Hans Christian Andersen (1952) - Fairytale giant given the full studio treatment

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Technicolor romance and upbeat fun is promised on this poster for Charles Vidor's Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen goes with the orphan Peter from Odense in Funen to the capital city Copenhagen in 19th century Denmark, where he becomes hired at the ballet and falls in love with an already wed ballerina, all the while he finds inspiration for countless of his famous fairytales.

 

Hans Christian Andersen is written by Moss Hart (Gentleman's Agreement (1947)), with Ben Hecht (Casino Royale (1967)) contributing uncredited work, based on a story by Myles Connolly (Between Us Girls (1942)), and directed by Charles Vidor (Sensation Hunters (1933)). It is very loosely based on the life and fairy tales of Danish author Hans Christian Andersen (1805-75).

The story is completely preposterous make-believe, and the style is saturated with sentimentality and unreality. - Yet Hans Christian Andersen is nevertheless very terribly charming and visually attractive: Enormous and very well-made sets, gorgeously full Technicolor, a longer mermaid ballet sequence in the middle of the film, which is pure old Hollywood spectacle and more esteem the film immensely: Not least the camera work (by cinematographer Harry Stradling Sr. (Penelope (1966))), which - in a very gay and possibly (it has always been speculated that Andersen was homosexual) apt observation, - nurses Danny Kaye's (On the Double (1961)) Andersen in scenes with the handsome Joseph Walsh (Anzio (1968)) as his teenage assistant Peter. Their relation is acted with an unmistakable - although of course entirely platonic - tenderness.

Farley Granger (Black Beauty (1978, miniseries)) is good as the ridiculously big-headed ballet director. The realism is nowhere to be found in Hans Christian Andersen, SPOILER and the film's proposition that Andersen's inspiration for his The Ugly Duckling story for instance came from his meeting a beautiful, bald boy is laughable. But Kaye is wonderful. And Hans Christian Andersen is a delightfully strange and lovely film.

 

Related posts:

Charles Vidor: A Farewell to Arms (1957) or, Love in Spite!

The Bridge/The Spy (1929) - Time-playing fine short debut of Charles Vidor

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 4 mil. $

Box office: 6 mil. $ (North-American rentals alone)

= Uncertain but likely at least a box office success (projected return of 3 times its cost)

[Hans Christian Andersen premiered 25 November (New York) and runs 112 minutes. Kaye was paid 200k $ for his performance. Shooting took place in California. The film was the 4th highest-grossing in North America with 6 mil. $ in rentals. With a projected world gross of 12 mil. $, the film would rank as a box office success. It was nominated for 6 Oscars, winning none: It lost Best Art Direction/Set Decoration - Color to Moulin Rouge, Cinematography - Color to Winton C. Hoch and Artie Stout for The Quiet Man, Costume Design - Color to Moulin Rouge, Original Song (Thumbelina by Frank Loesser) to High Noon (Do Noke Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin') from High Noon by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington, Score - Musical (Walter Scharf) to Alfred Newman for With a Song in My Heart  and Sound to The Sound Barrier. It was also nominated for 2 Golden Globes, among other honors. Vidor returned with Rhapsody (1954). Kaye returned in Knock on Wood (1954). 5k+ users have given Hans Christian Andersen a 3.9/5 rating at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hans Christian Andersen?

Girl (2018) - Debuting Polster impresses in insightful trans drama

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Star Victor Polster's angelic visage adorns this turquoise back-colored poster for Lukas Dhont's Girl

Lara is 16 years old, studies ballet and is transgender. She is fighting to cover up her male characteristics and struggling with the waiting period up to the genital operation that she looks forward to.

Girl is written by Angelo Tijssens (Iceland/Ijsland (2010, short)) and directed by debuting Lukas Dhont (Headlong/Corps Perdu (2012, short)).

It is an impressively bold and tender performance from debuting Victor Polster that drives Girl, which dwells on him for every moment of its running time. Some of its many shots, particularly of the ballet studies, become a bit monotonous.

