''Ballerina'' is a 1937 French ballet film directed by

Jean Benoît-Lévy Jean Benoît-Lévy (1888–1959) was a French film director and film producer, producer.Andrews p.355 Selected filmography * ''Heart of Paris'' (1932) * ''Hélène (film), Hélène'' (1936) * ''Ballerina (1937 film), Ballerina'' (1937) * ''Fire i ...

and

Marie Epstein Marie Epstein (born Marie-Antonine Epstein; 14 August 1899, Warsaw - 24 April 1995, Paris) was an actress, scenarist, film director, and film preservationist. Her career is distinguished by three important collaborations. Throughout the 1920s, sh ...

, starring

Yvette Chauviré Yvette Chauviré (; 22 April 1917 – 19 October 2016) was a French prima ballerina and actress. She is often described as France's greatest ballerina, and was the coach of prima ballerinas Sylvie Guillem and Marie-Claude Pietragalla. She was awa ...

Mia Slavenska Mia Slavenska, née Čorak (20 February 1916 in Brod-na-Sava, now Croatia, then Austria-Hungary – 5 October 2002 in Los Angeles, United States) was a Croatian-American soloist of the Russian Ballet of Monte Carlo in 1938–1952 and 1954–1955 ...

and

Janine Charrat Janine Charrat (24 July 1924 – 29 August 2017) was a French dancer and choreographer. She appeared in ''Ballerina'' at the age of 12, and went on to choreograph over 50 ballets. She was an officer of the Legion of Honour. Filmography * 1938: ...

. The original title is ''La Mort du cygne'', the French title for

Michel Fokine Michael Fokine, ''Mikhail Mikhaylovich Fokin'', group=lower-alpha ( – 22 August 1942) was a groundbreaking Imperial Russian choreographer and dancer. Career Early years Fokine was born in Saint Petersburg to a prosperous merchant an ...

’s short ballet piece ''

The Dying Swan ''The Dying Swan'' (originally ''The Swan'') is a solo dance choreographed by Mikhail Fokine to Camille Saint-Saëns's ''Le Cygne'' from ''Le Carnaval des animaux'' as a ''pièce d'occasion'' for the ballerina Anna Pavlova, who performed it abou ...

''. It tells the story of a 12-year-old girl who fears that her favourite performer at the

Paris Opera Ballet The Paris Opera Ballet () is a French ballet company that is an integral part of the Paris Opera. It is the oldest national ballet company, and many European and international ballet companies can trace their origins to it. It is still regarded a ...

will be replaced by a Russian ballerina, and sets out to engineer an accident for the rival. The film is based on the 1933 short story "La Mort du cygne" by

Paul Morand Paul Morand (13 March 1888 – 24 July 1976) was a French author whose short stories and novellas were lauded for their style, wit and descriptive power. His most productive literary period was the interwar period of the 1920s and 1930s. He was mu ...

. The choreography was done by

Serge Lifar Serge Lifar ( ua, Сергій Михайлович Лифар, ''Serhіy Mуkhailovуch Lуfar'') ( 15 December 1986) was a Ukrainian ballet dancer and choreographer, famous as one of the greatest male ballet dancers of the 20th century. No ...

. The film was remade in the United States as '' The Unfinished Dance'', released in 1947.

Cast

as Mademoiselle Beaupré *

as Nathalie Karine * André Pernet as Méphiste *

as Rose Souris * France Ellys as Madame Souris *

Jean Périer Jean (Alexis) Périer (2 February 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French operatic baryton-martin and actor. Although he sang principally within the operetta repertoire, Périer did portray a number of opera roles; mostly within operas by Wolfgang ...

as Le directeur * Mady Berry as Célestine

Reception

Anna Kisselgoff Anna Kisselgoff (born 12 January 1938) is a dance critic and cultural news reporter for ''The New York Times''. She began at the ''Times'' as a dance critic and cultural news reporter in 1968, and became its Chief Dance Critic in 1977, a role she h ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' wrote in 1998: "The hard-nosed American critics raving about the film recognized its special and exquisite quality from the start. Rightly ignoring its surface sentimentality, they were clearly unnerved and impressed by Benoit-Levy's psychological insight into childhood innocence gone awry. Today the film is priceless in its haunting evocation of the Paris Opera on the eve of World War II." Kisselgoff continued: "The title ballet, not to be confused with Fokine's famous solo ''

'', looks downright silly, but elsewhere Lifar's choreography is firmly grounded in the classical idiom. ... Ms. Charrat, as a child performer, and the two ballerinas are extraordinary."

References

1937 films Films about ballet Films based on short fiction Films based on works by Paul Morand Films set in Paris French drama films 1930s French-language films 1937 drama films 1930s French films {{1930s-France-film-stub