This is possibly the most unique of all ballet films. There had been great predecessors, Powell-Pressburger's "The Red Shoes" above all, 12 years earlier, but this is all ballet and nothing else and of the very highest level. There are three ballets presented, it is the crucial second act of "Swan Lake" with the famous pas-de-deux and Tchaikovsky's adorably expressive and intimate music, there are two scenes of Stravisnky's "The Fire Bird" in Michael Fokin's unsurpassed choreography, and there is almost the entire ballet of "Ondine", a newly composed and staged ballet since only two years in Frederick Ashton's choreograpy, with the second act entirely at sea, marvellously contrived with the sailors rocking along with the movements of the billows, making almost the enire audience seasick, and with a full blazing storm to cap the drama, making the most dramatic part of the whole film. Margot Fonteyn dances the lead in all three ballets, maybe the greatest prima ballerina the world has seen, her career actually lasting for 50 years, and just for her sake the film is worth watching forever. You might have problems with the music of Stravinsky and that other modern composer of the "Ondine", but the performances are of absolute top class, and you might be especially impressed by the costumes - just the dress exhibition is an esthetic wonder in itself, and you can never gloat enough in all that splendour of creative clothing. The director here was the veteran Paul Czinner, 70 years at the time, who specialised in highly esthetic productions, like also "Romeo and Juliet" with Marglot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyev in 1967.
