The Young Girls of Rochefort

In the seaside town of Rochefort, a caravan of trucks arrives, bringing the fair that is coming to the town square over the weekend. The story centers on twin sisters Delphine and Solange. Delphine teaches ballet classes and Solange gives music lessons, but each longs to find her ideal love and a life outside of Rochefort. When the fair comes to town, Delphine and Solange meet two smooth-talking but kind-hearted carnies, Étienne and Bill.

The twins' mother Yvonne, who owns a café in the center of town, pines for the fiancé she left impulsively 10 years earlier because of his embarrassing last name, Dame. Yvonne's café becomes a central hub for Étienne and Bill, as well as most of the other characters in the film, including a waitress named Josette. In the café, Yvonne meets Maxence, a sailor about to be demobbed from the navy. Maxence is a poet and painter, and is searching for his ideal woman. Meanwhile, Delphine is unhappy in her relationship with egotistical gallery owner Guillaume, so she ends it. As she is leaving the gallery, she notices a painting that looks remarkably like her, and was in fact painted by Maxence. Delphine becomes determined to meet her secret admirer.

Unbeknownst to Yvonne, her former fiancé Simon Dame has recently opened a music store in Rochefort. He knows his fiancée had twins from a previous relationship, but he never met them. Solange, an aspiring composer, enlists Simon's help—unaware of his relationship with her mother—and he promises to introduce her to his successful American colleague Andy Miller. On her way to pick up her younger brother Booboo from school, Solange bumps into a charming foreigner, who turns out to be Andy, though the two do not exchange names.

Back in the square, the two female dancers in Étienne and Bill's show run off with sailors, so they ask Delphine and Solange to perform, offering them a free ride to Paris in return. The day after the fair, as the twins are packing, Simon stops by and urges Solange to meet Andy at the music store. Maxence stops by the café to say goodbye to Yvonne before departing for Paris. Moments after he leaves, Delphine shows up to say goodbye as well. Once Yvonne learns that Simon volunteered to pick up Booboo from school, she asks Delphine to watch the café and rushes over to see Simon. Maxence briefly returns to retrieve a bag he had forgotten, but he and Delphine again miss each other. At the music store, Solange realizes that the foreigner is Andy; the two dance and kiss.

The truck caravan is leaving, and tired of waiting for Yvonne to return, Delphine takes the road to Paris with Étienne, Bill and Josette. Along the road, Maxence tries to hitchhike his way to Paris. One of the trucks stops to pick him up and is revealed to be the one in which Delphine is, though the long-awaited meeting between the two does not occur on-screen.

Singing voices

• The Young Girls of Rochefort at IMDb
• The Young Girls of Rochefort at Rotten Tomatoes
• Section about the film at the website of Rochefort town council (in French)
• Chicago Reader Review of The Young Girls of Rochefort
• The Young Girls of Rochefort: Not the Same Old Song and Dance – an essay by Jonathan Rosenbaum at the Criterion Collection