The Gay Parisian

There's considerable color, lots of energy, and the grins of the dancers tell us that we are supposed to think that this production is absolutely delightful. But the choreographer and dancers don't display sufficient technical virtuosity to off-set the almost complete lack of an actual story here. Imagine a second- or third-rate '40s musical, eliminate the singing, and replace the movie make-up with that appropriate to live theater, and you'll have a rough idea of what this film is like. Danny Kaye would have been expected to move with more precision than does Leonide Massine; the nameless dancers for MGM would have been expected to be better synchronized than are the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. While I'm sure that, with a run-time of 20 minutes, a more tiring film *could* be made, I'm not sure than one *has* been made.

This is probably the most hilarious ballet film ever made, you can watch it over and over again any number of times, and you will find it equally delightful every time and constantly discover new details and never tire of it. It's only 20 minutes, but in these 20 minutes there is so much compressed, it's a constant whirlwind of action with also any number of intrigues, and even a grand fight in the middle involving the entire ensemble with jealousy and tremendous drama, but although everything seems to be in a muddle of confusion from begining to end, it all sticks together, it's a marvel of choreography, and the choreography is all by Leonid Massine, who plays the lead - a Peruvian tourist in Paris for the first time and getting mixed up in the very heart of all the pleasures of Paris concentrated in one spot. It's not just a marvel of choreography but also a miracle of direction, the director being Jean Negulesco, a Romanian, who was to make any number of prominent films in all kinds of genres - like Billy Wilder, he never repeated himself. The centrepiece of this ballet though is Leonid Massine, leading the dances with sparkling humour all the way, like a juggler and acrobat, and he is the one who makes it all an unsupassed ballet comedy. In brief, I saw this film already as a child, it was my first ballet film, I could never forget it, I saw it several times already then, and now I found it again and will at last be able to enjoy it regularly for the rest of my life.

Massine was instantly recognizable but I was unfamiliar with the other principal dancers. A very nice short from Warner Brothers on TMC.

The movie moguls that ran the studios back in the day liked to make some pretense to culture. For that reason we are lucky in that so many classical artists got to show their stuff on film and are preserved for generations to see.

This is no less true of the ballet than for singing artists as well. For those who love the ballet, The Gay Parisian is filmed version of Leonide Massime's choreographed ballet in which he dances the title role of the Peruvian which he created. The story of the ballet is an eternal love triangle between the Peruvian visiting Paris who falls in love with the glove seller Mlada Madova who has the Baron, Frederic Franklin, who sees her as his personal property.

With the Ballet Russe company performing Massime did a marvelous not only in choreographing, but in selecting the proper music to reflect the Paris of Toulouse-Lautrec. The apache is performed and of course towards the end Offenbach's can-can is performed and worked nicely into the choreography.

The Gay Parisian got an Oscar nomination for Best Short Subject in 1941 and it holds up well today. For lovers of the ballet this is a must.

This is a vividly colourful excerpt from Offenbach's ballet "Gaité Parisienne" performed by Monaco's acclaimed Ballet Russe with quite a few of it's more memorable pieces of music providing a score for duets, fisticuffs and elegant dancing. Essentially, though, it is really just a showcase for some Technicolor sumptuousness. The one thing I do like about visiting a theatre is the static seat you sit on. The cast perform to you, en masse, whilst you remain in the same position - not from behind a railing, or a plant, or from thirty foot above the stage at the side. Jean Negulesco seems not to be bothered about that continuity as the camera flits about all over the stage and effectively destroys the overall look and flow of this high-costume drama. We are too often in the laps of the leading dancers and so don't really get a sense of the company experience that makes ballet a team proposition. Even though it's only a single act story, it's nigh-on impossible to condense that into twenty minutes and this presentation really doesn't do justice to much beyond the appealing visuals. Worth a watch, but a bit disappointing.