Why Jacques Demy’s Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967) Is the Ultimate "Feel-Good" Masterpiece
The answer will be yes.
Cinematographer Ghislain Cloquet (and uncredited help from Jean Rabier) drenches every frame in pastels: pinks, mint greens, lemon yellows. Rochefort was actually a gray, rainy town, but Demy had every storefront, shutter, and fence repainted. The result is a hyperreal, dreamlike France that never existed — and yet feels more true than documentary footage. The best single image is the sisters in matching orange dresses, walking under a canopy of blue-and-white striped awnings, their reflection bouncing off a rain-slicked street after a sudden storm. It is painterly, melancholy, and ecstatic at once. les demoiselles de rochefort 1967 best