Les Demoiselles ont eu 25 ans

Despite numerous droll diversions, this is the most nakedly nostalgic of Varda's loving backtracks over the life and career of her husband Jacques Demy. It comprises material shot by Varda in 1966 during the making of Les Demoiselles de Rochefort intercut with footage of the city's festivities 25 years later (attended by Deneuve, Legrand, and others), plus, of course, copious extracts from the movie and lots of interviews. Foremost among the latter is a bunch of 30-something Rochefortiens with magical childhood memories of dancing a couple of steps with Gene Kelly, being smiled at by Catherine Deneuve. They soften the contrast between a sundrenched, exuberant Then and a subdued, rainswept Now, with its melancholy roster of absentees: Kelly, Dorléac, Cloquet, Demy himself.