The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Friday, January 7, 2011- 7

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Friday, January 7, 2011 - 7

Rousing 'Speech'

Firth and Rush
unite for royally
entertaining film
By EMILY BOUDREAU
Daily Arts Writer

between Firth at
the film compel
tionofaspeechin
seems the stuff o
icance, let aloneE
for a movie. Hon
be made and fe
tions between I
King's Speech" s

In the vein of 1948's "The Red Shoes," "Black Swan" invigorates a fading art.
ilm representations
keep ballet on pointe

By JOE CADAGIN
Daily Fine Arts Editor
Oscar buzz and heated debate
surround the recently released psy-
chosexual thriller "Black Swan"
- a film that encapsulates the cut-
throat world of classical dance.
Yet Darren Aronofsky's movie
is not the first film of its kind. In
1948, British directors Michael
Powell and Emeric Pressburger -
a filmmaking partnership known
as "The Archers" - released their
cutting-edge masterpiece, "The
Red Shoes."
Loosely based on Hans Chris-
tian Andersen's fairy tale of the
same name, "The Red Shoes" fol-
lows the rise of ballerina Vicky
Page, a British dancer with a
thirst for success. When Page
(Moira Shearer) joins the ballet
company of Russian impresario
Boris Lermontov (Anton Wal-
brook), she quickly becomes the
principal soloist of the company's
latest production. However, when
she falls in love with the ballet's
composer, Julian Craster (Marius
Goring), Page is forced to decide
between her love and her career.
Overwhelmed by pressure, she
chooses suicide instead, leaping
off a balcony to fall on an oncom-
ing train.
The elements of "The Red
Shoes" will jump out to anyone
familiar with "Black Swan": an
ambitious ballerina, a pitiless
and domineering ballet direc-
tor, a fatally demanding role and
a climactic suicide. But the most
important similarity between the
two films is, arguably, the way
their respective directors cap-
ture the thrilling exhilaration and
poetic beauty of ballet on film.
To manyanuninitiated audience
member, ballet can be summed up
by a comment from Mila Kunis's
character in "Black Swan": "It's not
for everyone." Indeed, a 2008 study
by the National Endowment for the
Arts showed that in 1982, only 4.2
percent of American adults attend-
ed a ballet. Twenty-six years later,

in 2008, that number has dropped flop largely because of director
to just 2.9 percent. By contrast, 9.3 Kounen's unsuccessful attempt
percent of adults filled the seats of to pass off composing music as a
classical music concerts in 2008, visually stimulating act. Scenes
and a whopping 16.7 percent of of Stravinsky banging on a piano
adults attended a musical that year. or vigorously scribbling down
In a nation where athletes are "The Rite of Spring" came across
worshiped as gods, it is a wonder as tedious, over-acted and even
that ballet - with all its athletic ridiculous.
allure and physical grandeur - However, "The Red Shoes" and
should trail so far behind other "Black Swan" display the blood-
performance art forms. Dizzy- thirsty competition and intense
ing fouettds, perfectly balanced pressure that goes on behind the
arabesques and impossibly high- scenes in a ballet company, milk-
reaching battement are enough ing these intense moments for
to make any hardcore sports fan's all they are worth. It is a riveting
jaw drop. In fact, the success of process to watch as Vicky Page in
former Pittsburgh Steelers wide "The Red Shoes" claws her way to
receiver Lynn Swann is largely the top and then ends everything
due to the flexibility and muscular in an almost operatic moment of
discipline he gained from his days self-destruction.
as a dancer in high school. As Nina Sayers, Natalie Port-
man's lust for perfection and ter-
rifying sexual awakening translate
Self-destructive- beautifully onscreen - especially
during her onstage transformation
ballet dancers: into the black swan.
balle dan ers: With the possible death of bal-
oddly enticing let looming on the horizon, the day
may come when we can only wit-
ness the beauty and excitement
of classical dance through films
This sporty appeal can be seen like "Black Swan" and "The Red
in the films of the Archers and Shoes." Since the advent of modern
Aronofsky. The leading ladies are dance styles like jazz and hip hop,
no sissy twinkle toes, but rather a ballet has begun to disappear from
pair of agile and aggressive acro- theaters and dance studios. Even
bats. Moira Shearer of "The Red the University lacks an official
Shoes" left audience members of ballet company that performs full-
the late '40s spellbound following scale works.
her forceful 14-minute onscreen Yet the world of ballet may find
ballet sequence, which she danced unexpected help from films that
herself. While Natalie Portman depict it as an alluring art form. By
may have partly relied on a dance emphasizing the athletic appeal of
double, critics raved over her abil- dance and by portraying it with a
ity to duplicate much of the adroit fresh sense of drama, "The Red
athleticism of a prima ballerina. Shoes" and "Black Swan" could
In addition to its athletic inspire a new generation of ballet
appeal, ballet has a certain dra- dancers and fans.
matic quality that lends itself to There's no use denying the emo-
the silver screen - a quality that tional and physical attraction of
many other art forms lack. Jan classical dance, especially when
Kounen's 2009 film "Coco Chanel depicted on screen. Just as ballet
and Igor Stravinsky" showed how inspired the Archers' and Aronof-
clumsy directors can be when try- sky's daring films, the cinematic
ing to portray the arts cinemati- medium may lead to a revitaliza-
cally. The film was a dramatic tion of ballet itself.

