The unsuccessful follow-up to Umbrellas of Cherbourg

Everyone knows Jacques Demy's breakthrough movie musical from the mid-60s (1964), The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, but, I think have watched is follow up, also starring Catherine Deneuve (plus Deneuve's sister, Francoise Dorleac, as CD's twin), The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) - and there's a reason for this. It's probably unfair to judge the follow-up except on its own terms and merits, but suffice it to say that while Umbrellas told a sweet love story, has moments of operatic beauty, and made is feel that we were immersed in a real, vibrant Norman coastal city with a working harbor, yet had its own vivid pallet of tropical colors and eccentric interior decor - well, Rochefort has none of that except for an equally daring use of all shades of blue throughout, which is not enough to justify this 2+ hour film. Clearly, Demy was trying more for musical theater here than opera, with more spoken dialog and many supposedly show-stopping #s, but all the songs sound the same, none stands out as a breakout moment. The plot is utterly ridiculous, even by movie-musical standards - full of absurd behavior and impossible coincidences; none of the characters is especially vivid, even the Deneuve "girls." There are lots of dance #s but the choreography in all of them looks identical. Gene Kelley has a small role; fine, though he's far too old for the part. And most of the dancing is led y George (Barnard) Chakiris, very athletic but also very monotonous. I did like the way the film is built around an annual Festival of the Sea that apparently really takes place on a large public square in Rochefort - so throughout the film we see in the background workers setting up the scaffolding for the big event (and we also see life in the city going along on its pace - cars, trucks, pedestrians passing through the background, so that the film feels much more open and connected to real daily life than most scrubbed-clear so-called urban settings - just wish Demy had made more of the city locale, as he did w/ Cherbourg). The film has it's moments, especially at the outset, but these moments go nowhere and the film fall flat.