Customer Reviews

Black Tights: Bolshoi Ballet '67

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"Black Tights" belongs to an exciting part of my childhood which helped create a great love for ballet, opera and film art. So naturally, a DVD presentation of this rare - and at least for me - almost mythical film was something to look forward to! But unfortunately, this KINO presentation leaves much to be desired. I guess that this film is now a public domain title, which means that a negative or at least a perfect print might not be available anywhere. But the print used for DVD-transfer by KINO is often badly worn, especially at the reel change points appearing about every tenth minute - proof that a 70mm print was the base for the transfer. Considering this, the sound quality is surprisingly bad and the aspect ratio is not correct. (It should measure 2,2:1 if properly made.)Thankfully, the colors have not faded too badly (some reels display quite a gorgeous palette), but contrasts are weak, and scratches and dirt sometimes overwhelm the image to a point where you almost feel like throwing the disc in the nearest garbage can! But...it's still a rare and nostalgic film with lots of camp value and some very charismatic dancing stars, so it stays in the collection, if reluctantly. It will be interesting to see what the upcoming version from VCI will look like. I have no high hopes this time though! There surely must exist a better kept print somewhere in the world! Shame on KINO! They should have included a warning sticker on the package: For die-hard fans and fools only!

I was really looking forward to the DVD version of this film. Too bad Kino didn't take the time to clean the picture and fix the audio. I guess I shouldn't complain. Ballet is so rare on DVD, I will grab any I can find. But a film with Cyd Charisse, Moira Shearer, Zizi Jeanmarie and Roland Petit deserves a better presentation.

BLACK TIGHTS is a delightful film which showcases 4 ballets choreographed by Roland Petit and featuring his well-known ballet troupe. His wife Zizi Jeanmaire is the central figure in both "La Croqueuse de Diamants" and "Carmen". Moira Shearer stars in "Cyrano de Bergerac" and Cyd Charisse cavorts in "Deuil en 24 Heures". Maurice Chevalier appears to introduce each segment.

For fans of Zizi Jeanmaire, the movie is a must just for "Carmen" alone. This was the ballet created especially for her by Roland Petit. It launched her international career and she danced the role from London to Broadway. This film perfectly recreates the original production, highlighted by her beguiling footwork in "Seguidille". Petit recreates the role of Don Jose. "La Croqueuse de Diamants" is the story of a young woman who lives in a den of thieves and loves to eat diamonds (as Chevalier says, "charming, but expensive"). Jeanmaire's special charms radiate off the screen.

In "Cyrano de Bergerac", Moira Shearer of THE RED SHOES fame plays Roxanne with Roland Petit in the title role. The story of unrequited love plays out it's tragic course and Shearer emotes beautifully as the conflicted Roxanne. Petit gives arguably one of his greatest performances as Cyrano.

"Deuil en 24 Heures" features Cyd Charisse as a young coquette who flirts with younger men, enraging her more-mature husband who gets killed in a duel. The young woman then decides to kick up her heels at Maxim's.

Each of the 30-minute segments is a complete joy. You have no less than 3 of the most beautiful ballet dancers to appear onscreen, coupled with Roland Petit's innovative and economic choreography. A film that balletomanes won't be able to resist!

I am a lifelong fan of Cyd Charisse and consider her the very best female dancer hollywood has ever produced - she never disappoints and her feature is the best of the DVD. Moira Shearer, whom I also like but know less of, is also wonderful in her way, vulnerable and graceful. I found Roland Petit's Cyrano (ballet, not his performance) a bit convoluted - a lot of material to get into a feauterette. Zizi Jeanmarie is the epitome of the French dancer and the ballet itself the epitome of what we foreigners think Paris was back in the early 20th centura.

Some have quibbles with the quality of the visuals on this DVD, but every version has some problems, because the film this was made from was almost lost ... I'm jut happy to be able to see it in any form - it's a really important moment of ballet & ballet film history.

4 ballets here, all very different, with different strengths.
The Diamond Muncher - an unusual "modern" fable with marvelous melodies, especially the pas de duex. With Zizi Jeanmaire
Cyranno - A lyric production that uses techniqes developed by the Archers, some slow-mo layering in the night time sequence... so very fitting to have Moira Shearer play Roxanne in this. This one has really memororable visuals.
24 hour mourning - Is a truly funny story of a gold-digger played with fantastic articulation and fun by gorgeous Cyd Charisse ... It is a selfish and playful role with really witty choreograpy - esp. in the duel sequence. The almost di-rigeur ballet strip sequence for her. But done with great humor and still G rated.
Carmen - The most traditional of the bunch, this is just a really solid and interesting version of the ballet based on the opera... it stretches boundaries, because some of the flamenco is really hard to translate to ballet, but Zizi is the right woman for it.... and some of these sequences are almost NOT G... the pas de deux is about as suggestive as ballet has ever gotten.

It's a tour de force for the Paris Ballet, and it is joy that it has not been lost entirely. It is also a time capsule of a very specific time in choreography, and in the filming of ballet. Not to be missed for balletomaines!

I love this film from my late teens as my family were involved in ballet and classical music - I used to sneak out of school on sports day to go to the matinee ballet presentations when they were on! This release is satisfactory and am grateful that I can retire at last my ancient and worn VHS release.

Fortunately as I transfer all my DVD's etc onto my NAS server I was able to make some slight apparent quality improvements. The image is widescreen and in the original aspect ratio but not anamorphic so it is letterboxed within a 4:3 frame. I was able to make a 16:9 version using virtualdub with a few avisynth filters. Much improved on my widescreen Samsung TV. Playing back the DVD as supplied I had a postage stamp presentation . ie black bars all around and this can be the price of non anamorphic releases. Why the studio didn't do an anamorphic release is beyond me especially as they had access to the original film. Easy enough to do and doesn't cost any more to do it - it's just a technical step. The technical proces I used was to remove the black bars and enlarge the image to fit a 16:9 frame together with a few noise reduction filters. Fortunately the video signal was strong and the colour balance Ok so enlarging didn't add any artifacts

The other disappointment is the audio is only a mono presentation. My next step is to replace the audio with the audio from the early Pye vinyl stereo release of the entire soundtrack including dialog. This will take me sometime as there will be sync problems to solve. If I'm successful I will make another post.... maybe!

i loved these ballet numbers and cyd charisse was so gorgeous and delightful. and zizi was perfect as carmen and i loved cyrano. but the quality of the disc was absolutely horrible! blurry and skippy. i felt that i had purchased a rip-off video. so i give the movie 5 stars, and the quality of the disc one star, evening it out to about 3 stars i guess.

i can't believe how poor in quality this disc was. sometimes you can hardly make out any of the details. but the dancing is magnificent. and to see cyd charisse so young and glowing and absolutely gorgeous is a real treat. and cyrano was wonderful, as was carmen. i wasn't crazy about the first piece, but the rest are all worth it. i want to give this disc a five star rating for what it contains, but it is just such a miserable printing.

Titles of ballets on this DVD looked very promising. Also, I wanted to see the art of Zizi which I never saw.
However, the record is not interesting and even boring. Old choreography is not impressive in comparison with modern versions of all these ballets that we saw many times last 20 years, old record technique is not good, no dynamic, even the performance looks primitive sometimes. I'm pretty disappointed with this disk, despite Roland Petit dances himself in his 30th.

Great choreography by Roland Petit, but the poor quality of this Synergy Archive DVD ruined it for me -- everything is out of focus, like an old used VHS tape purchased at some thrift store. -- The Black Tights (1960)DVD is much,much better.