Ballets Russes - The Film

Michael Goldbarth · **Posted:** Sat Sep 03, 2005 8:30 am

The movie ‘Ballets Russes’ will play at the Toronto Film Festival September 8th at 7:45 pm in Varsity 2&3 as well as on September 10th, 3:15 pm at Paramount 1. Click here for more information about the film celebrating the famous Russian troupe who danced in Europe and the USA in the early 19th century. Anybody going? The trailer looks quite impressive.

Gina Ness · **Posted:** Sat Sep 03, 2005 10:01 pm

Michael, thank you for posting this. This film also has some posts in the Company Press Releases section under the thread "Ballet Russe - the film". Perhaps we could make a link on this thread to the other one? I confess, I don't know how to do that.. :oops:

I don't want to repeat myself, but I am very excited about this film! P.S. I also apologize for misspelling Mr. Franklin's first name in the below transferred posting...It is Frederic....[Stuart adds: now corrected below.]

salzberg · **Posted:** Sun Sep 04, 2005 12:19 am

Moved over from Company Press Releases:

Gina Ness said:

I am very excited about this film. The Bay Area's own Alan Howard appears to be one of the featured stars interviewed for this film. Mr. Howard passed away in his home town of Chicago in 2003. For a number of years in the 60s and 70s, Alan was the director of the Academy of Ballet on Market Street (Pacific Ballet), a very famous San Francisco studio which is now directed by Richard Gibson and Zory Karah. Alan trained many dancers, including Kyra Nichols (NYCB), Carolyn Goto (Oakland Ballet), and me (SFB) among many others. So many of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo dancers went on to be some of the most respected teachers of the next generation of dancers. I'm also thinking of Merriem Lanova (San Francisco's "Ballet Celeste") who trained many dancers who went on to major companies. The website is fun...lots of information about important artists. There are photos of fabulous Ballet Russe stars as they looked during their careers and as senior, wonderful citizens interviewed for this film. Awesome! I really enjoyed seeing them in more recent photos...It highlights the influence on so many companies and artists of the present. Neat feature! The film will be playing in many locations this fall. Check it out! ....Gina

P.S. Wasn't it fabulous to see Frederic Franklin in the recent Dance in America broadcast of ABT's "Swan Lake" as Wolfgang the Tutor? He's 91 years old! And he looks so incredibly spry!

And then, Gina Ness added:

The trailer is here! Scroll down a bit to "Coming Soon"...

http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/theatrical.php

DavidH said:

Wow! That trailer is fantastic. Perhaps we can have a CD.com outing to view it when it plays in San Francisco!!

DGH

And Gina Ness added:

That sounds like fun! Since we missed the Grove...

salzberg · **Posted:** Sun Sep 04, 2005 12:26 am

Quote:

Perhaps we can have a CD.com outing to view it when it plays in San Francisco!!

Well, most of us don't live in California; could we maybe have the outing in a more central location?

Gina Ness · **Posted:** Sun Sep 04, 2005 1:02 am

Thank you, salzberg!

Michael Goldbarth · **Posted:** Sun Sep 04, 2005 11:26 am

Here is a gallery ofthe Ballets Russes
from the original posting. It’s wonderful to see the beauty of youth side by side with the beauty AND vibrancy of old age! What spry geezers we have!

I hope they make the DVD available sooner than 2006 and show the film during a ‘regular run’ in Toronto. I despise the Toronto Film Festival-mostly for its unabashed obsession with everything celebrity! What really gets under my skin is the fact a good chunk of seats are given away to celebrities and insiders who often don’t even bother to show up! I also hate lining up for tickets; lining up early to get a decent seat for the movie, and I also hate tickets at $18.23. Hopefully, it will play again sometime in the future for those not fortunate enough to be on ‘the inside!’

Michael Goldbarth · **Posted:** Sat Sep 10, 2005 11:55 am

Bob Westal reviews Ballets Russes. Due to me being a slave at work, I was unable to attend and too tired to go today – assuming tickets would be available.

kurinuku · **Posted:** Fri Oct 21, 2005 1:22 am

Quote:

Upcoming
Ballets Russes
by TTOBI TOBIAS for the Village Voice

Deftly, using enormous human sympathy, the filmmakers acquaint us with the great talents involved, both as they were in their dancing prime and as mature, seasoned people transferring a lifetime's unique experience (not limited to dancing) to the rising generation.

published: October 18, 2005

more...

Francis Timlin · **Posted:** Fri Oct 21, 2005 11:47 am

For Seattle audiences, the Ballets Russes film will be opening for a limited run at the Harvard Exit on November 18. Check http://www.landmarktheatres.com for details as the date approaches.

kurinuku · **Posted:** Mon Oct 31, 2005 3:18 am

Quote:

After Diaghilev, a Deluge of Ballets Russes
by A. O. SCOTT for the New york Times

And "Ballets Russes" does tell a marvelous story of midcentury show business, encompassing both the most exalted expressions of pure art and the sometimes grubby commerce that sustained it.

published: October 26, 2005

more...

