''Le bal'' ( it, Ballando ballando, , meaning "The

ball A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but can sometimes be ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used f ...

") is a 1983 Italian-Franco-Algerian film without dialogue directed by

Ettore Scola Ettore Scola (; 10 May 1931 – 19 January 2016) was an Italian screenwriter and film director. He received a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film in 1978 for his film ''A Special Day'' and over the course of his film career was nominated for fiv ...

that represents a fifty-year story of French society by way of a ballroom in France.

Cast

None of the characters is named. * Étienne Guichard as Le jeune étudiant de province / Le jeune professeur (The young provincial student, the young teacher) * Régis Bouquet as Le patron de la salle / Le paysan (The owner of the hall, the peasant) * Chantal Capron as Le mannequin (The model) * Francesco De Rosa as Toni, le jeune serveur (Toni, the young waiter) * Arnault LeCarpentier as Le jeune typographe / L'étudiant (The young typist, the student) * Liliane Delval (Liliane Léotard) as La fille aux cheveux longs / L'alcoolique (The girl with long hair, the alcoholic) * Martine Chauvin as La jeune fleuriste / L'étudiante (The young florist, the student) * Danielle Rochard as La livreuse d'une modiste, La refugiée, (The milliner's deliverywoman, the refugee) * Nani Noël as La fille de joie / La jeune juive / La jeune qui peint ses basses (The prostitute, the young Jewess, the young woman who paints her bass) * Aziz Arbia as Le jeune ouvrier (The young labourer) * Marc Berman as L'aristo / Le planqué / Le collaborationiste (The aristocrat, the coward, the collaborationist) * Geneviève Rey-Penchenat as L'aristo (The aristocrat) * Michel van Speybroeck as L'homme qui vient de loin / Jean Gabin (The man from far away, Jean Gabin) *

Rossana Di Lorenzo Rossana Di Lorenzo (4 March 1938 – 13 August 2022) was an Italian film actress. Life and career Born in Rome, the sister of actor Maurizio Arena, she debuted in a main role in 1970, playing Alberto Sordi's wife in a segment of the antholo ...

as La dame-pipi (The toilet attendant) * Michel Toty as L'ouvrier spécialisé (The specialist worker) * Raymonde Heudeline as L'ouvrière (The worker) * Jean-Claude Penchenat as La 'croix de feu' (The

Croix-de-Feu , logo = Croix de Feu.svg , logo_size = 200px , leader1_title = President , leader1_name = François de La Rocque , foundation = 11 November 1927 , dissolution = 10 January 1936 , successor = F ...

member, a French proto-fascist group) * Jean-Francois Perrier as le sacristain amoureux / l'officier allemand (The amorous

sacristan A sacristan is an officer charged with care of the sacristy, the church, and their contents. In ancient times, many duties of the sacrist were performed by the doorkeepers ( ostiarii), and later by the treasurers and mansionarii. The Decretals ...

, the German officer) *

Monica Scattini Monica Scattini (1 February 1956 – 4 February 2015) was an Italian actress. Films Scattini appeared in include ''Maniaci sentimentali'', for which she won a David di Donatello for Best Supporting Actress, and '' Lontano da dove'', for ...

as La jeune fille myope (The young short-sighted girl)

Release

''Le Bal'' was released in the United States in March 1984.

Reception

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

from ''

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 ...

'' gave the film a very good review, stating: "Because ''Le Bal'' is a spectacle, most of the performers, unfortunately, remain anonymous, though their contributions are enormous. The film has been choreographed as much as directed in any conventional sense, but the physical production is outstanding. In the 1936 sequence, Mr Scola and his cinematographer, Ricardo Aronovich miraculously drain virtually all the color from the images to create a look that suggests hand-tinted photographs that have begun to fade. More than anything else, these exemplify the mood of the entire film."

Accolades

References

External links