Customer Reviews

Ballets Russes

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The good news is that in Ballets Russes, viewers don't need to know anything about ballet to enjoy this electrifying documentary by Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, This is a lovingly and confidently made documentary that brings to life an era of unequaled artistic excitement. Equally heart-wrenching, and riveting and thoroughly entertaining the Ballet Russes unwinds like a historical thriller, laying bare the politics, rivalries, tremendous egos, and creative appetites that produced two of the world's greatest ballet companies.

Weaving actual historical footage of the companies with interviews of these dancers today, the film starts with a first-ever reunion of Ballets Russes dancers in New Orleans in 2000, and juxtaposes this with the various permutations of the troupes that started with impresario Serge Diaghilev's legendary Paris-based Ballets Russes. When Diaghilev died in 1929, ballet came to a standstill until a pair of entrepreneurs began Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo two years later.

What follows is a beguiling journey through the intoxicating twists and turns of the next 30 years of ballet history, which involved competing companies, the legendary choreographers George Balanchine, Leonide Massine and David Lichine, and almost every major dancer you can think of, including dancers such as Alicia Markova and Alexandra Danilova. The guides through this world are the dancers themselves, many white-haired and elderly, offering up sharp and often-funny anecdotes. Some were barely in their teens at the time, from families who had lost everything in the Russian Revolution.

These men and women, many of them now in their 80s and 90s, are still totally alive and articulate, including the regal Markova, the coquettish Nathalie Krassovska, and the red-convertible driving octogenarian Tatiana Riabouchinska, who continues to teach because "what will I do, sell fruit? This is my life." These dancers, choreographers, and impresarios were shamelessly passionate in pursing their professional and personal lives, and the result is a story filled with enough backstage intrigues, romantic rivalries and unlikely assignations to make it the juiciest of artistic soap operas.

The male dancers are equally compelling, there's Frederick Franklin, who talks movingly of his nearly 20-year partnership with Danilova and also the 90-year-old Marc Platt, who had his name changed to Platoff because everyone had to seem Russian, and the vital George Zoritch, captured reliving the past with Krassovska in a moment from "Giselle." Their grainy performance clips give us an emotional quality that is not to be matched, and their interviews reflected an era of excitement, novelty, innovation, and yes, even sexiness!

The Ballets Russes is one of the best documentaries of the year, a wonderful story of a grand moment in high-art culture, the archival footage so breathtaking, and the reminiscences so piquant, that even a novice can't help being swept up in this ode to one of the world's greatest art forms. Mike Leonard February 06.

Today practically every one-horse town in America has a ballet studio: One room affairs with tinkly piano music and an aging grand dame leading rows of tu-tu-clad little girls. We take it for granted, but at the beginning of the last century ballet was almost nonexistent in the US, and elsewhere in the world it was in serious danger of dying out. When two banker-types decided to restart a legendary dance troupe and give the art of ballet a new, modern face, they single-handedly resurrected the art form and changed the world of dance forever.

"Ballet Russes" documents the golden years of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and its offshoot, the Original Ballet Russe. Through wonderful archival footage and delightful interviews with surviving dancers (of which there are a surprising amount; dancing is very good for your health) we witness incredible athleticism, heartbreaking artistry, and enough drama to fill ten seasons of "Desperate Housewives".

There's the machinations of warring choreographers Massine and Balanchine (he of the "baby ballerinas"), the love affairs and feuds of the dancers ("The Russians weren't very nice to each other," recalls Fredrick Franklin, still delightfully gossipy in his eighties) and of course recollections of playing a Salvador Dali ballet in Middle America ("Strange people dressed in strange costumes doing strange things", as one dancer puts it.).

