I'll be back to your shore before you know it I'm gone
My God, it's fucking Biblical outside. Our basement is flooding; our backyard is flooding; I have to actually wade to get the mail and I keep getting these urges to gather two of every kind of animal and set sail for the Grey Havens. Or some sort of mixed-up quest, anyway. So, right, radio silence means a tree has hit our house or something. Anyway. I kept telling twigcollins I'd write this instead of pestering her with it every night.
But we're moving on to queer swans instead of gay ducks now.
I'd mentioned a little while back that I'd been fortunate enough to have received Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake as a present. I'd heard of the production before, been vaguely interested by it, but it always slipped my mind-- after all, it first came out in 1995 when I was still too young to have these things register on my radar. In grand and repeated tradition of arriving late to the party, I finally got around to watching it over ten years after its arrival. And I'm certainly glad I did.
Before I get to anything else, I should probably say that this DVD did terrible things to my conviction that I would never consider sleeping with anyone dressed as an animal.
What impressed me a lot about the DVD itself is that in comparison to a lot of the musicals or ballet productions that I've seen on video or DVD, it really had a decent composition and editing. A few of the cuts are really fast, and that's a bit dizzying, but there's nothing the rewind button can't fix. More importantly, with only a few exceptions, you don't run into the problem of shots where arms and legs get cut out of the screen, or there's too much focus on certain parts of the stage, or what have you. There's a pretty good balance between wide angle shots that encompass the entire action on stage, and tight close-ups on specific figures, faces, and actions.
And the facial expressions really make a lot of this production, as they do in anything that's dialogue-light or has no words at all. The thing is, when you see productions like this in person, unless you've got the cash to drop on front row seats or the patience to work your opera glasses/binoculars, you have to rely on the choreography and body language of the actors/dancers to follow along. And if it's a well-staged production, than that's all well and fine, but you still don't really get to see the facial expressions at all. So it's an extra treat to see these. Since the film itself was of a live production, I'm not sure how they got around the makeup issue-- being, makeup for stage looks way different from makeup for film-- but I never found myself being distracted by it.
Scott Ambler in particular, the dancer who plays the Prince, has a very expressive face. (And he was apparently thirty-five when he danced the role, which is both impressive and boggling, considering he looked about ten years younger.) I personally think that the Prince's character is one of the more complicated to act. The Swan's part is far more difficult to dance technically, but the Prince's character and facial expressions have to go through a much wider emotional range. It doesn't really hurt that the Swan and the Prince have several different moments where they're just supposed to stare at each other with varying degrees of smoldering, and the intensity certainly comes through with the camera's extreme close-ups.
Other advantages of the DVD itself is the fact that the film allows for inserting images or flashbacks that you can't do in the live production. I mean, maybe some theaters can do bullet-time live-- New York or something, I dunno, man-- but it's much easier to just get your dramatic black and white slo-mos and your warped filters in on the film version.
The DVD doesn't really have too many extra features, but it does contain a short interview booklet with Matthew Bourne, as well as chapter synopses, brief character information, and short bios of the dancers.
Anyway, the production itself is just damn cool. I think maybe one of the reasons I liked the choreography so much is that all the dancers really do come across as swans. We had swans living in a pond in a park near us, and man, as anyone who's spent time around them can tell you, swans are graceful but they'e also mean motherfuckers and can be scary as hell. I was once down at the pond throwing bread to the various waterfowl when I saw one of the swans casually lift a wing and just coldcock a mallard duck out of the way of a choice bread crust. And they have no problem with biting you if they feel like it.
So, it was just interesting to see all this new choreography being violent and powerful instead of wistful and delicate. I mean, both versions are very graceful, but I really liked seeing the powerful one as a contrast. The gauzy pants are kind of cool, and the makeup is also striking as hell-- the black "beak stripe" down the hair, forehead, and nose; and also, the darkened eyes and the white body makeup. I was curious about what kind of body makeup they used, because the DVD closeups let you see that these guys are seriously sweating from the effort of their dancing, and I wonder what they used that didn't streak or run. (And yet, they apparently have to be able to get it off quickly enough to do a lot of the scene changes.) Mostly, I wondered if they had the problem of it coming off on the Prince's clothing, because he and the Swan do a lot of nuzzling. Maybe that's why the Prince wears all-white nearly all the time.
...you know what, every time I try to type out a semi-serious review of something, I just feel stupid as all hell. I function much better if I can just get on AIM afterwards and flail around in a welter of punctuation at someone. I think I'm just going to try and list the things I liked. So in no particular order:
--The music, of course. It's great music. The classic pieces are there, as are a few additions, I think. I think there’s more woodwind noise in this version than in the original, but I can’t say for sure.
--The lighting. They did some fantastic things with shadows, particularly whenever the swans were dancing. And the lighting changes for whenever the scene slipped from real-time to the Prince's imagination were mood-evocative and striking. I think my favorite lighting bit was actually at the very end, when the bed moves forwards and the lighting suggests the sunrise. I don't know why I like it so much, I just do.
