One of the tough things about films that are focused on a specific, rather niche topic is that the creators have to find a way to turn the audience into feeling as though they’re experts in the field without being such an information dump that they lose track of the story itself.
In some cases you have a character who’s somehow naive and asks questions, acting as a kind of audience surrogate. Other directors are more subtle, leaking out little bits of information at a time as the viewer needs it.
In the cases of today’s films, you’re mostly thrown into the deep end of the pool and need to suss it out yourself. Mostly, anyway. And the topic here is the ballet, specifically the machinations that go on backstage.
We open up with 1948’s THE RED SHOES, directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. This is a directing team that handles films with a fantasy element quite adroitly, and while Sean and I disagree with each other about the handling of one segment of the film, it doesn’t dampen your enjoyment either way.
From 1948 we move to the 21st Century, for THE COMPANY, a 2003 film directed by Robert Altman. As usual for Altman, you’re dropped directly into the chaos but once you’ve acclimated to the pace, he tells a compelling story without actually having a lot of story to tell.
COMING ATTRACTIONS:
In our next episode, Humphrey Bogart joins the Resistance. We begin with CASABLANCA, which we could have easily spent the entire episode reviewing. Fortunately for you we showed some restraint and moved on to TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT, which takes a very different tack on the subject. Join us, won’t you?