These were some spectactular-looking people, as the photos attest. Three ballerinas, now pushing ninety, get all giggly remembering the hunkiness of George Zoritch (who is still alive and looks at least twenty years younger than he is). Zoritch and his old partner Krassovaska dance out a scene from Giselle for the cameras in what has to be the documentary's most adorable moment (he later recalls Krassovaska's six week marriage to a Hollywood musician with a roll of his eyes). Every interview snippet with spitfire Tatiana Riabouchinska is also a treat. Her story of how she started taking ballet classes is hilarious ("No one said no to my Mother.").

As they toured across America, the dancers ignited the love of ballet in young people of every background. The filmakers interview Native American Maria Tallchief (who inspired me to take up ballet), as well as the company's first black ballerina, Raven Wilkinson (whose career was cut short thanks to the Klu Klux Klan). The troupe made a brief stop-off in Hollywood, where they casually cranked out a couple of films. None of them really stayed, though. Dancing was their love and their life, and even though they were treated more or less like circus animals, they all had the bug. Sixty years later, many of them tear up when they remember their time on the stage for the greatest ballet company in the world.

You don't have to be a ballet nut to enjoy this film, and you don't have to understand why a person would want to dedicate their entire life to prancing around in tights. The passion of these still-spry dancers will explain it for you. They did what they were born to do, and they had a blast doing it. We can all understand that, can't we?

GRADE: A

NOTE: Watch for my favorite moment in the film, a clip of the Rita Hayworth film, "Tonight and Every Night" with Ballet Russe dancer Marc Platt. You think Gene Kelly was the greatest dancer in film? Think again.

This is an absolutely delightful DVD. It combines narration, archival footage, and interviews with original(!) members of the companies to produce a very engaging history. To clarify, the DVD is about two companies: the "Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo" and the so-called "Original Ballet Russe" company, both of which split off from the _real_ original Ballet Russe - which as all of you know was the company of Najinsky etc. - after 1929.

Everything about this DVD is first-class. The archival footage is very clean. The narration clarified many points of history about which I was very confused, including how George Balanchine bounced around like a pinball from place to place during those early years. Best of all was the contemporary footage and oral history interviews of company members. I could hardly believe how many dancers from the two companies are still around in the 21st century! We're talking WWII-era here. If this were Japan, we would declare them National Treasures. Many of them in their 80s, they are still vital and active in teaching, and in at least one case, performing! And they are still such lovely people that my heart just went out to them.

The DVD cover includes a url for more information: [...]; do check it out, and I hope you like it as much as I did!

First up, I am not into ballet, or at least not very much. It's never been an artform that has grabbed me, with occasional exceptions. However, this documentary is one of the most beautiful, charming, witty and moving films I have ever seen (and I'm old, so that says a lot). The performers - some of them now in their 90's and still hale - are remarkable, and the ease with which the filmmaker moves through the history of these amazing two companies of artists is a joy to behold. I saw this on a whim in the theater when it first came out; I laughed at some of the dancers' memories, cried at the sheer beauty of the historic footage, and came out feeling wonderful about life and the magic that is performance art at its very best.

At times funny, at times touching, always beautiful, this film is both a loving tribute to an extraordinary time and a consummate work of art.

Once in a while a documentary sheds such inner light on the subject matter and the characters that it becomes an art film, a story, a novel, a memento. Such is the case with BALLET RUSSES. This tender, touching, humorous, and exactingly real look at the history of ballet in the hands of the expatriated Russians in Europe in the early part of the 20th century to the reformation of the troop after the death in 1929 by master Impresario Diaghilev unfolds through the words and movements of those who experienced it.

To say too much about the content would be like telling each member of a conversation group the essence before the topic unfolds. Suffice it to say that here are the dancers, choreographers, composers, artists creating the sets and costumes who produced the contemporary standard for ballet that still exist today. To have the joy of watching Massine, Balanchine, Lichine, Markova, Krassovska, Danilova, Riabouchinska, Platt, Zoritch, Franklin and the designs of Picasso, Dali, Laurencin, etc is more than a visual treat: it is a step into a history of creativity the likes of which we may never see again.

