Ballet used in "non-ballet" movies

[vila]

Mayerling has scenes from Giselle when Omar Shariff and Catherine Deneuve meet at the opera. No idea about who is performing though ...

There has been a new movie release this week in France, a film called "Il est plus facile pour un chameau..." where the main character takes adult ballet classes. Jose Martinez and Marie Agnes Gillot (from the Paris Opera) have a a "blinK and you miss it" apprearance during a tango scene.

[glebb]

In "Nicholas & Alexandra" (1971), there is a ballet performance given inside one of Maria Feodorovna's palaces. It is Maria's (Irene Worth) birthday. After being presented a huge Faberge Egg Clock, she watches a corps de ballet and principle couple perform to music we know as Don Q Pas de Deux, as her son Nicholas II (Michael Jayston) and his uncle Nicholasha (Harry Andrews), drink ice cold vodka and discuss politics.

[su-lian]

Thanks vila! I hadn"t heard of it. I'll try to see it, but I don't know if I have the time:( !

[Hans]

I remember seeing the last half of an old movie (60's perhaps) in which there was a bit of Giselle. It was a murder mystery with Doris Day, and I'm pretty sure it was set in Paris. She kept receiving threatening telephone calls, and in the end, it turned out that her husband had staged the whole thing, and that he was really the one who wanted her dead. Anyway, there's an unfortunately short scene in which they go to the ballet. I don't know who the dancers are.

[atm711]

Rex Harrison was the husband---and the movie had "midnight" in its title--that's all I know.

"Midnight Lace" ???

[dirac]

"Midnight Lace" is the correct title, and it was indeed Harrison terrorizing poor Doris.

[Old Fashioned]

Glebb- I just saw what you described in "Nicholas and Alexandra" today in history class. The film only shows them as background and one can't see much of them. Do you know who the two dancing the pdd are?

[dirac]

They were showing that in history class !?! :rolleyes:

Well, I suppose it could be worse. I once saw Gone with the Wind in a history class, and while it's a movie I adore, even in high school I wondered about putting it to such uses. (At least N&A weren't fictional.)

Sorry, back to the topic. I remember looking for the dancers' names in the credits the last time I saw it, which was awhile ago, and not seeing them.

[glebb]

Funny, in the film of Robert K. Massie's "Nicholas & Alexandra", there is no portrayal of Alexandra's best friend Anna Vyrobova.

In the film "Gone With the Wind" two of Scarlett's children are omitted.

Sorry, I don't know the names of the dancers and my DVD is on loan, so I can't check.

I had dinner with Suzanne Massie not that long ago and the dancing in "Nicholas & Alexandra" was not on my list of questions.

[dirac]

glebb's post reminds me to clarify that the book "Nicholas and Alexandra" is excellent and a fine choice for history class. Just not the movie, even though a great actress, Janet Suzman, is in it.

[Old Fashioned]

My teacher claimed that the movie was "vital" to her teaching plans. At least it's historically accurate, unlike most recent (and not so recent) ones I've seen. I would love to read the book on my own time; unfortunately, it cannot be done in class because we have others to read- All Quiet on the Western Front and Night. Sorry to get so off topic.

[dirac]

You don't have to apologize – it's my fault! Yes, it's a big book and hard to fit into a semester of heavy reading. I didn't mean to imply criticism of your teacher, and the film does follow an accurate historical outline. But so often in historical movies the devil is in the details.

Back to the topic, in Ken Russell's Valentino film starring Nureyev, there's a sequence with Anthony Dowell as Nijinsky.

[carabosse]

"The Night Porter" (Il Portiere di Notte, 1974) is another film that includes ballet. Charlotte Rampling portrays a Holocaust survivor who encounters her former Nazi guard, now working as a porter in the hotel she is staying at. I won't get into the psychology of the film here, but just say that it is disturbing.

One of the characters is a danseur, also a former Nazi. He still has a desire to perform, so he gives private performances for his friends in the hotel. There is a flashback scene where he is performing in a gymnasium for an audience of Nazi officers. I don't recall what the music was, or if he was performing a specific piece. His costume was just a small pair of white trunks. The dancing itself was rather good.

