''Black Tights'' (''1-2-3-4 ou Les Collants noirs'') is a 1961 French
anthology film
An anthology film (also known as an omnibus film, package film, or portmanteau film) is a single film consisting of several shorter films, each complete in itself and distinguished from the other, though frequently tied together by a single theme ...
featuring four ballet segments shot in
Technirama
__NOTOC__
Technirama is a screen process that has been used by some film production houses as an alternative to CinemaScope. It was first used in 1957 but fell into disuse in the mid-1960s. The process was invented by Technicolor and is an anamo ...
and directed by
Terence Young Terence or Terry Young may refer to:
*Terence Young (director) (1915–1994), British film director
* Terence Young (politician) (born 1952), Canadian Conservative Party politician
* Terence Young (writer), Canadian writer
* Terry Young (American p ...
.
The dances in the film were abridged versions of ballets created for the stage by the dancer and choreographer
Roland Petit
Roland Petit (13 January 192410 July 2011) was a French ballet company director, choreographer and dancer. He trained at the Paris Opera Ballet school, and became well known for his creative ballets.
Life and work
The son of shoe designer Ros ...
, who appears in the three of the four sequences along with his wife, the ballerina
Zizi Jeanmarie.
The film is also known as ''Un deux trois quatre!'' in France (short title).
Plot summary
The four independent stories are performed in the form of ballet, interspersed with introductions by
Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Auguste Chevalier (; 12 September 1888 – 1 January 1972) was a French singer, actor and entertainer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including " Livin' In The Sunlight", " Valentine", "Louise", " Mimi", and "Thank Hea ...
. In two of them (Cyrano de Bergerac and Carmen), he periodically explains events as the story progresses.
La Croqueuse de diamants translates as "The Gold Digger", or more literally as "the diamond cruncher". (Twice during the story, the title character swallows a diamond, with a crunching sound.) The story, a romantic comedy, opens in
Les Halles
Les Halles (; 'The Halls') was Paris' central fresh food market. It last operated on January 12, 1973, after which it was "left to the demolition men who will knock down the last three of the eight iron-and-glass pavilions""Les Halles Dead at 200 ...
. Amid the hubbub of street activity, a group of woman street vendors sing in French about their trade. A furniture delivery man (Dirk Sanders), while delivering a seating bankette to a cafe, encounters a woman pickpocket (Zizi Jeanmaire, The Gold Digger), who is the leader of a pickpocketing gang, based next door to the cafe. The delivery man and the gold digger fall in love with each other, the latter leaving her criminal gang to go off with her new love.
Cyrano de Bergerac is a tragic romantic story, based on a
play
Play most commonly refers to:
* Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment
* Play (theatre), a work of drama
Play may refer also to:
Computers and technology
* Google Play, a digital content service
* Play Framework, a Java framework
* Pla ...
of the same name. Both Cyrano de Bergerac (Roland Petit) and Christian de Neuvillette (Georges Reich) love Roxanne (Moira Shearer). But the poet Cyrano has a big nose and is too shy to declare his love to Roxanne. Instead, he helps his friend Christian woo Roxanne, writing love letters on his behalf.
Deuil en 24 heures translates as "mourning in 24 hours" or more loosely as A Merry Mourning. (A shop appearing in the film shows "Deuil en 24 heures" as the shop name.) Along the Champs-Élysées, a wealthy man (Hans von Manen) accompanies his wife (Cyd Charisse) on a shopping trip to buy a dress. A strange man (Roland Petit) flirts with his wife in a cafe. The husband challenges the flirting man to a duel which the husband fatally loses. The wife starts to enjoy her widowhood. The story is a black comedy.
Carmen is the tragic story of the soldier Don José (Roland Petit) falling in love with the Gypsy Carmen (Zizi Jeanmaire). The plot of the
ballet
Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
roughly follows the story of the
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
with some variations in plot detail. The ballet features music by
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', whi ...
. In the Lillas Pastia scene, the ballet troupe sings ''l'amour est enfant de bohème'' in a half-sung/half-spoken fashion.
Cast
La Croqueuse de diamants
*
Zizi Jeanmaire
Renée Marcelle "Zizi" Jeanmaire (29 April 192417 July 2020) was a French ballet dancer, actress and singer. She became famous in the 1950s after playing the title role in the ballet ''Carmen'', produced in London in 1949, and went on to appear ...
as ''La Croqueuse de diamants'' (the Gold Digger)
*Dirk Sanders as ''Le Jeune Homme'' (the young man who delivers furniture)
*Bertie Eckhrat as ''Le Patron du café (the owner of the café)
*Raoul Celada, Gérard Lemaitre,
Hans von Manen, Elwin Carel, Claude Jourdan as ''Les voyous'' (the hooligans - the gang of pickpockets)
Cyrano de Bergerac
*
Moira Shearer
Moira Shearer King, Lady Kennedy (17 January 1926 – 31 January 2006), was an internationally renowned Scottish ballet, ballet dancer and actress. She was famous for her performances in Powell and Pressburger's ''The Red Shoes (1948 film), Th ...
as Roxanne
*
Roland Petit
Roland Petit (13 January 192410 July 2011) was a French ballet company director, choreographer and dancer. He trained at the Paris Opera Ballet school, and became well known for his creative ballets.
