Review-- Center Stage

Alrighty! Another ballet movie for me to review! This one is Center Stage. It was released in 2000 with mostly unknown actors, but some make recognize the ballet director and ballet teacher. Let's get cracking!

Story:

Story's about students who have been accepted into a ballet company's workshop. Though they passed, it is more like an extended audition since three boys and three girls will be chosen to dance for the company. With so many good dancers, competition is going very tough.

This movie is the ultimate 90s cliché. Granted, this movie was just coming out of the 90s when it was released. It still has those tacky moments where they have an entire scene dedicated to a pillow fight, but still try to be all serious by having someone be bulimic. You know what I mean? Still, it doesn't mean I hated it. It kept me interested--it just not going to win awards for an original screenplay.

Characters:

The characters are also cliché. And almost all the characters look the same--minus the brunette and the tall, black girl (thank god for them! Or else I wouldn't be able to tell anyone apart). A lot of the students tend to blend blandly into the background. Only a few stand out. One is the tall, black girl (a bit of a rebel). The second is the uptight snobbish girl (the brunette). And then there's the underdog character (one of the blondes). I would give names but their names hardly matter in this type of movie.

The purpose of these characters is not really to amuse us, but to create archetypes that many dancers could at least somewhat identify with. This makes the movie more personal, and thus, a more entertaining movie. Here is where they did really well. Since most of the archetypes get featured at some point, there's plenty of opportunities for those who identify with the character to feel their story.

If she looks familiar, it's because she played Doc Oct's wife in Spiderman 2

The actors and actresses are all great dancers, and I really mean that. They are phenomenal. Their acting's not bad either. It did get a bit awkward at times (I was very aware of a script and it made the fourth wall break a bit), but I much rather have a talented dancer in a dance movie than a bunch of stunt doubles and lame cuts to hide the actors' inability to dance.

Also, get used to the main girl making the same face the entire movie. Maybe this is where Natalie Portman got her inspiration for Black Swan? Hahaha

<---- Seriously, she does it a lot XD




There's also other characters. Like the boy dancers. These guys play a crucial part since they play either the gay best friend clichés or the romantic interests. Also, the ballet director, choreographer, a med-school student, and an overbearing mother. They all did pretty good work so I can't complain. The boy dancers were really, really good.

Sets/Costumes:

The sets are mainly in studios, dormrooms, cafeterias, and on-the-town locations. They were actually pretty nice, but studios can get pretty bland. Still, it wasn't too bad at all.

The costumes were your average clothing. For performances, they were fine, but the last ballet performance I thought looked a bit weird. Something just didn't add up with the hair, shoes, and mini-skirt.

Music:

The music was mostly pop music. Some of the ballet music was classical, especially for performances of Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet. The rest of the movie's background were teen favorites of the era, and the final ballet sequence had pop and even some disco thrown in. Personally, I didn't like the disco music at all. I thought they could find something better, but hey, that's just me.

Camera:

Again, not much to say about camera. They did a really nice job with the edits and offering a variety of shots for the long dance sequences. I thought it did a nice job of capturing the essence of ballet. So kudos to them!

Ballet Presence:

Ballet! Ballet everywhere! This movie is about ballet straight to the very core. Not only do you see them dancing during class and rehearsal, you also get some full-length dance sequences. 

 They did a great job of capturing the struggles during practice and emotional breakdowns during rehearsals. Whoever wrote the script also knew a bit about ballet because the main girl's main problem is her turn-out, which puts her behind the other girls in the workshop.

The final ballet sequences that feature the students are interesting. One is a traditional ballet. The other has been modernized, most likely to be a bit different and to appeal to a wider audience. It's not bad, but I loved the dancers so it made it really amazing.

Earlier in the movie, you can also see some Swan Lake and some other traditional ballets. There was actually so much dance being featured in this movie, that I had to stop taking screencaps since I had so many. This is definitely a dance movie with great dancers. Proving that if you want to make a movie about ballet, you can easily find someone who can actually dance to play the part.

