1. Forever young, forever romantic, forever gorgeous love carnival
"Liu Mei Hua Jiao" should be the most relaxed and happy work in Jacques Demy's works. Almost every scene in the whole film is filled with a carnival atmosphere.
The film's composer, Michel Legrand, once said that "Liu Mei Hua Jiao" is a film about happiness. Indeed, from the girl's cherishing spring to meeting the lover of her dreams, from bitter lovesickness to sweet reunion, as well as grand square celebrations, dazzling and smart song and dance shows, happiness is everywhere.
There is a small episode in the film, that is, the truth about the murder of the dancer was revealed. This little episode doesn't seem to fit well with the film's hilarious mood, but it's nothing more than Jacques Demy's bootleg — a nod to his old Lola (1961).
The songs in the film are all elegant and catchy, the dances in the film are enthusiastic, lively and graceful, and the pictures in the film are all colorful and dreamlike. You can feel the joy and vitality of youth in it.
The story of the film is full of French romance, there are encounters, there are longings, and there are long-term doomed, three loves, each with its own small luck.
I don't understand French, but with a beautiful melody, I sang it in the film, and I listened to it so much. I think this is the elegance of French.
This is a love carnival that is forever young, romantic, and gorgeous. Every time you watch it, it is a festival or commemoration of youth.
2. From "Song Records" to "Song and Dance Movies"
Jacques Demy's "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" (1964) is a very special film in the history of film, it is different from ordinary musicals, every line in the film is sung (normal musicals still have Part of the dialogue), it also has no obvious dance scenes, but the actors have some dance-like movements when they "sing their lines".
Therefore, "The Umbrella of Cherbourg" should be defined as a "song record", not a "musical film".
"The Umbrella of Cherbourg" was a huge success in the Western world that year, which gave Jacques Demy the opportunity to visit Hollywood and the opportunity to get close to Hollywood musicals. Jacques Demy decided to learn from the successful experience of Hollywood musicals and create a French musical, so he has "Liu Mei Hua Jiao".
From "The Umbrella of Cherbourg" to "Liu Mei Hua Jiao", Jacques Demy upgraded the "song record" to "song and dance", the same thing is the French romance and French elegance, what has changed is - out of "Serum" The faint sadness in "The Umbrella of the Castle" came to the joyful love carnival of "Liu Mei Hua Jiao".
And the song and dance show in "Liu Mei Hua Jiao" also added American elements.
The film was shot bilingually at the time of filming, in French and English. Jacques Demy also invited Gene Kelly and George Chakins, two big names in American musicals, to help out. Gene Kelly is the director and star of the American classic musical "Singing in the Rain" (1952), he can be described as the "God-level" figure of American musicals. George Chakins is another American classic musical and one of the leading roles in West Side Story (1961), which also won the Oscar for the best picture that year. Their joining, in addition to making the film shine, also brought elements of American singing and dancing, making the film more beautiful and dynamic.
3. François Dorie and Catherine Deneuve
The twin girls in the film, one loves music, the other loves dance, and the one who loves music by François Dorie
The one who loves dancing is played by the French goddess Catherine Deneuve.
François Dorie and Catherine Deneuve play twins in the film, which would be confusing if not for different hair colors, but in reality they are sisters. Although Catherine Dener was a younger sister and a little later than François Dougier, she had already become popular with "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg". François Dorie had previously mainly played important supporting roles, and her main works included "Zu and Zhan" (1962), etc. "Liu Mei Hua Jiao" was a great opportunity for her to become popular. 1967.06.26) Died in a car accident, it can be said that the sky is jealous.
In addition to this film, the most important intersection between the sisters is that they have been the lovers of director Truffaut.
In reality, François Dorie has a little dance foundation, and Catherine Deneuve has almost zero foundation. But Jacques Demy chose Catherine Deneuve to play the dancing girl.
To this end, the sisters went to London for about two weeks of dance raid training. Catherine Deneuve's physical condition was too good. After the assault training, she danced no less than her sister.
After all, Catherine Deneuve is not good at dancing, and since then, we have never seen her so "dance" on the screen. Therefore, Catherine Deneuve's dance performance in the film can be called peerless elegance.
4. Girl Gemini
"We are twin sisters
We are Gemini
We are two flower girls
I had a crush on boys a long time ago
We are fragile people, we are romantics
In love with art, music and antics
Which man is where? what we've been looking for
Where is Prince Charming? It doesn't matter if there's a fly in the ointment
…”
In Rochefort, if you mention "Liu Mei Hua Jiao" to others, the other party is likely to hum this "Girl Gemini".
The melody of this song is so beautiful, it's hard to forget after listening to it almost once.
Judging from the lyrics, it's very ordinary, just the mind of two Huaichun girls. But with beautiful melody and elegant French, it becomes a classic golden song.
When the melody of this song played, I had a feeling of deja vu, but I couldn't remember hearing it there - the so-called classic is probably so inadvertently integrated into life.
