Actualités
Gerald Arpino
Before "So You Think You Can Dance," "Dancing With the Stars" and other shows attracted large audiences to dance, there was Robert Joffrey.
He brought dance to everyone, using his company, the Joffrey Ballet, as ambassadors of dance, traveling the country, putting on shows.
The dramatic tale of the dance company is beautifully told in "Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance" on PBS' "American Masters" Friday, Dec. 28 (check local listings).
It's not an overstatement to say that Robert Joffrey revolutionized dance in America.
"I always thought it was important to represent the country, to use American music," Joffrey says in the film.
He went beyond traditional ballet, which many found effete and difficult to embrace. He set dance to contemporary music, but used basic ballet moves, melded with modern dance. His choreography was modern, but not so abstract that it shut out audiences for being too avant-garde.
Dancers quoted Joffrey as saying,...
He brought dance to everyone, using his company, the Joffrey Ballet, as ambassadors of dance, traveling the country, putting on shows.
The dramatic tale of the dance company is beautifully told in "Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance" on PBS' "American Masters" Friday, Dec. 28 (check local listings).
It's not an overstatement to say that Robert Joffrey revolutionized dance in America.
"I always thought it was important to represent the country, to use American music," Joffrey says in the film.
He went beyond traditional ballet, which many found effete and difficult to embrace. He set dance to contemporary music, but used basic ballet moves, melded with modern dance. His choreography was modern, but not so abstract that it shut out audiences for being too avant-garde.
Dancers quoted Joffrey as saying,...
- 28/12/2012
- par [email protected]
- Zap2It - From Inside the Box
The Company
Screened
Toronto International Film Festival
TORONTO -- "The Company" is Robert Altman's valentine to the challenging world of ballet and its world-class dancers. Eschewing the high drama of a dance film like "The Turning Point", Altman and his collaborators go for documentary-like realism, which scrutinizes company rehearsals, quick repairs to bruised and calloused bodies, arguments over choreography and the performances themselves, all lovingly photographed by Andrew Dunn. Altman and screenwriter Barbara Turner impose little narration on the film. Instead, they let the drama emerge from the daily routines of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago.
After the rousing critical and boxoffice success of his previous film, "Gosford Park", "The Company" may strike some as a minor work from the iconoclastic director. This also may translate into a limited, though highly appreciative, audience for the Sony Pictures Classics release. Yet the glories of the Joffrey Ballet and Dunn's luminescent cinematography, shooting in high-definition video to give us views from outside the proscenium, in the wings and overhead, make "The Company" a wonderfully vivid and engaging theatrical experience.
The genesis of the film lies with actress Neve Campbell, a fine dancer who studied with the National Ballet of Canada before embarking on an acting career. Campbell wrote the story with Turner and is the only actor in the film to participate with the Joffrey corps, doing all her own dances while playing the role of Ry, a company member on the verge of becoming a principal dancer. Realizing this project not only represents the fulfillment of a longtime dream but also a smart move as an actress. This film should get Campbell out of the "Scream" business and into classier movies and roles.
The other actor to command the screen is Malcolm McDowell, who plays Alberto Antonelli, the ballet's autocratic director. Alberto roams through rehearsal halls and company offices, wearing a series of dapper scarves and bringing the full weight of his demanding personality into every room he visits. He refers to the dancers as "my babies" and insists that they think beyond their own movements to the concept of the ballet itself. (Alberto is loosely based on Joffrey head Gerald Arpino.) It is indicative of Altman's determination to keep things real that an underling, summoning the boss to tend to another crisis elsewhere in the building, interrupts any moment involving Alberto that threatens to become dramatic.
The movie has little plot. An injury creates an opportunity for Ry to perform a pas de deux in an outdoor theater during a thunderstorm. (This is perhaps the movie's most visually exciting sequence.) She is a great success, but Alberto's promise to create dances around her fades, much to the annoyance of her pushy mother (Marilyn Dodds Frank).
Ry breaks up with a boyfriend in the company, then takes up with Josh James Franco), an affable sous chef. A veteran dancer snaps her Achilles tendon, a male dancer is replaced the week before a major ballet and threatens legal action, and dancers and choreographers occasionally clash over movements. That's about it for drama.
The real drama evolves out of the daily lives of the company. Altman, Turner and Campbell prefer to let simple observation demonstrate the battle a dancer must wage to stay on top of his or her game. We are surprised to see Ry forced to work as a cocktail waitress to make ends meet. We witness how dancers' careers are always at the disposal of the company's determined director. We understand the role injuries play.
Such is Altman's love for this brave world that he glides by its darker sides. The impact of AIDS is mentioned only in passing, and nothing at all is said about dancers' constant battle to keep their weight down.
The time period is not always clear, either. We sometimes go from rehearsal to performance in a single cut. One night Ry meets Josh in a saloon, and soon he has her apartment key. Are we experiencing a single season here or several years? Hard to say.
But the film does sweep us up into the lives of ballet dancers in ways no other film ever has. Altman also takes the time to stage and film several individual ballets nearly completely. And the costumes, makeup and design both of the film and the dance performances are magnificent.
THE COMPANY
Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics presents in association with CP Medien and Capitol Films a Killer Films/John Wells production in association with First Snow Prods. and Sand Castle 5 Prods.
