comment #1

Josh Massey says ...

Top Secret.

comment #2

myelbow says ...

Does Almodovar's Talk to Her count? Strictly speaking, it's more modern dance than ballet, but it's a beautiful scene.

Or how about The Red Shoes?

comment #3

bdboudreaux says ...

Killer's Kiss

comment #4

Ponderer says ...

Definitely The Red Shoes. Anyone who doesn't agree is a obviously a tasteless plebe. Tales of Hoffman, too.

Does Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse's Broadway Melody Ballet in Singin' in the Rain count? It may be a comedy, but I'd call that sucker riveting.

And even though the movie was mediocre, the Baryshnikov ballet to the Vissotski song in White Nights is one of the best moments of film I've ever seen.

comment #5

gruver1 says ...

Wells to myelbow: That dance sequence at the end of Habla con Ella is truly beautiful. Heavenly. But it's integrated into the film as if it's a kind of musical. I was thinking more about sequences in which people are shown watching ballet being performed in a theatre.

comment #6

franz_conrad says ...

I wouldn't be too worried about Coppola attempting a ballet on film. His use of a live opera production in GODFATHER III was one of the most impressive aspects of that film.

Now to your question. Ballet sequences off the top of my head...

There are two gorgeous sequences in John Malkovitch's film of THE DANCER UPSTAIRS. One comes midway as Yolanda dances to a piano improvisation on 'All Along the Watchtower'. The second comes at the end as the Javier Bardem character watches his daughter dancing before a crowd. Though the audience in both scenes is very personal, there's no question of the balletic intent.

There are some riveting stylised dance performances in Carlos Saura's TANGO. While the dances are tangoes, the construction of Schifrin's music and the blocking of it make it like watching characters perform in a stage play.

Was there also a ballet section in RUSSIAN ARK? (This is ringing a bell for some reason.)

I'm glad someone already mentioned THE RED SHOES. That's a pretty obvious omission. The TALK TO HER scene is also beautiful.

And aren't all those wuxia / choreographed martial arts scenes in HERO just a kind of ballet?

comment #7

Ponderer says ...

Fair enough, that's a mule of a different stripe. Oddly enough, I can think of a bunch of films that work with characters watching opera. Not so much ballet.

comment #8

lazespud says ...

The Dancing Hippos in Fantasia? It was as stirring to me as anything else in the film...

Also, what about that dream sequence that Richard Dreyfuss had in "who's life is it anyway?" where that chick danced naked. I don't know that the movie was particularly "truly riveting" but I guarantee you that that particular sequence was...

comment #9

Undercover Brother says ...

Red Shoes you fool.

comment #10

lazarus says ...

No one else gonna defend Youth Without Youth? I was dazzled by it in the theatre, can't wait to get the DVD and see it again, hear the commentary, etc.

If David Lynch had it made everyone would still be bending over backwards to toss its salad.

comment #11

MarkVH says ...

I'll fourth (fifth?) The Red Shoes. Absolutely phenomenal movie. Ballet sequence blows my mind every time.

comment #12

MilkMan says ...

Modern Problems with Chevy and Patti D'arbanville.

comment #13

erniesouchak says ...

The complete debacle that was "Youth Without Youth" is much more of a red flag than any ballet sequence could ever be.

comment #14

Richardson says ...

I thought Altman's "The Company" was reasonably good, but I thought that the ballet sequences were among the most beautiful things Altman ever shot. I'd rank that among his best looking movies, while acknowleding that the "look" was rarely the reason to see an Altman movie. (And I'd certainly rank it beneath his collaborations with Zsigmond.)

And 'Youth Without Youth' was shockingly, jaw-droppingly bad and then, just when you think it can't get worse, they throw in a half-hour long new subplot that goes nowhere and is much, much worse.

But it was one of the best-shot movies of that year. I really think that kid who shot it would have a good future shooting good movies, if anybody could make it through 'Youth Without Youth'.

How many people saw 'Youth Without Youth' and 'Incredible Hulk'? Just wondering, because there were several things about Tim Roth in 'Hulk' that reminded me of YWY.

comment #15

corey3rd says ...

after all the "Francis is back" hype with the a-list directors drooling over Youth Without Youth, the film was a massive turd.

An original ballet? Maybe Francis did wonders with Godfather 2, but that was nearly four decades ago. It's like thinking the Bruins can win the Stanley Cup if Bobby Orr laces up his skates this season. The guy is toast and ought to be directing episodes of CSI:New York..

comment #16

franz_conrad says ...

To be fair, the Cavaleria Rusticana sequence is in Godfather III, which is only 2 decades ago. Point taken, but I'm cautiously optimistic for TETRO. (Alas, I haven't seen YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH, all I know is that it called forth a marvelous film composition by Osvaldo Golijov, who will also be working on TETRO from the looks of things.)

comment #17

Mr. Peel says ...