5. Michel Legrand
Michel Legrand is a very important French composer. He has collaborated with Jacques Demy since "Lola" and participated in most of the important works directed by Jacques Demy since then. Nirvana Varda, Chris Mark and other film masters have collaborated.
In Michel Legrand's composing career, "The Umbrella of Cherbourg" and "Liu Mei Hua Jiao" are undoubtedly his two most important works, and his involvement in the works has exceeded the responsibility of a composer.
The music composition of "The Umbrella of Cherbourg" and "Liu Mei Hua Jiao" are different from ordinary films. They are all music first - the music is completely composed before the film starts. Michel Legrand's work is not just as simple as composing music. In order to ensure the musical sense of "lyrics" (lines), he also participated in the creation of "lyrics" to some extent - that is to say, he actually I have been involved since the script writing stage.
Michel Legrand is a big part of the graceful and beautiful "lyrics" we can hear in the film.
In the two works "The Umbrella of Cherbourg" and "Liu Mei Hua Jiao", the cooperation between Michel Legrand and Jacques Demy is intimate, usually when Michel Legrand is composing on the piano , Jacques Demy listened to the script next to him. The two scrutinized it repeatedly, and finally "chosen" every song, every melody, and every lyric together.
The way they work together makes Jacques Demy actually involved in music creation. The film was nominated for Best Score in a Musical at the 41st Academy Awards, and Jacques Demy was nominated together with Michel Legrand.
6. Bernard Evan and Jacqueline Morrow
Bernard Evan and Jacqueline Moreau are husband and wife, and partners, one is an art director, the other is a costume designer, and they are Jacques Demy's Nantes fellow. As Jacques Demy's small hair, they cooperated with Jacques Demy, and naturally "have a good understanding of each other".
In "Liu Mei Hua Jiao", Bernard Evan is not only an art director, but also an amazing architect. For the film, Bernard Irving transformed Rochefort's town square, converting a café and a record store, as well as converting part of the town hall into the twin sisters' living quarters. In order to present the best color effect, Bernard Evan even had more than a thousand shutters painted.
Jacqueline Morrow's clothing design and Bernard Evan's art design can be described as a perfect match, the contrast and fusion of colors are incomparable harmony. Several sets of dresses and hats of the twin sisters, the uniforms of sailors, and the various suits of dancers are all eye-catching.
7. Rochefort
"Liu Mei Hua Jiao" was filmed in the port town of Rochefort in France. The filming of the film made the town reborn and became one of the resorts in France.
After the film was released, many fans affectionately referred to the city square in the film as "Girls Square" - this is where twin girls' dreams of youth and love took place.
Rochefort is also very grateful. On the 25th anniversary of the filming, he specially invited the cast members of that year to return to the town and held a grand commemorative event. It is a pity that director Jacques Demy died of illness at this time. In honor of Jacques Demy, the municipality of Rochefort named a local street Avenue Jacques Demy.
With this commemoration, Agnès Varda, the widow of Jacques Demy, made a documentary, "The Girl of Los Angeles (Rochefort) Was 25" (1993). At the end of the film, the crew invited several pairs of twin girls to leave the country, which was a stroke of genius.
8. Amazing Female Producer - Margot Poda
"Liu Mei Hua Jiao" has become a classic in musicals, but its birth was also ill-fated.
Compared with Hollywood musicals, the investment in "Liu Mei Hua Jiao" is not large (about one-fifth of the investment of the large Hollywood musicals), but European movies are difficult to sell to the world like Hollywood movies, and they are very expensive. big sale.
So, after the huge success of "The Umbrella of Cherbourg", it took Jacques Demy two years to find an investment for "Liu Mei Hua Jiao".
The original budget for the film was only 200 to 250 million francs, but as the filming progressed, the crew was severely overrun, and by the time it was about to be completed, about 650 million francs had been spent. Many of the overrun parts are used for the engineering transformation of shooting scenes, but only in this way can the film be presented in the most beautiful way.
The film's producer, Margot Boda, is a female producer, but you can imagine how much courage and pressure she undertook to support the final completion of the film - she is a very amazing producer filmmaker.
9. The invincible Jacques Behan
Jacques Behan is one of the most important documentary directors in the world film industry in the past 20 years. His documentaries such as "Ocean" (1999) and "Migrating Birds" (2001) have become classics in film history.
Jacques Behan actually made his debut as an actor, and he is the kind of star who can rely on his looks to make a living, but he has to be a good actor. In 1966, at the age of 25, he won the Venice award. Best Actor. He has since ventured into filmmaking, winning an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for "Focus Z" (1969).
In 1994, Jacques Behan made another transformation, "crossover" to the field of nature documentary with "Micro World" (1996), and achieved great success again.
In fact, acting is Jacques Behan's lifelong profession, and he is still acting today.
In "Liu Mei Hua Jiao", Jacques Behan plays the sailor painter who is looking for the lover of his dreams. He is talented and handsome, but he is still a lover. In today's words, he is so handsome from the outside to the inside.
View more about The Young Girls of Rochefort reviews