Overall Enjoyment:

Despite its clichés (eating disorder, underdog, overbearing mother, focus on perfection, trying to discover oneself, etc.), the movie wasn't bad. I mean, let's face it. We're not watching this movie for the story or the characters. We just pick one of the students we identify the most with and watch the ballet. Considering this, the movie does a really nice job knowing its audience. I think it knows its cheese and fully embraces these qualities. This movie won't appeal to most audiences, I'm guessing, since it's geared toward teens and 20-somethings mostly, but it's still not a bad movie to watch if you're outside that target age-range. Do I recommend this movie? Yes. Because the dancing is awesome!

Manga-- Doll

Another ballet manga! There are many of these! This particular manga is called Doll is is written and drawn by the same mangaka as Mars. It's about a New York ballet company and a young amateur dancer auditioning for the company. This is a short story, only being five chapters long, but it's a nice story that I enjoyed reading. So let's take a look into the story of this manga.

As usual, spoilers ahead!

A amateur dancer named Muriel Blaire tries out for a musical. When she accidentally kicks her dance partner during a tricky move, her partner is replaced with a famous Russian, dancer named Alosza. They dance so well together, that the company decided to fill the recently vacated leading role to her.

Unfortunately, the person who Muriel replaced comes back to haunt the partner. Her name is Ginger, and she likes to put Muriel on edge, especially, since she is jealous of Muriel's closeness with Alosza. She interrupts their dinner together to basically make them uncomfortable. Despite Ginger's set backs and the looming doubt of other dancers, Muriel fights her own fear of falling to keep up with Alosza.

Though they are improving, their practices are getting harder. Articles in the newspaper doubt the casting. The directors try to push the dancers further by trying to have them dance from emotional, past experiences. Muriel has trouble with expressing emotions and goes to take a break. On her break, she overhears Alosza say "I love you" in Russian to their ballet director, Ira. Muriel is so upset when she hears this that it throws off the rest of the rehearsal. Her jealousy costs her the role, and they end up asking Ginger to return and play the part.


The musical they put on, Doll, is similar to the ballet, Coppelia. Ginger plays the Doll and Alosza is the boy who falls in love with it. However, as all performances go, there are set backs, and Ginger leaves the stage in a huff. Muriel is asked to replace her mid-act.

Muriel is in the costume closet when Ira, the ballet director, runs in the room. She begs Muriel to dance. When Muriel comments on her begging, saying that Ira must really love Alosza, Ira admits that Alosza is actually her son and that she had to leave him in Russia years ago. Since Alosza was kind enough to forgive her for leaving him, she wants to make Doll perfect for him, and that would require Muriel to dance.

Muriel decides to dance, and of course, it's a great success. Alosza, during the doll's death scene, confesses his love for her and then the curtains fall.

Muriel and Alosza are now a couple, and can stay together since Muriel is offered a part in the company due to her great performance. Now there are new problems, such as competition. Not only are there talented dancers, but Alosza's new partners are threatening their romance.

This ballet would be the new Da Vinci Code

The company is putting on (and I laughed for a good five minutes over this one) a ballet featuring Jesus and Judas. Did I mention that the dance company wants gay-undertones since it's an all male cast? Hahaha, could you just imagine?

This production is a success (though it makes Muriel jealous of men now, as well as women) and the next ballet they put on is a rendition of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Muriel, since she dances so well with Alosza, is given the principle role. Her competition wonders why she was given the part when she's a weaker dancer, but when they see her with Alosza, it becomes clear. But the director decides later that the roles they've been given are too mismatched, and so Muriel must swap dance partners.

Muriel ends up hearing from the grapevine that it was not the director's idea to swap partners, by Alosza's own planning. When she confronts him about it, he tells her that he didn't tell since he knew she would cry, and he thought them dancing separately would help them grow as dancers. She starts crying and arrives to practice the next day looking terrible. Her new dance partner, though mean to her before, shows a more sensitive side.