Life and work
The son of shoe designer Ros ...
as Cyrano de Bergerac
*Georges Reich as Christian de Neuvillette
*Josiane Consoli as Lise Ragueneau
*Cecile Zissler as ''La Duègne'' (the chaperone)
*Lucien Mars as ''Le petit marquis''
*Leo Lauer as ''Le mauvais acteur'' (the bad actor)
Deuil en 24 heures
*
Cyd Charisse
Cyd Charisse (born Tula Ellice Finklea; March 8, 1922 – June 17, 2008) was an American actress and dancer.
After recovering from polio as a child and studying ballet, Charisse entered films in the 1940s. Her roles usually featured her abilit ...
as ''L'épouse'' (the wife who becomes a widow)
*Roland Petit as ''Le séducteur'' (the seducer or suiter who flirts with the wife)
*
Hans van Manen
Hans Arthur Gerard van Manen (; born 11 July 1932) is a Dutch ballet dancer, choreographer and photographer.
He studied under Sonia Gaskell and Françoise Adret. Van Manen wrote many ballets. He worked for the Dutch National Ballet from 1973 to ...
as ''Le mari'' (the husband)
*Gérard Lemaitre as ''Le garçon de café'' (the café waiter)
*Danielle Jossi, Regine Rourry as ''Les soubrettes'' (the maids)
Carmen
*Zizi Jeanmaire as Carmen
*Roland Petit as Don José
*Josette Clavier as ''La femme brigand'' (the woman bandit)
*
Henning Kronstam Henning Kronstam (June 29, 1934 – May 28, 1995) was a famous Danish ballet dancer, ballet master and company director.
Life and career
Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, he began training with the Royal Danish Ballet at the age of nine. He later j ...
as ''Le Toréador'' (the bull fighter)
*Fredbjørn Bjørnsson,
Hans von Manen as ''Les brigands'' (the bandits)
*Regine Rourry, Sally Pierce, France Arnel, Irena Radkitwiecz as ''Les cigarières'' (the cigar makers)
Reception
''Black Tights'' received the Biennale Special Golden Award at the
Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...
and the European Grand Prix by film critics in Europe.
Reviews at the time of release were largely favorable. Writing in the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'', critic Philip K. Scheuer called the film "artistic without being forbiddingly highbrow" said that 'the film "could do as much to popularize French Ballet as West Side
West Side Story
''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents.
Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid-1 ...
''] did for American." He praised the cinematography as "visually dazzling" and said that the ''Carmen'' ballet was "the real show-stopper."
''New York Daily News'' critic Wanda Hale awarded the film four stars and called it "a most unusual ballet picture, artistic, beautiful, saucy and naughty."
''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'', while praising ''Black Tights'' an "intriguing picture to watch" and "rare entertainment," said that there are "occasional dull spots which slow up its pace and deaden its magic." The Guardian called the film "threadbare" and "very lightly blessed with talent or imagination." The unsigned review described the dancing as "a mixture of modern wiggling and traditional ballet."
''
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 ...
'' critic
Bosley Crowther
Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...
said that the "over-all effect of the picture, apart from its meaning for those who are stringent ballet students or lovers and have particularly keen eyes for technique, is that of a great big package of dance numbers from a musical film - just that, ballet numbers. For our personal taste, that's too much." He called the Chevalier narration "a little foolish and patronizing."
Legacy
In a 1986 review when the film when shown at a revival house, ''
Philadelphia Inquirer
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...
'' critic
Carrie Rickey
Carrie Rickey (born November 26, 1952) is a feminist American art and film critic. Rickey is the film critic at ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' and often contributes to ''The New York Times'', ''San Francisco Chronicle'' and ''Village Voice''.
Her e ...
wrote that "whether seen as a significant chapter in the history of
modern dance
Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which included dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th ...
or as a
camp
Camp may refer to:
Outdoor accommodation and recreation
* Campsite or campground, a recreational outdoor sleeping and eating site
* a temporary settlement for nomads
* Camp, a term used in New England, Northern Ontario and New Brunswick to descri ...
curiosity," the film was a "rare record of Petit's Ballet de Paris." She said that Petit had as much influence on Hollywood musicals, especially
''An American in Paris'', as it did on modern dance.
A 1986 ''New York Times'' review of the video release of the film noted that ''Black Tights'' "had little success upon its release in 1962" but "is now a highly enjoyable record of Mr. Petit's contribution to ballet. And that is his ability to marry popular forms with a poetic realism."
Three dancers who appear in the film—Dirk Sanders,
Hans van Manen
Hans Arthur Gerard van Manen (; born 11 July 1932) is a Dutch ballet dancer, choreographer and photographer.
He studied under Sonia Gaskell and Françoise Adret. Van Manen wrote many ballets. He worked for the Dutch National Ballet from 1973 to ...
, and Gerard Lemaitre—went on to form the
Netherlands Dance Theater.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Black Tights
1961 films
French musical drama films
1960s French-language films
Films directed by Terence Young
1960s musical drama films
Ballet films
French anthology films
1961 drama films
1960s French films