Ballets Russes
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Movie Reviews of Ballets Russes
Movie Review: Ballet Russes
Summary: 5 Stars
Even people who do not have an interest in ballet will find this an excellent move. It is richly garnished in archival film.Movie Review: Ballets Russes
Summary: 5 Stars
Excellent overview. The interviews and footage of past performances are outstanding! A must for any ballet fan!Movie Review: Historic and biographic of Ballet Russes
Summary: 5 Stars
This was not a requested gift, but the recipient loved it. She is a dancer. I was a dancer and loved this film.Movie Review: Step back in time
Summary: 5 Stars
Fabulous!!! This video is a must-see for all serious students of dance!Movie Review: a great documentary
Summary: 4 Stars
"Ballets Russes" is a wonderful documentary about one of the great dance companies of the 20th Century. Though the Ballets Russes was originally created in Paris by impresario Serge Diaghilev in 1909, it is with its later, post-Diaghilev incarnation, starting in the late 1920's, that the film is primarily concerned. It was at that time that choreographer George Balanchine took a chance by hiring a group of unknown Russian émigrés as dancers for the company. Through touring that took them to virtually all corners of the globe, the group would quickly achieve renown as the premier ballet company in the world - though, technically, there were actually TWO Ballet Russes companies, both splintered off from the original, that spent a number of decades battling one another for supremacy. That may be a bit of a rude awakening for those who believe ballet to be all namby-pamby sweetness-and-light, but there's a ruthless, cutthroat, business side to it all as well, and the film does a good job capturing it.
Let me say right up front that one does not need to know a single thing about ballet to be able to appreciate this film (I`m a prime example of that). What holds the viewer's interest is not merely the beauty of the dances, but the warmhearted reminiscences of many of the premier ballerinas themselves as they reflect back poignantly on their illustrious careers. With many of them now in their 80's and 90's, they may be long past their physical primes, but their inner grace, humor and sensitivity shine forth as brilliantly as ever. It is a true joy listening to them recounting their experiences, while at the same time getting to watch them in old film clips performing at the height of their artistry.
Moreover, the film provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse into the short but glorious history of the Ballets Russes itself. We come to see how it evolved to fit the times, how it raised public awareness for the art form, and how it almost single-handedly made ballet an integral part of American culture. And as mentioned earlier, there's a great deal of drama to be found in the backstage wrangling among the various directors that ultimately ended up in the Ballets Russes breaking apart into rival companies, both of which enjoyed varying levels of success, and both of which, perhaps inevitably, closed their doors for good on the cusp of the modernistic 1960's.
Thanks to its one-on-one interviews with many of the dancers who made the companies great, the movie becomes a veritable treasure trove of priceless recollections and memories, and I`m glad that directors Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine were able to put a record of them on film before their stories disappeared forever (several of the dancers have died just since providing the interviews we see them giving here). Had the filmmakers delayed tackling this project, this movie might not have been made at all. What a loss to us all that would have been!