The filmmaker joins us onstage for this dynamic retrospective... Dominique Delouche: Ballet Cineaste
July 23 – 27, 2008
Dominique Delouche will be on hand throughout the series, which includes seven of the feature-length dance portraits that are his forte, to speak about his illustrious career as France’s dance film master. Violette Verdy, one of the leading ballerinas of the 20th century and now a distinguished professor of ballet at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, will introduce the 6pm screening of Violette et Mr. B on Saturday, July 26.
Dominique Delouche is truly a Renaissance figure, steeped in classical music, fine arts and the ballet. He has devoted much of his working life to filming the great dancers who illuminated his youth, to preserve the tradition as well as the memory of the dance from one generation to the other; as he wrote in his memoir, Corps Glorieux (Glorious Bodies), “The Church has stashed away our angels in the cupboard but what we have left is the dancers.” Early on, Delouche assisted Fellini and directed a feature film himself. His point of reference was Max Ophüls and when he started filming dancers he lent a choreographic note to his subjects, later favoring a simpler documentary style. This is the first American retrospective of the filmmaker, whose devotional tone, always sparked with humor, gives his career as a dance filmmaker (as well as a costume and set designer) its special place.
As a filmmaker, Delouche is particularly distinguished by his interest in how ballet roles are preserved through careful coaching from one generation of legendary artists to the next. Yvette Chauviré: Une étoile pour l’exemple (Cannes Film Festival-selection), Serge Peretti, le dernier italien, Maïa, Markova, la legende, and Violette et Mr. B all follow world-class dancers through coaching sessions and first-person interviews. La Fille mal gardée, choreographed by Ivo Cramér in the style of Dauberval, offers a unique look at a performance of the 18th-century ballet by the Ballets de Nantes. Delouche co-directed the performance and created its sets and costumes. The rare beauty of some of ballet’s most celebrated talents are captured in the films Katia et Volodia and Les Cahiers retrouvés de Nina Vyroubova.
The series highlights Delouche’s early career, showcasing his work as assistant director to Federico Fellini with screenings of Nights of Cabiria. We're also showing Delouche’s first feature, 24 Hours in the Life of a Woman, starring Danielle Darrieux, which screened at the sixth New York Film Festival in 1968.
Trained as a young man in piano, theater, classical singing, architecture and painting, Delouche entered filmmaking in the early 1950s when he met Fellini at the Venice Film Festival. He went on to assist the maestro on Il Bidone (The Swindle), Nights of Cabiria, and La Dolce Vita, before directing a trio of narrative features: 24 Hours in the Life of a Woman; Man of Desire; and Divine. Yet his primary interests as a filmmaker were always opera and dance. “I must have been nine or ten when I first saw Serge Lifar’s Suite en Blanc,” he said in a 2002 interview, “and the contrast with the outside world of the German occupation was beyond belief. After the oppression and blackness I lived with, here was a magical, mystical world where the dancers seemed like angels floating above the ground. I never imagined anything so beautiful existed.”
His films convey his delight and dedication for the art of dance and the artists who create it. This retrospective is a marvelous opportunity to delve into the Delouche treasure chest of ballet history and tradition.
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Calendar to view the schedule and purchase tickets online ($1.25 service charge per ticket).
Series Pass admits one person to five titles; $40 public/$30 Film Society member, available at the Walter Reade Theater box office (cash only transactions).
Dominique Delouche: Ballet Cineaste was programmed by Joanna Ney. It is presented with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy. Special thanks to Delphine Selles and Sandrine Butteau. The program complements the Lincoln Center Festival 2008.
