as beautiful as Denevue. But with a bad wig and some fake wrinkles it is hard to tell this. One has to see Cul de Sac or The Soft Skin to see her beauty. Also Gene Kelly didn't belong in this movie, much too old for Dorleac. He felt as misplaced here as in Xanadu.
Danielle Darrieux's performance as the mother who is also looking for love is an extra bonus.
Rating:
Summary: Fun
Review: For the first twenty or so minutes the movie feels awkward but once this past, it became a charming musical.
The best thing about this movie was Francoise Dorleac and Catherine Denevue. They play twins in this movie and this was the only time the sisters were able to work together. They make a great team. Dorleac though was so much prettier than she is presented in this movie. She was almost as beautiful as Denevue. But with a bad wig and some fake wrinkles it is hard to tell this. One has to see Cul de Sac or The Soft Skin to see her beauty. Also Gene Kelly didn't belong in this movie, much too old for Dorleac. He felt as misplaced here as in Xanadu.
Danielle Darrieux's performance as the mother who is also looking for love is an extra bonus.
Rating:
Summary: Comparative Musicals
Review: I bought this video for only one reason - George Chakiris is in it. And I still feel that his dancing was up to 'West Side Story' standards, even though he was now 34 (27/28 in 'WSS'), and so did the standard of most of the main characters. But it is very 'French' (the feeling I get is not quite 'today' and just a little bit 'yesterday'), and the general standard of precision in the dancing is not as slick as American musicals. Little things like the angles of the poles when they arrive in the square - not quite all the same. Or the kicks to the side during the opening sequences are not quite all the same height. Some dancers seem to be working on the 'one' beat, but some seem to be working on the 'one "and"'. But having said that, it was great to see another 'modern dance' musical. Unfortunately, and as much as I admire Gene Kelly as a dancer, he was much too old to play the part he did. And his style of dance didn't mix right with the rest of the musical numbers. It needed someone younger and more charismatic to play the part. But on the whole it is an enjoyable movie, with a tangled love theme that - right up to the end - you're not quite sure is going to work out (although you know it must because it is a movie). I will always enjoy the dance sequences (dance has no language barriers) but will find it difficult keeping my eyes on the subtitles while trying to watch George Chakiris moving across the screen. How much nicer it would have been to have an English version of this movie as well.
Rating:
Summary: Think of this as a combination of opera and musical
Review: I don't think Maltin (and other critics) were quite fair to this movie. The focus is on the music, singing and dancing, NOT the story and if you can view the film with that perspective, you'll be less likely to be disappointed. I found it charming for many reasons. First of all, the choreography, music and singing are often innovative and striking. Yes, there are some parts that drag, but there are others which soar. I found myself humming many of these tunes afterwards. Most of all, the movie revolves around 3 love stories and of passions, sometimes irrational, which keep love alive and keep yearnings unquenched.
Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: I thought this was a very wonderful movie. It was directed and acted very well.
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