Lara gets support from her father and surroundings in general, - SPOILER the film only has a single scene of group pressure, a very mild form of abuse, - and for this reason it is hard to comprehend what exactly drives Lara to genital mutilation in the film's end, - which can also ruin the opportunities for a successful gender switch operation. Several scenes of the physical issues of the trans affliction, - especially the explanation of the operation, - are very unpleasant to witness. But Girl is certainly enlightening.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 1.5 mil. €, approximately 1.81 mil. $

Box office: 4.1 mil. $

= Minor flop (returned its cost 2.26 times)

[Girl premiered 12 May (Cannes Film Festival, Un Certain Regard section) and runs 106 minutes. Dhont and Tijssens found inspiration and insight for the screenplay from Nora Monsecour, whose personal story is the basis for it. Shooting took place from August - September 2017 in Belgium, including Brussels. Polster, 14 years old at the time, got consent from his parents to do the film's nude scenes. The film was not released theatrically in North America. Its 3 biggest markets were France with 2.6 mil. $ (63.4 % of the total gross), the Netherlands with 1.2 mil. $ (29.3 %) and Greece with 72k $ (1.8 %). The film was nominated for a Golden Globe, won 5 prizes in Cannes, was nominated for a César award, won 1/4 European Film award nominations, 4/9 Magritte award nominations (Belgium's Oscar), and it was also Belgium's official Oscar entry of the year. Dhont has since only made Our Nature (2021, short). Polster is returning in Les Rivières Pourpres (2021, TV-series). Girl is certified fresh at 85 % with a 7.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Girl?

The White Crow (2018) - Fiennes puts real-life ballet master Ivenko in front of his honest and good Nureyev biopic

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+ Best Biopic of the Year + Best Dance Movie of the Year + Best Paris Movie of the Year + Best Political Movie of the Year

Star Oleg Ivenko's arms, head and torso stretch out as if in a classical painting on this magnificent poster for Ralph Fienes' The White Crow

Rudolf Nureyev was a precocious outsider from childhood, when he discovered the marvel of ballet. As a young man, he evolved into a master dancer with huge self-confidence but little knack for submitting to the restrictive realities of life in the USSR.

The White Crow is written by David Hare (The Hours (2002)), based on the book Rudolf Nureyev: The Life (2007) by Julie Kavanagh, and directed by Ralph Fiennes (Coriolanus (2011)).
The film skips back and forth in chronology, and the resulting impression isn't so much disjointed as just not parallel to the elegance of the exquisite dancing we witness. The story comes across, anyhow.
And the story of The White Crow, (which is a Russian nickname that Nureyev gets attached to himself from boyhood due to his qualities as sticking out and being 'different'), is one of the need and thirst for freedom, which again proves a compelling conflict here. Nureyev needs freedom to dance and spread his talent to the foreign lands that want to book him and the Soviet company he dances with, but he also thirsts for freedom simply because he is a wild soul, who does not and doesn't want to conform to the dictates of the grey, despicable figures of the Communist regime.
Ballet-lovers should find plenty to like in The White Crow, which stars acting newcomer Oleg Ivenko, a Ukrainian-born, celebrated dancer based in Tatarstan, Russia, who has trained ballet since the age of 5. Fiennes and Hare also stick with plenty of Russian dialog (as well as French and English when it makes sense story-wise), and Ivenko impresses especially in his dancing scenes, in which he is superb. Nureyev is a head-strong character, not always sympathetically so, and I believed in Ivenko in his portrayal.
Nureyev was also likely bisexual, though The White Crow is content to let the matter fly: SPOILER Nureyev sleeps with his possibly impotent teacher (Fiennes also gives a solid performance, speaking convincing Russian) and a beautiful male German ballet student (Louis Hofmann (Land of Mine/Under Sandet (2015))). The film adores the male physique unapologetically throughout, which is only right.
Adèle Exarchopoulos (Pieces of Me/Des Morceaux de Moi (2012)) gives another strong and sensual performance as another friend of Nureyev's, who due to her connection to the French minister of culture is able to help the dancer with his highly-charged defecting to the West: This short but pivotal hour or two in the artist's life is brought to vivid life, as Nureyev realizes that the weary company manager of the KGB has gotten orders to restrain him back to the Soviet Union and possibly end his career; and a high-stakes defection drama plays out in the Paris airport. The life-altering tension is very palpable, and the malign realities of the USSR regime are laid bare on film again.

Related posts:

Ralph Fiennes: 2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - A very very good dream (starring actor) 
Wrath of the Titans (2012) or, Trash of the Titans (co-star)
Skyfall (2012) - Mendes elevates a slickly produced modern Bond to thrilling heights (co-star)
The Reader (2008) or, Guilt, Words and Love (starring actor)
The Constant Gardner (2005) - Meirelles' first-rate third world thriller  (starring actor)
Spider (2002) - Cronenberg takes us to the tormented (and slightly dull) mind of a schizophrenic (starring actor)
The English Patient (1996) - Minghella's oppulent, beautifully produced and shot, but nevertheless boring classic (starring actor)