December is a dreary month, shaping of a na
and this year in particular it's but the evolutio
packed with dark movies, like a between two re
gritty Western It's not just abou
and the story ** * obscenities and
of a rather sin- the window to cu
ister ballerina. The King's how one man ins
However, "The a royal stutterer
King's Speech" Britishsubjects n
shines through At the Michigan, Above all, "TI
the gloom with Quality16 is filled with
its outstanding and Rave whether it's th
cast and smart between the Ki
sense of humor. The Weinstein Helena Bonham
Despite the Company Wonderland") as
cheery veneer sitting on the K
of the film, the plot's setup is root-
ed in the tension of 1930s Britain.
As the threat of war grew with
the specter of Adolf Hitler loom- n ,
og in Germany, the British people
looked to the voices of their leaders
to find comfort and strength. But
in comparison to the reassuring
charisma of future British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill, their
king stuttered - literally. "The
King's Speech" examines the rela-
tionship between King George VI
(Colin Firth, "A Single Man") and
his speech therapist Lionel Logue
(Geoffery Rush, "Pirates of thb
Caribbean").
As a historical film, the subject
that director Tom Hooper ("The
Damned United") wrestles with is
ambitious - a nation on the brink
of war, the scandalous abdication
of King Edward VIII (Guy Pearce,
"The Road"), class differences in
a time of turmoil - but he pulls
it off. The characters do not seem
like blurry, two-dimensional pho-
tographs ina Ken Burns documen-
tary. Instead, they're lively and
witty. Firth in particular is won-
derful; his days spent combating
Hugh Grant in romantic comedies
are long over.
But Firth's perforinance, out-
standing as it is, hardly drives
the movie. It's the interactions "J-J-i71-Jolly good."

nd Rush that make
hng. The correc-
mpedimenthardly
f historical signif-
engagingmaterial
wever, history can
lt in the interac-
people, and "The
hows not only the
ation's figurehead
n of a friendship
markable people.
ut a king shouting
vowel sounds out
tre a stammer, but
adingy office gave
a voice when the
seeded it the most.
he King's Speech"
clever humor -
he quick banter
ng and Logue or
Carter ("Alice in
Queen Elizabeth
tin'l rbpctxubil

he practices his breathing exer-
cises, there's never a dull moment.
Hooper creates a world in the
movie that is warm and wonderful
to witness.
But perhaps in Hooper's attempt
to make the movie a happy one
- to energize and uplift a darker
period in history - something is
lost. Hooper is careful to acknowl-
edge the darker side of the royal
family, mentioning King George's
epileptic brother, the jealousy
within the family and George's
harsh upbringing. However, these
references are easy to miss and
loom only briefly, and they don't
carry the same force as the humor
in the film.
Not all historical films have to
be dark and carry an overbeai-
ing message about morality. "The
King's Speech" still remains a
powerful story about courage in
thrn- nicriin~

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