It was FANTASTIC!

I loved the bar cafe in the square and how they used it so well.

There's so much to say about this, I'm boggled.

I'll start with my least relevant or useful observation: Did Bill remind anyone else of Rory Williams from Doctor Who?

Also: THE BRIDGE DID YOU SEE THE BRIDGE

The Rochefort Transporter Bridge is a Victorian-era marvel, built from 1898 to 1900 and still in use today, albeit only for bikes and pedestrians in the summer. Trucks full of speedboats and fêtes have to use the new highway bridge. I can't find anything in the regulations about groups of mixed dancers, but I don't speak French; I'm guessing that wiggling about like that is frowned upon.

It's on Google Street View, from the highway: http://goo.gl/maps/cwhNh

Charmingly, the street from the bridge into the center of town is now called Avenue Jacques Demy.

I gotta say, Fnarf, as fun as this silly nonsense was, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is, by a long shot, my favorite. Maybe it's because I had/got to watch Cherbourg in high school for French class more than once, but I kept hoping Rochefort would turn into something more like that.

@4, fine. Be that way.

"Umbrellas" is pretty grand, but the music is better in "Rochefort". Legrand, unlike most soundtrack people, has a genuine feel for jazz, and expresses it in the pop idiom as well as the light classical. A lot of American ears can't really get around that sound, but it used to be popular -- Legrand's sister Christiane was a member of the Swingle Singers, who sold a fair number of records of "vocalese" interpretations of classical standards in the 60s -- you can see one briefly in one of the music shop scenes. The Swingle Singers were an offshoot of the Double Six of Paris, who were produced by Quincy Jones and Dizzy Gillespie, and often featured hard-core Blue Note jazzbos like Bud Powell and James Moody.

Put simply, the tunes in "Young Girls" are catchier yet more intricately linked, plus I just plain love hearing group singing.

Donkey Skin, the often ignored and profoundly dreadful oddball among oddballs of the Demy/Deneuve oeuvre, should be seen nonetheless. It is based on a a fairly tale that revolves around a princess, a donkey that shits gold and her incestful father.

@6 - Holy shit, Demy made a movie out of Donkey Skin? I never realized until now: that is all I ever wanted in my life.

@4, I did say "Umbrellas" was a better movie, remember. But I LIKE this one better nonetheless.

@6, incestful father? That reminds me, the next Slog Netflix Streaming Club should be "Butterfly" starring Pia Zadora. I suppose it's possible for "Donkey Skin" to be worse, but I doubt it.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Fnarf's getting bylines now?

@9 - Read the original Donkeyskin by Charles Perrault. It is stunning. Incest, casual racism, a goddamn donkey that shits motherfucking gold. Just incredible.

Here, have a sparsely-formatted version.

@10, custom job, by request, because Mr. Schmader's "Netflix is out" (i.e., he forgot to pay his electric bill).

It does look purty sittin' up there, though, don't it?

12: Fun fact: My stupid Netflix just needed to be "restarted" through my "Apple TV." I'm totally watching this shit tonight and cannot wait.

@11, it sounds like it's a fable, not really original to Perrault, just collected by him. It's a little hard to follow, too -- why did they skin the donkey if it shat gold coins? The character of the donkey isn't fully realized for me. AND, there is a notable lack of go-go boots and pointy sixties bras.

But yeah. I know lots of people who fit a really small ring size, and whose waists can be encircled by two hands. They're called "children".

@13, you'll probably hate it and I'll never get asked to do anything ever again.

I just watched this for the third or fourth time. It is fabulous. The music in particular. I also very much enjoyed Gene Kelly's dancing and singing (in French!).

(Nice Job, Fnarf!)

@16, I hate to tell you this, but that wasn't Gene's voice -- it was dubbed by Donald Burke. All of them were; Catherine Deneuve's was Anne Germain (an original Swingle Singer).

george chakiris was a real dish back then.

@12: Color me impressed.

@16, Oh that's OK. His spoken French was good though. Such pretty happy people.