Though Muriel doesn't take the heartbreak well, she does manage to connect with her partner more as he tries to cheer her up. Her and Alosza split more and more, and though her new partner tries to lift her spirits, she just can't imagine dancing without him. She thinks about quitting the company, but her partner tries one last time to keep her dancing by explaining to her that she should dance for herself, not for Alosza.

She takes this advice and dances for herself. Once she was able to dance strongly without Alosza's support, he dances the final act with her on stage. Muriel and Alosza make up when he tells her that he split up because he didn't want to make her into a doll that obeyed to his every word. The story ends with them together.

*end spoilers*

I'm suspecting that this mangaka, author of the manga, knew a lot about American/Western culture, and I'm guessing she may have lived here for sometime. She does a great job with English, cultural influences such as Shakespeare; for instance, their ballet, Twelfth Night, is being performed during Christmas. I wouldn't expect someone from Japan to get such a small detail, which not many English-speakers even know about, correctly.

 This was a really nice story. I loved how the dance was drawn and the story was sweet. Despite the fact that this wasn't a pure ballet manga (there were other forms of dance here, too, like gymnastics), I still loved the dance sequences since there was still a strong ballet vibe. And even though there were some places that made me raise an eyebrow, it really wasn't too bad and I highly recommend reading it if you're interested in this type of thing. Since this isn't released in the US, you can read it here for free.

Modern Ballet

Though this video is an advertisement for a ballet school, I still love how it was shot and all of the dancers. This is slightly different since it features modern ballet.

Quite lovely, isn't it? I just love watching people dance!

Review-- The Turning Point

 For this week, I watched the movie, The Turning Point! This movie was nominated for a lot of Oscars, but like I say about Oscars, I almost never like the movies that the Academy picks. So, let's see how this movie does!

 Story:

The story is about two women named DeeDee and Emma (played by Shirley MacLaine and Anne Bancroft respectively). Both are friends, and both were fierce rivals in ballet. But DeeDee decides to get married and have children while Emma pursues a career in dance. Years later, two meet again as Emma's company drops by DeeDee's town. Meeting with each other again reminds the other woman of all the opportunities she's missed. Emma, out of either kindness or a longing for a daughter, semi-adopts DeeDee's daughter, Amelia. Amelia is a dancer, too. Emma helps Amelia enter the company. DeeDee is not only worried that she is losing her daughter to her rival, but also that Amelia will make the same mistakes she made. The story is of these two women and of Amelia as they morn for lost dreams and begin new ones.

DeeDee and Emma

Sometimes I really like the story...and then sometimes I find it slightly bland. Sometimes I think it's rather realistic...and then sometimes I feel they are pushing my threshold of bullshit. There are times were the script is well-written and subtle where needed...then there are times when it's pretty much layered on us. For instance, Amelia is making eyes at the Russian dancer. A LOT. It's not too subtle. Then it immediately jumps to this weird dance sequence. I guess it's supposed to be symbolic, but they don't even know each other, so it comes off as sort of a joke. So, yeah...not so subtle. Other times, it shows a great understanding of human behavior. There's this one scene where Amelia and her mother are talking. Both think the other one is mad at her for something. It's a great use of common defense mechanisms.

There was also a bit where Amelia gets drunk but goes to perform. As funny as that was, she would be booted off the corps in a heartbeat. To even let her on, when a ballerina's core strength is inebriated, is also a shocker.
Also, Amelia just casually telling her mom she's on the pill and her mom's just, "oh, good girl." I couldn't imagine anyone's mom being like that. Amelia even says that her mom's straitlaced later on, but what straitlaced mother would be saying, "oh good girl," or even having that conversation to start with?

I did like the theme of "aging out" and becoming too old to make certain decisions. It's one that doesn't come up too often, and it certainly fits the bill for this blog. They did a pretty good job about delving into passion and art, too, and how these never go away with age. They only briefly touched on how perhaps the mother is living vicariously through her daughter, and that was during an explosive argument near the end of the movie. It's actually this argument that I think is my favorite part in the movie. I liked watching the two actresses hurl insults at each other and how all the skeletons came out.

