El baile

This movie without any verbal dialogue enchants you from the very first moment. About twenty people meet one night at a dance-party... As they begin to dance, they (and the audience with them) live through the modern history of their country. The music naturally plays the central role in this film. The film is grotesque, funny, and moving at the same time, full of nice quotations from the cultural history of the 20th century. Absolutely great performances from the actors (all of them are more than good, but I would give Marc Berman the loudest applause)- they surely had fun doing this movie. This is a film to be purchased on video and watched again and again, with reasonable intervals - you can't really get fed up with it.

This movie is absolutely magical - taking place in a French ball room, it takes you through time. Year in year out, the music, the dances, the style and fashions change. We see the characters' hopes, fears and desires, we watch their interactions. We see how changes in the outside world affect them. Ettore Scola does this without letting his characters speak.The music, the cinematography, the dancing and interacting are the elements which let us experience the intensity of the voyage through time. Scola does not need language for this. However, this movie should not be mistaken for a kind of dancing medley. It is a keen observation of human behavior, accompanied with deep insight and empathy.

In "Le Bal" (1983) directed by Ettore Scola, the 50 year history of Europe happens in front of you in one ballroom somewhere in Paris where the same actors play the different characters that live through their dances From 1930s to the 1980s as the time passes by and politics, social behavior, and fashion change with each new epoch... For less than two hours we would go through the wars, peace, racial conflicts, student riots of 1968 while Ettore Scola's camera never leaves the ballroom. Dialogues and relationships are realized through the music and dancing only with no word spoken. Ironically, the film was nominated by the Academy for the Best Foreign Language movie award. It should have been nominated for the best Universal Language award - the language of music . The soundtrack features the works of such composers as Frederick Chopin, Irving Berlin, John Lennon, and Paul Mc Cartney. The original music was written by one of my favorite film composers, Vladimir Cosma. I saw "Le Bal" over twenty years ago and it has stayed with me over all these years as fantastic, one of its kind unforgettable film.

If someone would ask my top 10 movies,this one will be,without any doubt there.I wonder why is so difficult to get a DVD copy. Basically,this movie is about some 50 years of 20th century European history.Basically,because the movie is far more then this:is a declaration of love for cinema,is also a theatrum mundi,a world theater, in which human passions,the good and the bad ones,are its main characters. The big bet is that all this is told without saying a word.Rooted somehow in the music-hall,classical ballet and still movie,this masterpiece unfolds its beauty in dance,mimic,a peculiar semiotic intended more to suggest than to affirm. 2 hours of music and dance,without the slightest second of bore.It's delicate,funny,cerebral,interesting,diverting,remains in your mind and soul for ever.A must.

A movie that carves its own niche in film history in the most delicate, ephemeral way imaginable. The cast is among the finest ensemble gatherings I have ever seen, and the combined efforts of all concerned seems to add up to far more than seems possible for what is basically a silent film. It reminds me a bit of the magical transformation Altman managed to create on the set of McCabe and Mrs. Miller, as if all the actors were put under the same spell, and responded to the challenge with a uniform brilliance.

The camera work in Le Bal is just as nuanced and evolved as the work of the actors, but it never feels forced or artificial. All of the actors I have seen in many other films, and they seem so much more self-aware than many of the actors you see in the states. There is a feeling from this film as if the actors themselves created it, for which the director deserves my highest praise. And the subtle way the film morphs from black and white to a hand tinted look to modern color throughout is also so masterful that you almost don't notice it.

This is NOT A FILM FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T LIKE DANCING!!! It is a film for people who like to watch an exquisite evolutionary process. I liken it to an orchid, in that you learn a special kind of patience from waiting for it to bloom, but the blooms are always worth the wait, and last in the mind forever. I pray that a behind the scenes DVD will be released soon, as do many others, and recommend this highly.