Etoiles - Dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet (2001)

ETOILES: DANCERS OF THE PARIS OPERA BALLET celebrates the legacy one of the best ballet companies in the world by weaving together rehearsals, tour snapshots and performances of classical ballets such as Swan Lake and La Sylphide, as well as contemporary works such as Maurice Bejart's Ninth Symphony, Jiri Kylian's Doux Mensonge (Sweet Lies) and Pierre Darde's Orison. Celebrated filmmaker Nils Tavernier endeavors to understand the psychology of dance by talking candidly with some of the biggest stars in dance today. The film also features interviews with the dancers who explain how and why they endure the emotional and physical hardships of their profession in their intense drive to be on stage. Product Description

Edifying and thought-provoking

What makes ballet worth the time and effort required of the dancers? What's the payoff? Etoile (star) Claire-Marie Osta says she has a mystical side and considered being a nun but was afraid that would afford insufficient opportunity for physical expression. She needed, in other words, to be a flying nun. The commitment required by ballet closes many other doors, but she never considered those opportunity costs as "sacrifices" because they are repaid a hundredfold. What's it like to move onto the brightly-lighted stage from the dark wings? "C'est magic," she says with a Mona Lisa smile.
Marie-Agnes Gillot is asked if she loves ballet. Love is too weak a word, she answers. Former dancer Ghislaine Thesmar (who now rehearses dancers and is married to choreographer Pierre Lacotte) describes aspiring dancers not as students but "disciples." She admits that the system is a machine that "crushes" the weak (who are, of course, still children). Is it inhumane? Gillot says she "got some whacks" but "turned out OK." Indeed, she loved her time at ballet school. The goal of the elders is to pass on their love of ballet and foster talent. There is no affirmative action for the kinesthetically-challenged, and self-esteem arises only as a byproduct of achievement. Yet Thesmar is manifestly sensitive to the needs of individual dancers-- a fact confirmed by etoile Agnes Letestu, who credits Thesmar for not trying to make her over in Thesmar's image.
Giggles are ubiquitous in this documentary. There's competition, uncertainty, stage fright, and lots of sweat, but these people are having fun. Lower-ranking dancers may spend six weeks of practice for two minutes of performance in "Swan Lake." It's insane, says Thesmar. Yet the most rueful comment corps dancers and understudies make is, "I'm not dancing" (in this production).
Aurelie Dupont also "turned out OK," but is less willing than Gillot to exonerate the system and view its "inhumanity" as the price of excellence. Why pay the price? She describes herself as shy and credits ballet with helping to meet her "need to exist" by providing experiences on stage she would never seek in life. When introduced in social company as an etoile, she says people always go overboard on respect. (I would.) Shakespeare says "The summer's flower is to the summer sweet, though to itself it only live and die." Dupont hears the summer's applause but thinks that, still, she is just a ballerina.
Which brings us to the most interesting "existential" question: can ballet be the meaning of life? Elisabeth Platel, on the occasion of her retirement after a performance of "La Sylphide," ticked off the many rewards of a life in ballet but closed with a rhetorical question: "but is that life?" For all its virtues, is ballet, perhaps, too one-dimensional? Is Osta really a flying nun-- or just a performing seal? (Forgive me, Claire-Marie, but I have to ask that question for the sake of argument.) What I'm hearing from these dancers is that ballet provides an opportunity for spiritual self-transcendence through dedication to a beautiful performing art. Dancing is wholesome. But dancers are just people, perhaps even "sinners" (although it is hard to think of them as sinners while they are dancing). Ballet does not "deliver" the meaning of life but provides what sociologist (and Christian) Peter Berger calls "signals of transcendence" or what C. S. Lewis calls joy-- "an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction." I think Osta is right to see ballet as a spiritual vocation, and I think Platel is right to see that ballet arouses desires it cannot satisfy. How fitting that Platel's last ballet should be "La Sylphide," which Thesmar describes-- almost as if she were C. S. Lewis-- in terms of the male's longing for the elusive and unattainable feminine ideal. Romantic? Yes-- and very spiritual.
I'm not worried about spoiling the "plot" of the documentary by saying too much. One must see faces and hear voices to fully appreciate it. After viewing it several times, I loaned my copy to a former ballerina who, through no fault of her own, was unable to return it. I ordered a second copy and have also viewed it several times. It's my cult movie. (For me, the subtitles are a non-issue.) July 28, 2008

Great

I love ballet documentaries almost more than I like watching the on-stage performances.

Paris Opera Ballet had never been one of my favorite companies but after watching this and being introduced to some of their extraordinary dancers (i.e. Agnes Letestu, Carol Arbo, Kader Belarbi and Marie-Agnes Gillot), I have since bought about every Paris Opera Ballet DVD I can get my hands on.

If you are a ballet fan, I highly recommend this DVD. April 30, 2007

Subtitles cut off

If you speak french this dvd is probably fine - but for me there are better dvd's that focus on a dancer's life in a ballet company. The subtitles were cut off at the bottom and on the sides so you either looked at the dvd without knowing what was being said or you struggled to figure out the subtitles since they were only partially shown. September 28, 2006

Bejart's Ninth Symphony

To be able to see some portions of Bejart's'Ninth Symphony" itself is worth owning this DVD. I wish they have the entire performance recorded to be released. Like other reviewers I really think this is a well-made documentary. February 8, 2005

More than just behind the scenes...

A variety of experiences are presented through interviews with members of the company, from the principal dancers (etoiles) to the understudies. It allows us to hear first-hand the opinions on issues such asthe pressures of being an etoile; the decision whether to start families from both the male and female dancer's perspectives; the reservations a former etoile has about her daughter's career choice, who is now in the company, as well as the pressure that daughter feels being the child of a former etoile; dancers who love dancing more important than life itself, to dancers who appear more cynical, and seem to take dancing as more of a career than a passion; the labors of the understudies to learn ALL the choreography knowing full well they will likely not get to perform them, but hopefully wait in the sidelines just in case...; dancers who have stage fright, etc.

You see how physically difficult dancing is, not just the beautiful illusion that is portrayed on stage. You see the process of rehearsal, including arguing like "No, you need to put your hand HERE, or else you'll drop me." You see the lines drawn on the stage to help dancers hit their mark; you see the beautiful swan-like ballerinas with sweat pouring down their faces during a performance; you see them leap gracefully on stage, and once they're backstage they pace about holding their backs and stomachs, panting in exhaustion just as a marathon runner would; you see rehearsals and find out how beneath the music, the chorus dancers sound like stampeding horses because of the pointe shoes; and the dancers bandaging their blisters, describing how uncomfortable rock hard pointe shoes are.

These are things you don't get to see and don't know about unless you are a dancer yourself. Throughout the film, scenes are intercut with black & white photographs which were taken at the same time, and the effect is very jarring and beautiful.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone who is interested in the gritty reality of ballet, and to see how much heart and hard physical labor goes into the making of something so smooth and graceful when it makes it to the stage. If you're looking for performances, though, you will be very disappointed. There is not one complete performance in the entire dvd. This documentary focuses on what leads UP to the performance, and stops there. February 7, 2005

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