Ballerina (1937 film)

Ballerina
Directed by	Jean Benoit-Lévy; Marie Epstein
Produced by	Maurice Orienter
Screenplay by	Jean Benoit-Lévy; Marie Epstein
Based on	"La Mort du cygne" by Paul Morand
Starring	Yvette Chauviré; Mia Slavenska; Jeanine Charrat
Music by	Joseph-Etienne Szyfer; Claude Delvincourt
Cinematography	Léonce-Henri Burel; Henri Tiquet
Production; company	Cinatlantica Films
Distributed by	Comptoir Français du Film
Release date	25 November 1937;
Running time	100 minutes
Country	France
Language	French

Ballerina is a 1937 French ballet film directed by Jean Benoit-Lévy and Marie Epstein, starring Yvette Chauviré, Mia Slavenska and Jeanine Charrat. The original title is La Mort du cygne, the French title for Michel Fokine’s short ballet piece The Dying Swan. It tells the story of a 12-year-old girl who fears that her favourite performer at the Paris Opera Ballet will be replaced by a Russian ballerina, and sets out to engineer an accident for the rival.

The film is based on the 1933 short story "La Mort du cygne" by Paul Morand. The choreography was done by Serge Lifar. The film was remade in the United States as The Unfinished Dance, released in 1947.[1]

Cast

Yvette Chauviré as Mademoiselle Beaupré
Mia Slavenska as Nathalie Karine
André Pernet as Méphiste
Janine Charrat as Rose Souris
France Ellys as Madame Souris
Jean Périer as Le directeur
Mady Berry as Célestine

Reception

Anna Kisselgoff of The New York Times wrote in 1998: "The hard-nosed American critics raving about the film recognized its special and exquisite quality from the start. Rightly ignoring its surface sentimentality, they were clearly unnerved and impressed by Benoit-Levy's psychological insight into childhood innocence gone awry. Today the film is priceless in its haunting evocation of the Paris Opera on the eve of World War II." Kisselgoff continued: "The title ballet, not to be confused with Fokine's famous solo The Dying Swan, looks downright silly, but elsewhere Lifar's choreography is firmly grounded in the classical idiom. ... Ms. Charrat, as a child performer, and the two ballerinas are extraordinary."[1]

gollark: Appeal to dodecahedra instead?

gollark: What lies? I didn't see it under Archived.

gollark: If you're DEAD, it's not like having your work released would be BAD for you.

gollark: Well, that seems kind of bees.

gollark: Palaiologos is Palaiologos and wouldn't, you see.

References

Kisselgoff, Anna (20 November 1998). "Ballerina Gone Bad: Unsought Swan Song". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 October 2014.

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[Kisselgoff-1] Kisselgoff, Anna (20 November 1998). "Ballerina Gone Bad: Unsought Swan Song". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 October 2014.