Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A balletomane's dream-, 24 Oct 2006
For anyone who loves ballet, and ballet history, and for anyone who needs to learn how to grow old gracefully, this documentary offers pleasures indeed.
Not only does one get all the gossip and history of the different dancers making their way after Diaghilev's Ballets Russes disbanded into differengt groups, but one feels one has spent a couple of hours in the company of the most charming and inspiring people imaginable..... it is a film I could watch every night. Sheer magic!
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52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fascinating documentary about Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, 22 Sep 2006
Meticulously compiled and presented, this documentary shows the history of Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, founded by Blum and Colonel de Basil in 1932 after the death of Diaghilev in 1929. It depicts its initial success, a break-up of the company into two separate entities (Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and Original Ballet Russe), their escape to the US after the outbreak of the World War II, their major success there and their eventual demise.
It is a fascinating documentay about the legendary ballet company, and is full of interesting anecdotes about various personalities including Diaghilev, Massine, Fokine and Balanchine. It has many interviews with former leading dancers, including Alicia Markova, Nathalie Krassovska, Irina Baronova (one of the "baby ballerinas"), Frederic Franklin and George Zoritch, interspersed with many photos and archive film clips. Furthermore, there are generous extras, including a photo gallery and archive materials. Those interested in ballet history will find it totally absorbing.
In one of the interviews, Alicia Markova says "We weren't paid (by Ballets Russes)..... But, think how (artistically) rich I am, working with those choreographers!" I think this says it all about great dancers.
What strikes the viewer is that all the former dancers interviewed have such a marvellous personality and are full of wit and humour. Some of them are still teaching dance students around the world, passing their art to the younger generation. Sadly a few of them have passed away since the film was produced.
Just one point about the title - I was expecting to see a documentary about Ballets Russes of Diaghilev as well as Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. I don't think the title is accurate enough: it should have been "Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo" in order to describe the contents more precisely.
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Gem of Integrity, Colour & Magic, 17 May 2007
If you're even moderately interested in dance (not obsessively, not ballet in particular, just moderately curious about dance or body performance in the most general terms), you're likely to be completely thrown upside down by this exceptional film. It's about infinitely more than dance, or the historical phenomenon known, & now mostly forgotten, as the Ballets Russes. I would subtitle the film "Portraits of men & women who successfully conspired to express their divinity to the full."
Their charm, their vitality (most are now around 90), their industriousness (every single of these 90-odd year olds is still working), their insight, & the story they tell about a joint artistic endeavour that contributed to define the 20th Century & which makes most other ballet fade in comparison - all unites into a film about what it really means to be & stay alive.
Plus Frederic Franklin - one of the true legends of ballet, & an almost centenary but glowingly energetic man at the time of the movie - is the star of the show. He apparently got a CBE in 2004 for his life work. They might have gone all the way & made him Sir Frederic while they were at it.
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