Another theme that I felt was pretty powerful was "life's short; it's okay to mess up once in awhile." The women want to help Amelia from feeling the same pain they went through, but they finally learn that she needs to grow up, too, and the only way for her to do that would be to make mistakes. 

Characters:

The acting was pretty fine. Emma's actress did a great job with subtle facial expressions, though she did have the most convenient, sweet sounding hiccups. I wish mine conveniently didn't interrupt my speech making me sound like a drunken fool, too.

The daughter, Amelia, also did a great job. She was funny during the drunk scene and she did all of her own dancing, which I approve. The male Russian dancer who Amelia falls for was a phenomenal dancer, though maybe not the greatest actor. Granted, he probably didn't have enough lines for me to even judge.

Sets/Costumes:

Nothing much to comment on here. It's a movie from the seventies and it shows its age. And I really wished people in the 70s movies wore bras. Seriously.

 

Music:

Music is mostly played during the ballet sequences, which are often, or the practice sequences, also often. These are classical pieces, and I really can't say much more than that.

Camera:

The camerawork seemed fine to me. There were some times where I wanted to see more of the dancers' body, but it was very rare. They did a good job covering Emma's actress' lack of dancing ability. What they showed me was satisfying enough, but not insulting to my intelligence.

Playbill effect

Near the end, there are several short acts of ballets. They would project the playbill over the beginning of each act so you could recognize which dancer is performing. I really appreciated this since once you get everyone in makeup with their hair done up, everyone looks the same.

When the Russian dancer was dancing though, (and as cool as this shot was) you could see the cameraman's shadow in the spotlight! Whoops!

Oh hi, camera crew!

Ballet Presence:

I liked the dancing a lot. I love it when actresses and actors can dance their own parts. Though the actress that played Emma didn't do her own parts, they did a pretty good job of editing her bits out. When it does come time for her ballet, she was a tad awkward, but she handled it nicely. 

 Amelia's character is a beautiful dancer. She smiles a lot when she dances, but she dances gorgeously. The Russian dancer (I think he's called Yuri?) is also AMAZING. HOLY CRAP. Just look at that air on the picture above. Yeah. He's awesome. I could watch him dance all day.

Ah... ah hem. Anyways, enough with the worshiping... The ballet company puts on several ballets. Some of them were more modern while others were the more traditional types. These traditional ballets were of Swan Lake, Giselle, and Don Quixote.

 

 

See? Quite a bit of ballet! This movie definitely has a strong focus on dancers.

Overall Enjoyment:

I'm not quite sure what to make of it. Is it a good movie? Yes. Is it a great movie that deserves all of the Oscar nominees it was nominated for? Probably not. (But there we go again with Oscars!) Would I recommend watching it? Sure! Why not! This is probably as good as dance movies are going to get. I still like The Red Shoes the best, though I have to give this movie about 6 out of 10 stars. The story was really slow moving, but I would still probably watch this again than Black Swan. Then again, both are rather bland.... oh who cares. Watch what you want. Why do should you care about my opinion anyway?

Review-- The Company

The second ballet movie I'm reviewing is called The Company, made in 2003. This has some big names in it, most noticeably James Franco (he played Harry in Spiderman) and Malcolm McDowell. I didn't recognize the other name, Neve Campbell, but she's in it, too.

Story:

Now, this is definitely a new breed of movie. It's almost a documentary style. There's no solid story, just an overarching theme. In many ways, the movie itself is like a representation of the modern ballets it performs. The ballets have a vague story, but what is more important is the talent and the emotion that their dancing evokes in the audience.

If I did have to give this movie a plot, it is about the ballet company as a whole. We specifically follow a budding dance star as she goes to practice, interacts with others, and performs. The ballet company is in Chicago and performs mostly modern ballets.

The story also had its funny moments. I love when a dancer starts talking back to the ballet director (master? I'm not quite sure what he preferred to be called) and the Christmas skits were also really funny. The funny bits added a nice change of pace in juxtaposition to the more serious ballet rehearsals and company concerns.

