O Baile

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.

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.

This piece is brilliant and it's tragic it's not more widely available. I just saw it for the first time in several years and was blown away at how perfect it was. Any dialogue would have ruined it, actually, because it was the finest example of European physical theatre I've ever seen. The casting was inspired. I am not in the habit of raving about films without qualifiers, but this one deserves it. The characters develop in such subtle ways, that it reminds me that this is not only a history of a ball room but of a person's life itself and the persistence of memory. It lends itself to so many layers of meaning, but still, it can be enjoyed just for itself...

A movie without any word, no dialogue, but you don't feel that something is missing. The music, the dance and choreography, replace any missing dialogue. You get a history of France as seen and heard from a dance-hall stage at certain points in time : 1936,1940,1944,1946,1956, 1968, & 1983. Special remarks for Marc Berman & Jean-Francois Perrier and for the man behind writing and acting Jean-Claude Penchenat - La "croix de feu". Real nice movie - a 9 mark.

This film it is only with music, no words and tens of characters. The same artist makes 3,4,5 roles. Each time I see this movie, I cry and laugh, I get convinced that Scola is a genius. A brilliant script, a conception very original, and many surprises in most of the scenes. I highlighted Marc Berman, Nani Noël, the Penchenat and Anita Pichiarini. What Ettore Scola made with this film should be repeated with all mankind. It is the world united by ball dance, popular music and not with words. What count are the ideas. Here in Brasil, the DVD of "Le Bal" still sells very well and is one of the most expensives. I wish that "Thêàtre du Campagnol" ever and ever have a success. Congratulations to all technicians for this magnificent spectacle.