Credits:
Director: Robert Altman
Screenwriter: Barbara Turner
Based on a story by: Neve Campbell, Barbara Turner
Producers: David Levy, Joshua Astrachan, Neve Campbell, Christine Vachon, Robert Altman, Pamela Koffler
Executive producers: Jane Barclay, Sharon Harel, Hannah Leader, John Wells, Roland Pellegrino, Dieter Meyer
Director of photography: Andrew Dunn
Production designer: Gary Baugh
Music: Van Dyke Parks
Costume designer: Susan Kaufman
Editor: Geraldine Peroni
Cast:
Ry: Neve Campbell
Alberto Antonelli: Malcolm McDowell
Josh: James Franco
Harriet: Barbara Robertson
Edouard: William Dick
Susie: Susie Cusack
Ry's mother: Marilyn Dodds Frank
Ry's father: John Lordan
Running time -- 112 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Toronto International Film Festival
TORONTO -- "The Company" is Robert Altman's valentine to the challenging world of ballet and its world-class dancers. Eschewing the high drama of a dance film like "The Turning Point", Altman and his collaborators go for documentary-like realism, which scrutinizes company rehearsals, quick repairs to bruised and calloused bodies, arguments over choreography and the performances themselves, all lovingly photographed by Andrew Dunn. Altman and screenwriter Barbara Turner impose little narration on the film. Instead, they let the drama emerge from the daily routines of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago.
After the rousing critical and boxoffice success of his previous film, "Gosford Park", "The Company" may strike some as a minor work from the iconoclastic director. This also may translate into a limited, though highly appreciative, audience for the Sony Pictures Classics release. Yet the glories of the Joffrey Ballet and Dunn's luminescent cinematography, shooting in high-definition video to give us views from outside the proscenium, in the wings and overhead, make "The Company" a wonderfully vivid and engaging theatrical experience.
The genesis of the film lies with actress Neve Campbell, a fine dancer who studied with the National Ballet of Canada before embarking on an acting career. Campbell wrote the story with Turner and is the only actor in the film to participate with the Joffrey corps, doing all her own dances while playing the role of Ry, a company member on the verge of becoming a principal dancer. Realizing this project not only represents the fulfillment of a longtime dream but also a smart move as an actress. This film should get Campbell out of the "Scream" business and into classier movies and roles.
The other actor to command the screen is Malcolm McDowell, who plays Alberto Antonelli, the ballet's autocratic director. Alberto roams through rehearsal halls and company offices, wearing a series of dapper scarves and bringing the full weight of his demanding personality into every room he visits. He refers to the dancers as "my babies" and insists that they think beyond their own movements to the concept of the ballet itself. (Alberto is loosely based on Joffrey head Gerald Arpino.) It is indicative of Altman's determination to keep things real that an underling, summoning the boss to tend to another crisis elsewhere in the building, interrupts any moment involving Alberto that threatens to become dramatic.
The movie has little plot. An injury creates an opportunity for Ry to perform a pas de deux in an outdoor theater during a thunderstorm. (This is perhaps the movie's most visually exciting sequence.) She is a great success, but Alberto's promise to create dances around her fades, much to the annoyance of her pushy mother (Marilyn Dodds Frank).
Ry breaks up with a boyfriend in the company, then takes up with Josh James Franco), an affable sous chef. A veteran dancer snaps her Achilles tendon, a male dancer is replaced the week before a major ballet and threatens legal action, and dancers and choreographers occasionally clash over movements. That's about it for drama.
The real drama evolves out of the daily lives of the company. Altman, Turner and Campbell prefer to let simple observation demonstrate the battle a dancer must wage to stay on top of his or her game. We are surprised to see Ry forced to work as a cocktail waitress to make ends meet. We witness how dancers' careers are always at the disposal of the company's determined director. We understand the role injuries play.
Such is Altman's love for this brave world that he glides by its darker sides. The impact of AIDS is mentioned only in passing, and nothing at all is said about dancers' constant battle to keep their weight down.
The time period is not always clear, either. We sometimes go from rehearsal to performance in a single cut. One night Ry meets Josh in a saloon, and soon he has her apartment key. Are we experiencing a single season here or several years? Hard to say.
But the film does sweep us up into the lives of ballet dancers in ways no other film ever has. Altman also takes the time to stage and film several individual ballets nearly completely. And the costumes, makeup and design both of the film and the dance performances are magnificent.
THE COMPANY
Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics presents in association with CP Medien and Capitol Films a Killer Films/John Wells production in association with First Snow Prods. and Sand Castle 5 Prods.
Credits:
Director: Robert Altman
Screenwriter: Barbara Turner
Based on a story by: Neve Campbell, Barbara Turner
Producers: David Levy, Joshua Astrachan, Neve Campbell, Christine Vachon, Robert Altman, Pamela Koffler
Executive producers: Jane Barclay, Sharon Harel, Hannah Leader, John Wells, Roland Pellegrino, Dieter Meyer
Director of photography: Andrew Dunn
Production designer: Gary Baugh
Music: Van Dyke Parks
Costume designer: Susan Kaufman
Editor: Geraldine Peroni
Cast:
Ry: Neve Campbell
Alberto Antonelli: Malcolm McDowell
Josh: James Franco
Harriet: Barbara Robertson
Edouard: William Dick
Susie: Susie Cusack
Ry's mother: Marilyn Dodds Frank
Ry's father: John Lordan
Running time -- 112 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 11/09/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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