I liked this movie. I liked hearing the ballet rehearsals since they reminded me of the old days I danced in high school. I read that the screenwriter didn't know anything about ballet, but after spending time with the Chicago ballet, wrote the script. I have to say, she did a pretty good job, and I felt it made a really good representation of the stresses and fun times a ballet company goes through.

This is mostly for older audiences, since there's nudity and sex references. Older kids in their teens would be fine, but if you're looking for a great family film, this is definitely not a good choice since it probably won't hold their attention. 

Characters:

I won't separate main characters from supporting characters since everyone is equally important in this story, but I will look at the ballerina the movie follows most. She's the budding star of the company, and she goes by her last name, Ryan, or Ry for short. Neve Campbell plays her character and she definitely looks like she knows what she's doing. She dances her own parts, which I love. (I hate "clever" editing to hide an actress' inability to perform the moves because you can always tell they aren't really performing.) But she performed her own part, and quite well, too. She trained for four months to get back into shape and she looks great.

The other dancer characters also dance their own part. Those who had line did a great job, too. It felt natural, like I was looking into a window that showed me their lives. However, since everyone looks somewhat similar in their uniforms, I had a really hard time telling them apart. When one dancer snaps her Achilles tendon and then I think she's dancing in the next scene, it makes it really confusing. I had to rewind to notice that they were two different people.

The ballet director is played by Malcolm McDowell. He's the son of an Italian immigrant who takes charge of this Chicago ballet company. He's a perfectionist, arrogant businessman and can be a jerk at times, but all the dancers respect him and hope for him to acknowledge their hard work, which he does. I really liked this actor as the ballet director. He was able to balance the strict side with the slightly bitchy side.

James Franco plays Ry's boyfriend. He's a successful chef at a restaurant. I actually read he trained at a Chicago bistro in order to take this part, so kudos to him. He didn't have a big part, just smile and look cute I guess.

Sets/Costumes:

I can't say much about costumes since they wore your everyday outfits. The ballet costumes were either minimal or bizarre, so I can't comment too much on these. The sets, however, are great. I loved seeing Chicago as the back drop. In fact, one of the outdoor performances takes place at a Lollapalooza stage. Lady Gaga actually performed on the very same stage they danced on. The movie did a great job of capturing some of the major Chicago landmarks, such as the el-train, which drives past Ry's apartment several times in the movie.

The ballet studio is small, but you get the idea. It is the stage that is more interesting. I loved how the camera shot from the performers perspectives at times so we could catch a glimpse of their world.

Music:

Was there music? I don't know. There was music during the ballet performances, but I wasn't to blown away by anything I heard. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad.

Camera:

The camera was odd at times. Most of the time it was great! But sometimes we would get an odd zoom, like the ones I do on my digital camera. There were definitely odd moments, but for the most part, it was fine. The scenes were set up real nice, like the picture of the stage above.

Ballet Presence:

Ballet is everywhere. Can't avoid it, so if you don't like it, stay away. Why are you at this blog anyway? The film features mostly modern ballets. I don't recognize any personally, but I don't know much about modern ballet, so these could have been created for the movie.

Those they did have were really interesting and entertaining. It was nice to get a different type of ballet than just the classical stuff. The movie also took time out to show us a couple minutes of the ballet. I love when movies do this instead of cutting to the end of the ballet because I like to see the characters' hard work.

I loved how the actress could dance her own part. I know I'm beating a dead horse here with that comment, but it's true. It makes a world of a difference.

 Aren't they pretty? There's also this really cool one where they are suspended from the ceiling and dance. It reminds me a bit of some circus acts.

Overall Enjoyment:

Overall, I loved this movie. I liked the documentary feel, I liked ballets, I liked the characters. I know many people won't like this movie because there's not a strong story, but it still makes a great ballet movie. It probably could have shown the darker side of ballet a bit more, but other than that, it was a great movie that completely immersed me into its own world. I recommend giving it a try and if you don't like it, at least enjoy the dancing!