LMCtech · **Posted:** Wed Nov 02, 2005 12:26 pm

From the LA Times.

Quote:

Film documents the rise and fall of Ballets Russes

By Lewis Segal

Los Angeles Times

Before the Royal Ballet was royal, before the Kirov and the Bolshoi ever toured outside the Soviet bloc, before American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet were more than fledgling projects, the zenith of classical artistry, glamour, success and influence belonged to the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo.

That story is retold brilliantly in ``Ballets Russes,'' a valuable feature-length documentary by Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine. (It opens Friday in San Francisco and Nov. 11 in San Jose.) Moreover, the anecdotes and analyses culled from some of the company's wittiest and pithiest former members might help explain why some prestigious companies that managed to survive into the 21st century could well be floundering toward extinction.

As directors, co-producers, co-writers and co-editors of the film, Geller and Goldfine emphasize the watersheds in the Ballets Russes story: the succession of artistic and executive directors, bitter rivalries with former members who started their own companies, whistle-stop tours of Australia, Latin America and the United States.

more...

And the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Quote:

Passionate loves

Film Arts Festival centerpiece Ballets Russes brings dance's past back to life.
By Rita Felciano

THOUGH THE FORM has undergone a revolution in recent years, too many documentaries still have an off-putting learn-because-it's-good-for-you whiff to them. A doc about ballet companies that have left behind fading memories, grainy photos, and snippets of dark film doesn't exactly sound thrilling. Yet Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine's Ballet Russes turns out to be fabulously entertaining. It's fun, it's touching, and it sets the record straight on what began as the tale of a Russian émigré but ultimately became an American saga. Ballets Russes is a great yarn, well spun.

This special film is about people and passion. A passion that led many of its practitioners to take unreasonable risks, endure years of hardship, leave family, country, and culture behind and yet – even in old age – express gratitude for the life they have had. In some way's it's very much the story of a migrant, which ballet – in this country, of course – is.

more...

LMCtech · **Posted:** Fri Nov 04, 2005 12:52 pm

From the SF Chronicle.

Quote:

A grand jete into the past with 'Ballets Russes'

Steven Winn, Chronicle Arts and Culture Critic

Friday, November 4, 2005

"Ballets Russes" is a survival story. It tells the tale of a fabled 20th century ballet legacy and the dancers who lived to remember it. Blending archival footage with interviews shot at a 2000 reunion of the Ballets Russes in New Orleans and elsewhere, San Francisco documentary filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine ("Isadora Duncan: Movement from the Soul," "Frosh: Nine Months in a Freshman Dorm") construct a daisy chain of touching now-and-then moments.

more...

kurinuku · **Posted:** Sat Nov 05, 2005 6:22 am

Quote:

When Ballet First Came From Russia With Love
by JOHN ROCKWELL for the New York Times

By the end, the two companies had been taken over by businessmen who had forced out their artistic directors. The new leaders tried to their deaths to revive their franchises. But as Ms. Seldes remarks, "Their moment had passed."

No doubt. But it lives on in this wonderful film.

published: October 30, 2005

more...

corrival · **Posted:** Thu Nov 10, 2005 8:24 am

This opens in Washington this coming weekend:

From a Washington Ballet newsletter:

Quote:

BALLETS RUSSES (Zeitgeist) opens at the E Street Cinema this Friday, November 11th, and at the Bethesda Row Cinema on Friday, November 18th!
Unearthing a treasure trove of archival footage, filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine offer a dazzlingly entrancing ode to the most influential and beloved dance company of all time. The film traces its Diaghilev-era founding and the legendary productions starring Nijinsky, to the turbulent 1930s with choreographers George Balanchine and Leonide Massine, when the company split into two rival groups fighting for the famous name. Their 1930s and '40s marathon American tours amazed audiences with the dancers' unique artistry and glamour. Enormous egos and financial problems closed the company in the 1960s, but its tremendous influence is still felt today. Some of the film's richest footage consists of the many fascinating interviews with surviving dancers, including two of the "Baby Ballerinas" from the original company.

BALLETS RUSSES opens exclusively at the E Street Cinema on Friday, November 11th, and at the Bethesda Row Cinema in Bethesda, MD on Friday, November 18th!

E Street Cinema Showtimes:

Friday-Sunday: 11:10, 1:50, 4:30, 7:10, 9:40

Monday-Thursday: 1:50, 4:30, 7:10, 9:40

(Bethesda Row Showtimes will be available on Monday, November 14th)

Click for advance tickets

NR, 118 minutes

Click for Official website

Fairwind · **Posted:** Mon Nov 14, 2005 10:50 am

Have you all seen this film yet? If not, you must! This is a fantastic film and the interviews, old film clips and narration are sensational. Wow! There is a great spirit in this documentary that comes through via the wonderful artists who recall their memories of their Ballets Russes careers. A must see!


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