Gaité parisienne

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.

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

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.

This came on the 2-Disc Special Edition DVD of The Maltese Falcon, as part of the Warner Night at the Movies extra. It's... a filmed version of an apparently famous ballet(the T is silent) by Leonide Massime. One girl has several suitors(no, not tailors... men wanting to wed her, courtship, that sort of thing), and they, well, dance. Maybe you've figured out by now that I'm not necessarily the person most fit to review this. I don't have experience with this form of expression, and the classical music, well, I only recognized one piece. Well, there's a lot of color and energy in this. It's entirely without spoken words other than the opening narration explaining the scenario(without which, we'd have no clue what on Earth is going on). Without having watched any others of these, I will say that the choreography and entertainment value could be better. It could be more nicely covered by the cameras, as well, like with similar productions from this period of time. This has a running time of about 19 and a half minutes. Since I don't know any other version of this story, I can't compare them or judge how great this is of one. I recommend this to fans of the art. 6/10

In filming Massine's Gaite Parisienne with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo,director Jean Negulesco chose the shots and edited the film beautifully. Dance is very hard to film effectively. Also, Massine adapted his famous dance wonderfully for film and what a treat to see him dance The Peruvian, his own creation! The famous dancers of the early 1940's makes a breathtaking cast list: Frederic Franklin, Krassovska,Eglevsky--everyone dancing and looking marvelous. They just threw off the choreography with no effort whatsoever. Thanks to Turner Classic Films for bringing these Negulesco shorts to light. All of them well acted, nicely designed and written. The costumes perfect. Not that garish mess of costuming a few years ago for American Ballet Theater. What a thrill to know Gaite Parisienne has been caught forever on film and so well. The addition of the sound of Massine's footsteps in his allegro pas and other slight sound additions an important element of making the ballet seem alive and not just a silent dance filmed to recorded music. And what about those musicians coming in while playing the beginning of the Barcarolle? Shela Xoregos