BRAIN DONORS. End of discussion.

comment #18

btwnproductions says ...

I thought of BRAIN DONORS, too. Also, more "legit," THE TURNING POINT and BILLY ELLIOT, though perhaps, like THE RED SHOES, they are more ballet movies and not films with tangential ballet sequences.

comment #19

Joe Leydon says ...

I can't tell you how shocked I am to find that two other preople remember Brain Donors.John Turturro channeling Groucho Marx? I laughed my fool head off.

comment #20

AbeGoldfarb says ...

Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. Or that may have been opera. Either way, fucking gorgeous. And yes, Red Shoes. Powell and Pressburger gave us some of the greatest dance sequences ever filmed.

And I LOVE Brain Donors.

"I'm twice the man you are."

"Well, so is she! And it's driving me mad."

comment #21

TheCahuengaKid says ...

Yup..."The Red Shoes" rules ballet movies...

comment #22

Josh Massey says ...

I worked at a theater when Brain Donors came out. All six people who saw it loved it.

comment #23

BurmaShave says ...

He was probably rusty after the 10 year absence. Hopefully this will be better. Surely there are other directorial examples of this?

Also, Francis learned the hard way what anyone who has ever watched THE LEGEND OF 1900 or other films knew: Tim Roth is not a leading man.

comment #24

Rosebudsthesled says ...

GO ALDEN EHRENREICH.

comment #25

lipranzer says ...

Add another fan of BRAIN DONORS:

"Are you Roland T. Flakfizer?"
"Depends. Do I owe you money?"
"No."
"In a drunken stupor, did I promise to marry you?"
"No."
"Then I'm your man!"

comment #26

Mgmax says ...

My God, I'm not alone.

You can all come to my house for a triple bill of Brain Donors, Finders Keepers and Hot Shots Part Deux, the three most underappreciated comedies of our time.

comment #27

BurmaShave says ...

Closest thing we'll have to a Marx Brothers movie. Directed by Dennis Dugan, no less.

comment #28

nemo says ...

The Red Shoes rules

Powell and Pressburger rule.

Osvaldo Golijov rules. But I'd be nervous for the reputation of anybody collaborating with Coppola nowadays.

Gustavo Santaolalla rules.

I've never heard of Brain Donors before. I'll have to see it, since it sounds as if it rules.

This still of Coppola in the desert looks like an outtake from Gerry. I kind of enjoyed Gerry, in an excruciating sort of way. But it did not rule. I'll probably take a pass on Tetro. Even if it features music by Osvaldo Golijov, who rules.

comment #29

nemo says ...

"And even though the movie was mediocre, the Baryshnikov ballet to the Vissotski song in White Nights is one of the best moments of film I've ever seen."

Goddamn, White Nights features a song by Vladimir Vysotsky? I've bypassed this film so many times because it sounds so sappy, even though it stars Helen Mirren, who rules.

Now I may have to see it, since it features music by Vladimir Vysotsky, who rules. And I see it co-stars Jerzy Skolimowski. Who rules.

comment #30

Mr. Peel says ...

Finders Keepers? That must be the first time that movie's ever been mentioned on this site. I love Finders Keepers. Almost as much as I love Brain Donors.

comment #31

Joe Leydon says ...

From The Houston Post, April 20, 1992:

By Joe Leydon

AT LAST! Cab driver and part-time liposuctioner Rocco Meloncheck (Mel
Smith) has caught up with the lawyer who represented his wife in their
divorce. It was bad enough that this shyster had an affair with Rocco's
ex-spouse during the legal proceedings -- but then he turned around and got
twice the alimony she asked for.

As usual, however, lawyer Roland T. Flakfizer (John T. Turturro) has an
excuse for his misbehavior. ''For God's sake man, this was your wife!''
Flakfizer exclaims. ''You didn't want her to keep seeing me in cheap motels,
did you?''

If Flakfizer's flippery sounds more than a little Marxist -- Groucho, not
Karl -- well, that's precisely the intention of the jolly jokers who made Brain
Donors. Long before director Dennis Dugan (Problem Child ) and screenwriter
Pat Proft (The Naked Gun ) 'fess up at the very end of the closing credits,
and admit their breakneck nuttiness was ''inspired'' by A Night at the Opera,
any movie comedy fan worth the salt on his popcorn will spot Flakfizer as a
modern-day soul mate of such classic con men as Rufus T. Firefly and Otis B.
Driftwood.

Brain Donors is the regrettably off-putting title of a nifty comedy that
originally was known as Lame Ducks, and widely advertised under the title when
Paramount planned to open it last summer. For reasons known only to the
Paramount muckety-mucks, the movie's release was pushed back - way, way back -
until last Friday, when it opened with a new name in theaters nationwide
without benefit of press previews.

It's difficult to see what else Paramount boys could do to guarantee that
folks won't see the film until it pops up on videocassette in a few months.
Well, maybe they could hire ushers to walk up and down the aisles, ringing
bells while chanting, ''Unclean, unclean!'' But, then again, they probably
don't have enough of a sense of humor for that.

