LA DANSE: Le Ballet de L'Opera de Paris
The esteemed Frederick Wiseman graduated from Yale law school and made an almost immediate u-turn, heading toward what has turned out to be an unparalleled career as a cinema-verité master of the documentary form. Over the course of 42 years, 38 films, Wiseman has maintained a steadfast approach to his subjects, often institutions as in the seminal Titicut Follies which takes us inside the Bridgewater State Hospital and which, due to censorship, became the most famous work very rarely seen. Wiseman quietly takes his camera inside of a high school in High School, or into a battered women’s shelter in Domestic Violence and the court system that handles the corresponding cases in Domestic Violence 2 . He has shown us small towns (Belfast, Maine), famous venues (The Garden as in Madison Square), meat processing (Meat) and fashion models (Model.) Whatever he turns his attention to, once there, his camera pull backs the curtain and peeps into the shadows, beneath the surfaces, always revealing much more than we ever thought we knew.
This time Wiseman has settled on the esteemed Paris Opera Ballet, one of the top companies in the world, as his subject. Wiseman has taken on ballet before, in 1996, he followed New York’s American Ballet Theatre as they prepared for and later toured Europe. Wiseman’s camera begins looking out on the rooftops of Paris and then descends into the bowels of the Palais Garnier, from which it then slowly climbs, dropping us into rehearsal studio, where see dancers and choreographer building the bricks of the performance. The film is mostly interested in rehearsal, the behind the scenes sweat and skill, coaching that yields the end product. Less time is spent on the end product, makes this satisfyingly different approach to dance film. It’s not about the glittering numbers, another great excerpt of Swan Lake, but the everyday: men and women dancing in layers of sweats and skirts to keep muscles warm, coaches making corrections as they reminisce about Balanchine and the old days.
Perhaps the real star here is the artistic director, Brigitte Lefèvre in her multiple roles as administrator, counselor, schmoozer as well as protector of the artistic integrity of the company. She works out casting issues, counseling dancers young and old. She tries to figure out a new choroegrapher’s process of picking his cast. She sets the limits for fundraiser’s infiltrations and even encourages dancers to assert themselves as union members.
What may be most interesting to me, as a balletomane (see my review of The Red Shoes for a definition) and general dance enthusiast are Wiseman’s choices as to which ballets to highlight, as well as the decision to not present us with a conventional intact performance. This is one place where the silent documentarian makes his subtle commentary. Although we see many rehearsals of various parts of Casse Noisette (The Nutcracker), every company’s cash cow, we only see a tiny bit of it in performance. It’s as if we’ve seen it so many times, the dancers have danced it so many times, it’s a necessary evil but not necessary enough to dominate this film. Paquita, another classical chestnut, get’s a little more full costume time but then it’s much less well known than the most popular, Giselle, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty.
On the other hand we get to see a bit more modern ballet, especially in final performances. Genus, choregraphed by Wayne McGregor, seems to be a fusion of ballet, modern and the electronic popping and locking first seen in break dance. There is the beautiful, modern Romeo and Juliet choreographed by Sascha Walz, as well as a madly bloody Medea in Le Songe de Medée. And just when it couldn’t get any more non-classical, Mats Ek’s, Le Maison de Bernarda, gives us a gaggle of screaming nuns -- I loved it all!
I guess it’s time to admit that I have known Frederick Wiseman, as a friend of the family for practically my whole life. Although I have taught Titicut Follies in my classes, I have never, until now, had the pleasure of writing about his films. I have also never sat down with him and had a conversation about his work. I guess it’s time.
All of Frederick Wiseman's films are available on DVD through Zipporah Films.
La Danse opens in theatres November 20, 2009 and will be broadcast on PBS in 2010.
Directed and edited by Frederick Wiseman; photographed by John Davey; produced by Frederick Wiseman and Pierrre-Olivier Bardet.
With: Brigitte Lefevre, Émilie Cozette, Aurélie Dupont, Dorothée Gilbert, Marie-Agnès Gillot, Agnès Letestu, Delphine Moussin, Clairemaire Osta, Laetitita Pujol, Kader Belarbi, Jérénue Belingard, Mathieu Ganio, Manuel Legris, Nicolas Le Riche, José Martinez, Hervé Moreau, Benjamin Pech, Wilfried Romoli, Isabelle Ciaravola, and Mathias Heyman.