The real joy of this rich film is the conversations and, yes, dance movements of the surviving members of this troop and those who admired it. It is full of touching moments and memorable sequences that easily place this documentary in the top of the list of works in this genre, Grady Harp, September 06

Of course I and every dancer and afficionado am grateful to Geller and Goldfine for this documentary, a resource of unique film footage as well as just-in-time interviews with some of the most important dancers of the early 20th century. But it is the very uniqueness and importance of the material that I wonder if Geller and Goldfine fully appreciate.
I heard Geller and Goldfine interviewed on the radio in 2005 and they spoke excitedly of great quantities of archival footage and interview material they had to leave out of the film for theatrical release, but which they looked forward to putting on the dvd. Well, on the dvd there is a "bonus" section of snippets of interviews with Franklin and 4 others for a total of 10 extra minutes. Those 10 minutes are interesting and valuable but far short of what Geller and Goldfine were talking about in the interview. Perhaps problems arose with the plan to incorporate the extra material into the dvd.
A small problem, but telling: in the archival footage of the different ballets the music has been dubbed in, and it is almost always the wrong music for the ballet (sometimes it's not even the correct composer). Why bother dubbing in music at all if it's the wrong music? This suggests the film makers don't think it matters. For people who know better the wrong music distracts from the experience of seeing such rare footage.
The film centers around a reunion of the elderly surviving members of the 3 Ballets Russes companies. Personally I found the scenes of this big, cheerful, relaxed, often clownish reunion boring, and finally, as the scenes go on, a bit grating. I realize that like most dancers I come to this film deeply aware of the immense professional and artistic stature of the people in it. I don't begrudge these extraordinary artists their fun at all, but the scenes of the reunion are anything but extraordinary, and in their place I'd much rather have seen more of that historical footage Geller and Goldfine said they didn't have room for.
In the end I can only be grateful to Geller and Goldfine for this documentary, but I have a sneaking suspicion that they don't really quite realize the artistic stature of the people they filmed, nor do they quite understand the art those people gave their lives to.

This was a wonderful informative movie. Superbly done.
If you like dance and the Ballet , you won't want to miss this. You see the old footage of the 20's and 30's,when they were very young..
Then the artist speaks as they are today, it is quite amazing!! They still have such style and grace. Seeing them in their prime is very thrilling, but to see them today and see they are just as vivacioous in their golden years. It's a great example for all of us. Just go see it,, and I thank the film makers for bringing it to us

Ballet Russes is a loving tribute to the stars of the Ballet Russes companies. Dancers from the various companies gathered for a reunion and in a most delightful and entertaining manner discuss their life in ballet, the company, and what they are doing now. Wonderful vintage clips of the dancers in various roles are interspersed with the interviews along with film clips of what they were doing with their lives at the time of the interview. Many were still teaching and dancing in their eighties. Fabulous ballet gossip is included. Since several of these great dancers have died since the film was made (I believe 2001), it is a good historical document. I have seen the film 3 times and love it with each viewing.

I don't generally take much interest in ballet, but I still found this DVD to be absorbing. A "jete" is a leap with one foot extended forward, and one foot extended back. And that's just the sort of spanning arc this movie makes. It starts with the formal founding of the Ballet Russe in Monte Carlo in the 1930's, goes through the period when two competing versions of the Ballet Russe existed (thus the plural of this documentary's title), and catches up with the current lives of a number of the Ballet's early dancers.

Some vintage footage of these early dancers is included, some of it even in color. But the fascination here is the dancers themselves, even more than the dance. We see them as young Russian émigrés, just children, recruited by Diaghilev in the 30's. Then we see them being interviewed in 2000-2003 for this documentary and we are given a sense of the texture of a lifetime devoted to the art of dance.

The DVD is very generous with its captioning. Everyone is labeled in each dance sequence, and then re-captioned for every current interview, so you can easily keep track of who's who, before-and-after.