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 7. 2 mil. $ and counting
= Uncertain - but likely a big flop
[The White Crow premiered 31 August (Telluride Film Festival, Colorado) and runs 127 minutes. Hayden Christensen was first choice to star in the film, but an ankle injury made this impossible. Fiennes did not want to co-star in the film but was pressured to do so to secure financing. Shooting took place in France, Belgrade, Serbia, St. Petersburg, Russia and in Croatia, completed in October 2017. The film opened #29 to a 78k $ first weekend in 5 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #19 and in 365 theaters, grossing 1.8 mil. $ (25 % of the gross to date). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets so far are main production country the UK with 1.5 mil. $ (20.8 %) and France with 1.1 mil. $ (15.3 %). The film has one announced market left to open in: Germany on 26 September. If made on a low budget of 5 mil. $, the film still ranks as a big flop. Fiennes does not have his next directing job announced yet. Ivenko also does not have another film lined up and has returned to the stage for now. The White Crow is fresh at 66 % with a 6.37/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The White Crow?

The Company (2003) - Campbell, Turner and Altman's fine ballet picture

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+ Best Dance Movie of the Year + Best Mega-flop of the Year

Ballet dancers in motion on the poster for Robert Altman's The Company

QUICK REVIEW:

We follow life in the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago for a season, in which ambitious ballets are produced, and the dancer Ryan develops within the company.

The Company is in no way an epoch-making movie: Despite several plot summaries' attempts to drive out a conflict from the film, it really isn't there. - Nothing 'happens.' And perhaps for this reason, the film seems very realistic. The script is by Barbara Turner (Pollock (2000)), with story contribution by star Neve Campbell (Scream (1996)).
The particular dedication of ballet dancers and their seeming shallowness are caught spot-on in the film. Campbell and a pretty sheepish James Franco (This Is the End (2013)) compete in over-shining each other, and Malcolm McDowell (If.... (1968)) is outstanding as the eminent ballet's artistic director Mr. A.
The Company is directed by great American director Robert Altman (Gosford Park (2001)). It contains several wonderful dance pieces and is a lovely film, which may infuriate the excessively plot-focused audience member.

 

Related posts:

 

Robert Altman: 2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Young James Franco and Neve Campbell in Robert Altman's The Company

Neve Campbell, who actually used to be a ballet dancer, practiced 8 hours a day for 4 months to get in shape for Robert Altman's The Company

Watch the trailer here

Cost: 15 mil. $
Box office: 6.4 mil. $
= Mega-flop
[The Company only made 2.2 mil. $ (35 % of the total gross) in the US. Abroad, the film was a relatively big hit in Italy (1.1 mil. EUR), but didn't fare well in many other countries. The movie was a labor of love for Campbell.]

What do you think of The Company?
Other wonderful ballet movies? (Besides already reviewed Black Swan)

Black Swan (2010) or, Manic Dance

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2 Film Excess nominations:

Best Lead Actress: Natalie Portman (lost to Jennifer Connelly for Virginia/What's Wrong with Virginia)
Best Costumes: Amy Westcott (lost to Pat Field for Sex and the City 2)  

+ Best Dance Movie of the Year

Natalie Portman freakishly made up as Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan

Nina is a ballerina in the New York Ballet, where Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake is the coming production, and she gets elected to play the swan queen. But the demanding duality of the part, the director's advances, the competition, a traumatized ex-star and her own and her mother's insatiable ambitions make everything fall apart for the young woman.

Natalie Portman (Léon (1994)) gives the performance of the year in a film so laden with pain that it literally hurts to watch it.
The ending of the utterly fantastic Black Swan is emotionally overpowering, but, comparing the film e.g. to its great American director Darren Aronofsky's earlier works such as Pi (1998) and his ultimate masterpiece Requiem for a Dream (2000), (not to mention The Wrestler (2008)) Black Swan's falls a little short. It nearly becomes a special effects-fueled horror movie, and for my taste, Aronofsky could have saved himself a swan effect or two for a bit more chilling realism towards the end. Bear in mind, though, that this is a minor impediment for the toweringly strong ballet psycho-thriller that Black Swan is.
For it is a wildly intense experience, beautiful and disturbing, and also a treat for classical lovers of Tchaikovsky's marvelous ballet. It was 5 times Oscar-nominated, and deservedly won Portman her only Oscar so far for her uncompromising performance in the lead.
We are at the moment fearfully awaiting Aronofsky's next film, the Biblical epic Noah (2014) with Russell Crowe. Its trailer is online for the curious.

Related posts:

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Click to enlarge this other delicious, uncanny poster of Natalie Portman breaking like porcelain

Watch the goose-bumps-inducing trailer for the movie here

Budget: 13 mil. $
Box office: 329.3 mil. $
= Unbelievably successful

What do you think of Black Swan?
Other ballet or classical music films that are equally incredible?