BALLETS RUSSES
***1/2 out of *****
Reviewed by Root

Screening in the 2006 New Zealand International Film Festival
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Genres
Dance
Documentary

2005
Directed by
Daniel Geller, Dayna Goldfine
Written by
Daniel Geller, Dayna Goldfine, Celeste Schaefer Snyder, Gary Weimberg
Featuring
Irina Baronova
Yvonne Chouteau
Yvonne Craig
Frederic Franklin
Alan Howard
Nathalie Krassovska
Alicia Markova
Nina Novak
Marc Platt
Wakefield Poole
Tania Riabouchinskaya

On a recent trip to Melbourne I had the opportunity to catch up with some old family friends that have three major passions; Wine, Aussie Rules Football, and obscure cinema. The result of this was a day spent first watching “the footie” followed by a trip to the cinema to watch the documentary Ballets russes.

The doco is a mix of archive footage and modern day interviews with some of the original dancers from the era, that amazingly seem to be not only alive, but still dancing, and act as an advertisement for anyone that is prepared to spend almost all of their lives dancing in the hopes of living to 90. While the thought of living to 90 does appeal to me, the film also makes it very clear that the mix of natural talent, hard work, and child labour required would rule myself, and basically everyone I know out of contention. But I digress.

The film’s focus starts in the early 1900s with a group of young Russian girls that have fled the revolution and settled in Paris, leaving their privileged lifestyles behind them. After studying together for a short time, they are discovered by a choreographer who is looking for very young girls for the Ballet Russe. So at the ages of 13 and 14, they are vaulted into starting positions within the ballet company, and into a saga that will span 50 or so years of constant performing. The film essentially starts with these girls and little information is given about how the Ballet Russe actually came about. It became popular as it was strongly influenced by the Imperial Ballet Company from Russia, and appealed to the French audiences as it was fresh and daring. The film itself touches on the history, but mostly seems to start with the earliest memories of the living dancers, and builds the story around their interview footage, archive footage and stills. While this possibly left the back story a little shallow, it is a documentary about the company itself, so is somewhat excusable.

The story itself is pulled together quite well, but can be a tad confusing at times as the company fractures into two competing companies, “The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo” and “The Original Ballet Russe”. (Hence the pluralisation of the film’s title, which was a discussion point for some over dinner afterwards, but not one that I felt a need to weigh in on). As a lot of the performers were getting paid only rarely, if at all, ego and artistic control were essentially a currency in and of themselves, and the cause of many of the film’s more amusing moments, as both sides of a story were told.

And the film was certainly amusing at times, which was welcome as parts were certainly a tad on the dry side. The amount of archive footage itself was quite impressive, and obviously a reflection of their fame at the time. Most of it was in fairly good condition, and the editing ensured that it was well mixed with recent interviews to help ease any strain on the eyes.

Despite not knowing a lot about ballet and its history, and having little desire to learn more before the film, I was pleasantly surprised with the documentary, and found the history it depicts to be interesting and worthy subject matter for a film. While two hours in length, it is paced quite well, and most of the moments that I thought were a little slow were likely to be more appealing to those that have an active interest in dance. In a way, the film seemed a eulogy for an era that is unlikely to be repeated, both because it is unlikely that children in the Western world would be allowed to undertake such intensive instruction and gruelling performance schedules, and because it would be almost impossible to run such a company in the modern world without heavy subsidies from government and charity.

If you have the opportunity to see this film, I would recommend you give it a chance, as it was certainly much better than I was expecting for someone without much interest in dance. It gives an interesting insight into the 50 years that Ballet Russe managed to keep alive despite many obstacles that seemed to constantly threaten its survival.

This film will screen in Wellington on July 24th at 6:00pm at the Penthouse Cinema. Refer to the Film Fest homepage for more information.

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