It's all a very good advertisement for the practice of ballet and might inspire you to take lessons yourself, because you will see how a majority of the early Ballet Russe dancers are still around in good health, and are still active in ballet, mostly as teachers. One of the dancers was actually still performing "character" roles on stage at the time of the interviews.

However, one gets a sense that starring ballet dancers of the 30's and 40's might have been subject to fewer grueling demands than modern dancers. Back then, dancers were perhaps expected to be human perfections of grace, but not superhuman specimens. So there is no discussion here of crippling injuries, of arthritis in the wake of years of command contortion, of struggles to keep reed-thin, of any of the health problems that are whispered about among modern dancers. That's the only major flaw I found in this documentary. These dancers might have been in a unique position to compare training and practice regimens then-and-now, and to give any necessary critiques of modern expectation. But you won't find any such discussion on this DVD.

However the DVD extras do include a lot of behind-the-scenes gossip and do let us get better acquainted with all the featured players. One of the most memorable is Nathalie Krassovska, who unblinkingly, with a dreamy dramatization of each sentence, focuses off beyond the floodlights - still playing to the balconies.

The Ballet Russe of Serge Diaghilev. Alexandre Benois, Leon Bakst, and many others is important to many lovers of the arts. For me, as a classical musician, it was vital because of the start it gave Igor Stravinsky, and the famous pieces from Debussy, Ravel, Satie, Poulenc, Prokofiev, and so many others. For designers, the sets and designs by Benois, Bakst, Picasso, Braque, Dali, and others are still studied and widely admired. For dancers, this legendary dance company had some of the greatest dancers: Nijinsky, Fokine, Ida Rubenstien, Pavlova, Karsavina, and many others. However, this film is NOT about this company. While it refers to this company, it does so only briefly and quite superficially. This movie is about those companies that were formed out of the original Ballets Russes when Diaghilev died at 57 in 1929.

In 1932, Renee Blum and Colonel Vassily de Basil picked up the sets and pieces of the Ballet Russe, which had stopped performing in 1929, and formed a new company they called the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. This movie is the story of the forming of this company, its choreographers, dancers, and its division into two competing companies.

When the new company was first formed, its dances were done by Balanchine, but after one year he was replaced by Leonid Massine who created a vast body of high quality works for the company. Blum quit the partnership with de Basil in 1936. In 1938. Massine wanted his own company and he and de Basil reached a compromise where Massine would keep the name Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and de Basil's company would be called "The Original Ballet Russe" and kept Massine's dances. Massine's new backer was Serge Denham who kept the company going at various artistic levels until it stopped performing in 1962.

How all this is told in the movie is fascinating, especially with the vignettes told by of all the dancers. They are all amazing characters. While some of them began dancing in the troupe as 14 and 15 year olds, many are still staying involved with the stage in various ways.

What is also fascinating about this film is that so many of the original dancers are still alive in their eighties and nineties! There was a reunion of those living and healthy enough to make the trip in 2000 (several have since died) and they were interviewed about their work with the various incarnations of the Ballet Russe, the choreographers, impresarios, tours, their own careers, and what they remember about the other dancers.

Some of them even had careers in Hollywood during the 1940s, both companies fleeing to America during World War II. Sol Hurok was the impresario in North America during the war years and afterwards. He and de Basil had a falling out (de Basil was quite a difficult man) and his company ended up touring South and Central America and Australia while the Massine company became an American troupe and began hiring American dancers, even if they fancied up their names to sound Russian. "The Original Ballet Russe" of de Basil ended with his death in 1952.

A fascinating movie for those interested in this artistic form and its history. There is a great deal of archival footage and pictures that are all the more amazing when put into context by the dancers still living when the film was made.

One of the realities that will come to you as you see the lives these great dancers lived off stage is that artists usually have to draw their satisfactions from their art. They certainly didn't get rich from the stage and their lives afterwards weren't all that easy either. At least that is how it looks to me when I see how they live, the kinds of cars they drive, and so forth. I am sure some lived well, but certainly not all.