Ballet Movies

Here are some more pictures from my recent Holga tests. I am so excited about some of them. Hopefully, I will get some good ones when I work with the ballerinas as well.

This weekend my husband let me escape to the movie theater so I could see, Mao's Last Dancer. It was not spectacular, but acceptable. Unfortunately, there were no really good dance sequences. They were all shot pretty blah and simplistic. Regardless, I am thrilled that there are two ballet movies out this fall season. If you also include Frederick Wiseman's most recent documentary, La Danse, this has truly been a great year for ballet movies.

I sort of knew that Mao's Last Dancer was not going to be all that great because it's release was held for while, which is never a good sign. Though, the fact that it got a fall release gives it a little lift. I probably say this a lot, but the film has potential and if re-edited it could be much better. The conflict needs to be established much earlier than it is. One reason I really wanted to see the film again was to see Amanda Schull in another dance film, but she doesn't dance at all. I knew she didn't dance much, but I thought there would be something.

There is a scene in the film where the dancers in China get a smuggled VHS tape with Mikhail Baryshnikov on it. The minute I saw that tape I knew it was going to be Baryshnikov, but there were actually some murmers of surprise in the audience of five. Though one women I think was trying to inform the rest of her ballet knowledge, she did this throughout the film. It was fun, I am glad to know she has some basic knowledge, perhaps she would have more if she paid better attention to what she was watching. Am I being to critical? But, really what other dancer would videotape have needed to be smuggled into a communist country in the 1970s?

The ballet film that everyone is excited about, even males and non-balletomanes (which is amazing), is Black Swan. It's definitely a trailer worth watching. I am very excited to see it and hopefully I will be able to sneak away again, maybe even twice if it is as good as everyone is saying.