The film was recently released on DVD, with a new cover of Rampling from the cabaret scene. Not a movie to share with the family, but interesting in a dark sort of way.

[fendrock]

How about "In Like Flint" (1967) with James Coburn?

Yvonne Craig, best known for her role as Batgirl in the Batman TV series, plays a Russian ballerina.

Incidentally, Yvonne Craig took class at the SAB and danced briefly with the Ballet Russe.

This was before she went on to other things, such as acting in movies with Elvis Presley and playing an alien on the original Star Trek.

[Watermill]

If memory serves, there's a thrilling male solo in Ken Russell's Women in Love (which is about men in love). Barefoot and clad only in a dance belt the dancer serves as the thematic introduction of homoerotic stirrings between Rupert & Gerald.

I don't think there's many minutes after these soaring jettes before we find the two gentlemen wrestling by the fire...

I still consider this film to be the eccentric Russell's finest acheivment.

[Old Fashioned]

More recently, has anyone seen John Malkovich's directorial debut, "The Dancer Upstairs"? I have not because it is only playing at one discreet theater in all of the metropolitan area of Houston.

[Guest yardred]

Of course there are all of those TV sit coms that use ballet material as well

[grace]

Mme. Hermine:

Think I'm kidding?

i DID. - - - i HOPE you are?

what's that other film, alexandra, that we recently discussed, with henning kronstam and kirsten simone in it?

i love Bugsy Malone - but that's dance, rather than ballet.

that song:

"I was born to be a dancer,

I won't take 'no' for an answer..."

if you haven't seen it - this one IS a family movie. any dancing kids will love it.

[MelissaK]

There's a ballet sequence in Stanley Kubrick's 'Killer's Kiss'. In fact the ballerina was the then Mrs. Stanley Kubrick, Ruth Sobotka.

Melissa

[Marga]

I was watching a modern version of Anna Karenina at 3 am this early morning on CBC. It had a scene where "Swan Lake" was being performed and we could catch brief glimpses of the 2nd act pas de deux. The ballerina was quite wonderful -- obviously Russian-trained, as was her partner. I wished we could see more of the ballet and less of the actors watching from the audience!

I didn't recognize any of the actors portraying the main characters, but then I am not a movie buff and don't know most actors' names until they saturate the media-market and one can't help but know who they are.

I fell asleep before the end so didn't get to read the credits. The CBC doesn't always show them, anyway. We are avid credits-readers in our family, so we hate when they truncate the film just as they start to roll!

[Pamela Moberg]

Well, Marga, you fell asleep... but I have often struggled to keep awake to read the titles - and the ballet or music items were omitted. That is the cause of a whole lot of swearing on my part.

I think it is only fair that someone who has contributed to a movie or a radio program should be credited.

I have made a number of radio and TV programs and I am always very particular that my name must be credited. This is not mere conceit - I have worked day and night for the damned thing - OK,

I got my pay check, but at least they can acknowledge who wrote the stuff, I am damned if I should remain an anonymous hack!

In fairness, the Swedish radio and TV company (state owned, not commercial) have been very good indeed.

[Mary J]

Grace - the Henning Kronstam/Kirsten Simone movie was Disney's "Ballerina." I guess it didn't come up on this thread because it was on some superficial level a "ballet" movie even though it was not a performance film. I am still a lone voice crying in the wilderness that Disney might release it on tape some day - I know it's dated but it would be nice to be able to see a classy bunch of Danish dancers on demand.

[bobbi]

I have one movie to offer: Bye Bye Birdie. There is one very hilarious scene at the end of the movie when "The Moscow Ballet" (read the Bolshoi) is about to perform a scene from Swan Lake live on the Ed Sullivan Show. Since the "singing act" after the ballet may have to be cut for time reasons, the plot involves the conductor being given something to "speed up" his conducting so the "singing act" benefitting the protaganists of the movie can go on. The result is truly funny and one every balletomane should not miss.

And I often think of that scene when some NYCB conductors speed up the allegro work.

[glebb]

The scene in "Bye Bye Birdie" is hysterical, but I think it is the Rose Adagio from "Sleeping Beauty". At least it is the Rose Adagio music.

I love the ballerina's posture after she gets up from her fall.

[bobbi]

Glebb, of course you are right! But isn't it funny?