Wiseman’s La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet

The prolific documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman’s new film, will have a two-week engagement at Film Forum in NYC, and it is a stunning display of some of the best dancers and choreographers in the world training at one of the world’s greatest ballet companies. Wiseman’s film career has spanned more than 40 years, and here he is returning to familiar territory, having done the 1995 documentary Ballet, a profile of the American Ballet Theatre’s preparation for a European tour. In this film, Wiseman takes us inside the studios where dancers painstakingly take direction in great detail from choreographers while rehearsing seven ballets to perform for a major gala coming up. It’s a wonder to watch masters undulate their bodies in controlled yet freeing ways, and adding contemporary influences to traditional classical ballet.  

Wiseman chooses to both highlight the performers and the administration, and it colors the film, showing the business side of running such a seemingly glamorous organization. The artistic director, Brigitte Lefevre, a former principal dancer, devotes her life’s work to representing the organization as one of the finest companies in the world, as well as watching out for her dancers; to a young ballerina wanting career advice, she simply tells her “One can gain a lot by studying the star dancers at rehearsal and in performance.” Watching La Danse, you get the sense of how stressful it is to be a dancer, to constantly take criticism from choreographers and re-do the same moves until they are pleased. Or the precise work that goes into creating costumes by hand, sewing dresses or glueing gems on a jacket. Wiseman, without narration, allows the film to speak for itself as a beautiful tribute to the hard work and artistry of the ballet world, onstage and backstage.

The film begins with rehearsals for the ballets and ends with excerpts of their final performances, illuminated by lights and music and costumes. Two particular examples stick out: La Maison de Bernada, a ballet choreographed by Mats Ek based on a Lorca play where several women in black dresses move in syncopantic motions around a table and letting out occasional screams in pain for the death of their father or husband, and the absolutely gripping Le Songe de Medee, choreographed by Angelin Preljocaj, where Medea, portrayed by Emilie Cozette in a chilling display of human agony, practically rips herself apart as she murders her children, destroying them and herself in the process. These segments draw you into the brilliant power of ballet, more than just pas de bourrees and entrechats.

The film is a gorgeous masterpiece, albeit for two flaws. One, there should be captions identifying the dances and performers, which would allow the audience to better remember what exquisite pieces they just watched, instead of being at a blank and later forgetting. Also, it runs long at 158 minutes, and seemed to be fairly lengthy for a film about a ballet company. While there is so much great footage to be shown, it felt extraneous and long towards the last half hour. That being said, La Danse takes you into a rarefied and high-class world where some of the finest artists in the world train hard for their craft to present breathtakingly beautiful performances of unbelieveable proportions.