ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!

[Fran]

From IMDb:  There is a god! His name is Mike Krüger, god(father) of comedy. Together with Thomas Gottschalk, he made one of the funniest and greatest movies ever. Ever picture and every line is a masterpiece for itself. You can laugh about it for years, but you can`t really describe it. You have to see it. Pure genius!

[Meryl]

DANCE, DANCE, DANCE!

[Meryl]

Showbiz partners Bill Benson (Crosby) and Ted Adams (O'Connor) some 20 years Crosby's junior, each travel to Paris to sign a dancer to star in their new show. The problem? There is only one role, and the men have unknowingly cast two dancers, Patsy Blair (Mitzi Gaynor) and Gaby Duval (Zizi Jeanmaire). It is up to the men to sort out their mess on the cruise back to America

[memento]

IMDB: For many, modern ballet began with the Ballet Russe of Monte Carlo, originally made up of Russian exiles from the Russian Revolution. This film tells the story of this landmark company with its stars and production as well as its power games, rivalries and tribulations that marked its turbulent history.

[Fran]

From Amazon:  This candid, lovingly made 1977 tribute to the Kirov strivers who make big sacrifices to attend the legendary training ground of Balanchine is a sheer delight, both aesthetically and narratively, letting us peer into a highly disciplined world of pure art where expectations are high and the weight of tradition almost oppressive. With Grace Kelly's warm, vivid narration providing the context and translations, we watch as 20 students out of 1000 are carefully selected according to predetermined physical requirements, then spend close to a decade mastering their dance skills. You can't help feeling anxiety and then excitement watching one graduating ballerina make her heart-fluttering debut on the Kirov stage after months of punishing practice. "Street" is a tremendously enjoyable, behind-the-scenes look at greatness in the making.

I've watched this one countless times with my younger daughter.

[southendmd]

IMDb:  On the night of the big High-School Prom, the dead rise to eat the living, and the only people who can stop them are the losers who couldn't get dates to the dance.

[memento]

IMDB: Two men dance a pas de deux in the living room of a flat; the music is Mahmoud Ahmed's song 'Erè mèla mèla.' The men are nearly twins, one blond, one dark-haired, and much of what each does mirrors the other. Through the wonders of stop action, they glide in tandem; socks, trousers, and sweatshirts move from one to the other and back. It is at once a dance of athletes, of lovers, of a team, and of two abstractions. At the end, they roll up inside a rug with large red circles; when the rug unrolls, they have become flattened cutouts that blow away. White clouds pass outside, seen from the window of the flat, against a blue, blue sky.

[Fran]

From IMDb:  Students in their final year at the National Ballet School of Canada are seen learning the flamenco from Susana and Antonio Robledo, who come to the school every winter to conduct classes which are held after the day's regular schedule has ended.

[southendmd]

Italian/French production starring Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale and Alain Delon.

AKA "The Leopard" AKA "Le guépard".


Plot:  In the 1860s, a dying aristocracy struggles to maintain itself against a harsh Sicilian landscape. The film traces with a slow and deliberate rhythm the waning of the noble home of Fabrizio Corbero, Prince of Salina (the Leopard) and the corresponding rise to eminence of the enormously wealthy ex-peasant Don Calogero Sedara. The prince himself refuses to take active steps to halt the decline of his personal fortunes or to help build a new Sicily but his nephew Tancredi, Prince of Falconeri swims with the tide and assures his own position by marrying Don Calogero's beautiful daughter Angelica. The climatic scene is the sumptuous forty-minute ball, where Tancredi introduces Angelica to society.

[memento]

IMDB:
I liked this really well done. It made me feel like I danced it (how many can you say do that!!) What was best was the dancing and also when she (Ninny) did those backflips. You know what I mean. Even though its primarily a film about dancing it makes you feel totally victorious. Its a shame the sequel made in 1986 was never released.



=aside=
See you in a couple of weeks. I'll miss you.