In any case, run, don't walk, to see Brain Donors while you can see it in
the company of other people who are laughing just as loudly as you are. The
movie, which has Flakfizer, Melonchek and a loony handyman (Bob Nelson) in
charge of a dowager's new ballet company, is wild-and-wooly wackiness at its
most anything-for-a-laugh shameless. And when I say anything, I mean anything.

At one point, a snide ballet star is on stage, prepared to catch a leaping
ballerina. First, someone tosses him a football. Then, someone else tosses --
yes, you guessed it, the kitchen sink.

Turturro, best known for his work with Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing ) and
Joel and Ethan Coen (Barton Fink ), is marvelously adept at Marxist double
talk, and every bit as leeringly lecherous as Groucho at his least inhibited.
He breezes through the film like a hurricane of hilarity, with a
scenery-chomping zest that upstages even the amusing antics of his two
partners in chaos: Smith as a cockney equivalent of Chico Marx, and Nelson as
a blissfully foolish Harpo who can speak (and, better still, can't slow things
down with a harp solo).

Brain Donors lists David and Jerry Zucker, two of the wild and crazy guys
behind the Airplane! and the Naked Gun movies, as executive producers. And like their earlier comedies, Brain
Donors has a satisfying hit-to-miss joke ratio: It abounds with boffo gags
that keep you laughing, or at least smiling, even when two or three misfires
follow. Like the classics of the Marx Brothers, it has a grande dame who isn't
ashamed to make a dim-witted dunce of herself -- Nancy Marchand plays the part
to the manner born -- and the usual supply of perky young lovers and slimy
villains.

Best of all, it has Turturro, waxing romantic as he contemplates a Jamaican
holiday with his beloved. ''We can watch that old Jamaican moon,'' he says.
''Why that old Jamaican will be mooning us, I have no idea.''

comment #32

qwiggles says ...

"I was thinking more about sequences in which people are shown watching ballet being performed in a theatre."

I still think this applies perfectly to Habla con Ella, which tends to focus on the reactions of key audience members watching said ballet.

comment #33

bfm says ...

Amadeus.

And Pretty Woman had an opera scene in it. That didn't do so badly.

comment #34

JohnCope says ...

"Tim Roth is not a leading man."

Bullshit. Little Odessa?

Anyway, YWY is not successful but it is gorgeous and Alexandra Maria Lara is as well, so much so that I resented the camera when it cut away. There is a genuine delicacy and openness in her expression that is a rare and wonderful thing to behold.

BTW, the commentary on YWY is actually very good if you're interested in hearing Francis wax on about the source text and his film's relationship to it. Very little technical or production based stuff which was just fine by me. I happened to love the source text so I was particularly disappointed by the changes that were made (not major but significant) but at least the commentary indicates the very real respect and engagement that Coppola had with it and I admire that. It's also at least trying to take on big themes and I appreciate that too.

comment #35

Craptastic says ...

Regardless of what the outcome of the film is... the picture of Coppola on this post is f'ing beautiful.

comment #36

BurmaShave says ...

Cope, allow me to get a little DZ and say that LITTLE ODESSA is a character role, it just happens to be leading. You've put a dent in my argument though, that you have. Touche.

comment #37

hfghg says ...

yes,Were you on a millionaire&celeb dating club W E A L T H Y C H A T . C O M ever before, one of my close friends told me that he saw your profile there.

comment #38

hfghg says ...

yes,Were you on a millionaire&celeb dating club W E A L T H Y C H A T . C O M ever before, one of my close friends told me that he saw your profile there.

comment #39

hcat says ...

"If David Lynch had it made everyone would still be bending over backwards to toss its salad."

The only film I was more excited about seeing and more disappointed upon viewing than Youth without Youth was Inland Empire. But then what do I know since I also love Brain Donors.

"I want you to have my children. They're waiting downstairs in the car."

comment #40

Mgmax says ...

Nemo-- White Nights is the kind of commercial junk food that I'm convinced will look better in 50 years than a lot of Oscar winners. It's borderline-dumb, and yet a great cast, interesting setting and some spring in its step make it very easy to watch and enjoy. Although I must admit I haven't seen it recently, and the late 80s fashions may look at their very worst right now, so you may need to avoid it for another 10 years.

Finders Keepers doesn't quite work, the leads are not that great, but there's some beautiful Lester slapstick in it and David Wayne is hilarious. Actually what it should be on a double bill with is The Big Bus. "Jettison the flags of all nations!" is still a standard line around my house.

comment #41

DavidF says ...

I know this guy made some good movies before I was born but I'm starting to wonder how he keeps getting work. Oh, right...has his own film studio....

"From the director of Jack and Youth Without Youth, comes a new epic...."

I'm half-joking, but only half.