La mort du cygne
France,
1937, 90 min
Shown in 2000
CREDITS
- dir
-
Jean Benoït-Lévy
- scr
-
Jean Benoït-Lévy, Marie Epstein
- cam
-
Léonce H. Burel, Henri Tiquet
- cast
-
Mia Slavenska, Yvette Chauviré, Janine Charrat, Micheline Boudet, Mady Berry, Maurice Bacquet
- prod co
-
Cinatlantica Films
- source
-
Warner Brothers, 3903 W. Olive Avenue, Suite 2217, Burbank, CA 91522. FAX: 818-986-7565
-
COMMENTS
Archive print from Warner Bros. Presented in collaboration with the Cinémathèque de la Danse. Presented in association with the Consulate General of France, San Francisco.
OTHER
Alfred Hitchcock dreamed of remaking this legendary work, lost for decades, which features three of the greatest stars of the Paris ballet world of the 1930s—Yvette Chauviré, Janine Charrat and Mia Slavenska—in a tale about the conflict between innocence and evil. This 1937 film is a wonderful, rare depiction of the dance world of the period. As Paul Morand wrote for the film’s epigraph, “Ballerina captures an instant in the life of dance, which then resumes its flight.” According to director Jean Benoït-Lévy, cinema should both educate and elicit emotion. Where fiction films were concerned, he believed that they should have a strong central theme and take place in a well-defined social milieu: In this case, it was the love of ballet, set among the dancers at the Paris Opera Ballet. In addition to capturing the 1930s Parisian dance world, from dance classes to rehearsals to performances featuring the ballet director Serge Lifar’s choreography, Benoït-Lévy created a drama of childhood warped and prematurely burdened by the pressures of life. The little ballerinas are wise for their years, but have not outgrown the enchanted innocence of childhood. They are beginning a fable of tragedy and disillusionment, but also one of devotion to dance.
FACTOID #210
When Ginger Rogers appeared for a tribute at the SFIFF in 1984 (’sporting hair with the color and richness of whipped butter,’ wrote the Examiner), she shocked the packed Castro Theatre crowd at her 1984 tribute when she griped, ’The filthy mouths we’re hearing in films today’I won’t pay to see these movies. I’d rather stay home and make jam.’
