Les Demoiselles ont eu 25 ans (1993)
Directed by Agnès Varda

Film Review

Twenty-five years after the making of Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967), one of the most popular French films of the 1960s, director Agnès Varda offers up this insightful documentary which sheds some light on the making of the film and the impression that it has left behind. Varda is ideally placed to make the documentary, as it was her husband Jacques Demy who made the classic 1960s musical starring Catherine Deneuve and her sister Françoise Dorléac. Cast and crew from the film are brought together to reminisce, and around this Varda includes some personal footage filmed with a handheld camera during the making of the film in 1967.  This documentary is as much a loving tribute to Varda's husband as it is to the musical.

There are some interesting contributions from Michel Legrand (who composed the timeless music for the film) and Catherine Deneuve (Dorléac is poignantly absent as she died in a tragic accident soon after the film was released).  However, most satisfying are the recollections of the people of Rochefort, for whom the film was a genuinely life-changing event - all appear to be genuinely proud of their small part in a significant piece of film history.  As in many of Varda's documentaries, it is the seemingly least significant characters who bring the most magic and charm to her film. Les Demoiselles ont eu 25 ans forms one part of a trilogy of films that Varda made in memory of her husband, the others being: Jacquot de Nantes (1991) and L'Univers de Jacques Demy (1995).

Film Synopsis

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.