Screening: La Danse: the Paris Opera Ballet by Frederick Wiseman

Documentary master Frederick Wiseman¹s 38th film in a career that has
spanned more than that number of years, turns his attention to one of the
world¹s greatest ballet companies, the Paris Opera Ballet. John Davey¹s
camera roams the vast Palais Garnier, an opulent 19th century pile of a
building: from its crystal chandelier-laden corridors to its labyrinthine
underground chambers, from its light-filled rehearsal studios to its
luxurious theater replete with 2,200 scarlet velvet seats and Marc Chagall
ceiling. La Danse devotes most of its time to watching impossibly beautiful
young men and women ‹ among them Nicolas Le Riche, Marie-Agnès Gillot, and
Agnès Letestu ‹ rehearsing the choreography of Mats Ek, Wayne McGregor,
Rudolf Nureyev and Pina Bausch. For balletomanes and the curious alike, La
Danse serves up a scrumptious meal of delectable moments, one more glorious
than the next, made even more precious by their ephemeral nature.

Fred Wiseman is probably one of today¹s greatest living documentary
filmmakers. For close to thirty years, thanks to the Public Broadcast
Service (PBS), he has created an exceptional body of work consisting of
thirty full length films devoted primarily to exploring American
institutions. Over time these films have become a record of the western
world, since now more than ever as we approach the century¹s close, nothing
North American is really foreign to us. Wiseman has spent the major part of
his career documenting America¹s institutions ­ a hospital, a high school,
army basic training, a welfare center, a police precinct, and the American
ballet Theatre. Now he sets his sights on Europe. His landmark
documentaries include Titicut Follies, High School, Public Housing, Near
Death, Meat, Deaf, Juvenile Court, Hospital, Basic Training, Ballet, Blind,
Central Park, etc.