--The costumes and makeup. The costumes were very memorable. As previously mentioned, the costume changes on the swans are the most striking, considering they're not in tutus or anything. I wonder what they used on the hair to whiten it so the beak stripe would show up. Whatever it was must wash out quickly. With the exception of the main Swan, all the swans had very close-cropped hair.
But the costumes on the guests at the royal ball were a lot of fun to look at-- the German Princess most of all, I think. And the Queen's costumes did a good job of making her look ageless. The Girlfriend's initial costume is like an assault on the eyes, but as that's the point of the whole thing, it's a success.
The Prince's costumes are pretty bland, but I think they're meant to be that way to reflect his initial character. And, I suspect, to help with the white makeup rubbing off thing. During the lake scene when he's sans overcoat, the trousers are tight enough to show off his ass-- always a plus. It's interesting that he wears the same jacket and trousers in both the child and adult roles, as well as the same pajamas, emphasizing how he hasn't really grown into his own person.
The Stranger's costume is also hot. The riding crop was a bit much-- who the hell brings a riding crop to a fancy ball?-- but I did like the white scarf and leather pants.
I think more of the female characters get the short end of the stick in terms of costuming. Most of them have to wear goofy wigs in the ensemble scenes and you only see their real hair in the royal ball scenes. And the wigs and rubber Queen-masks they wear in Act IV are just friggin' scary.
--Choreography. It’s a very cool choreography. It’s not at all classic ballet; it’s much more a combination of ballet, acting-dancing (I’m sure there’s a real term for it, I’m just frightfully ignorant) and… I don’t want to say interpretative dance, because that calls to mind the wrong association, but that’s sort of what it is. Contemporary dancing, maybe. The dancers seem to be jacks of all trades.
I think one of the major differences between this production’s choreography and the original is that in the original, you never forget you are watching classical ballet dancers, and in this production they break away from the classical steps and really go for trying to move like swans would. The dancers’ arms are nearly constantly in positions that mimic either wings or necks; they use their hands to form “beaks”; they cock their heads in a birdlike fashion and get each other’s attention with head-nuzzling instead of using their hands. Hell, they even preen themselves when they’re supposed to be hanging out in the background.
And it isn’t just the swan ensemble choreography, although that’s certainly what takes the most attention. There’s also some really fun choreography in the opening scenes where the royal family is traipsing about they everyday schedule, doing presumably royal things. I wasn’t too impressed with the ballet-within-a-ballet, but it was all right, as was the nightclub scene. The ball scenes, with different dances by the different princesses and their ensembles were quite interesting to watch, especially with the Stranger slinking around and the constant one-upmanship that he and the Prince go through while dancing.
--Lifts. The lifts are quite interesting to watch, especially in terms of what types they do and who performs them. I’ve rather liked watching any lifts in ballet, ever since I was ten and watched the Snow Cavalier go to perform a lift and then accidentally drop the Snow Queen into a Christmas tree during a production of the Nutcracker. (Later that evening, the Nutcracker Prince nearly pitched the Sugar Plum Fairy into a gazebo wall, but managed to pull it out just in time.) It’s like schadenfreude, or something. I mean, they’re lovely to watch when they do it right, and they’re hilarious to watch when they go wrong. It’s a win-win situation!
Anyway, lots of lifts choreographed into the production, with the Swan and Prince both lifting each other, and of course that’s rather different than the original. I don’t know what the different types of lifts are called, but there are slow ones and quick ones. I think the Swan actually does most of the lifting-- two of the key moments in the ballet are when the Swan lifts the Prince and holds him in his arms/wings, taking the place of the traditional bit when you’d find a kiss or something. The entire ballet runs on a theme of rejection/acceptance and reaching out/pulling back, and both of the Swan’s major lifts are the two moments in which the Prince finds happiness through perfect and unconditional acceptance. But it’s interesting that some of the lifts that the Prince performs are the very typical male lead ones; they sort of illustrate how he grows from being this downtrodden and shy person to someone competent and passionate in his own right.
However, the ones between the Queen and the Prince also really stand out, particularly in their quick little number before the Prince hits the night club. Whenever they dance together, it’s either really clingy or really stand-offish. It’s deliberately awkward, almost painful to watch, but in a good way. You can see the strained, almost incestuous relationship between the two of them, and it makes you squirm uncomfortably.
The swans also lift each other, which is always fun to watch. It’s alarmingly athletic. If I feared anything while they did their lifts, it was that one of the swans was accidentally going to get launched into the orchestra pit-- ten points if you hit a musician, twenty-five if you nail the conductor. Or maybe even clear the pit and land right in the audience; I’m not sure what the point value would be on that one.
--The Dance of the Four Little Swans. I love this dance. It's so gawky and funny in the middle of the big serious act, this sort of ridiculous little number with arm flapping and head bobbing and the swans jumping on each other's backs. Apparently there's some joke about its choreography; it’s reminiscent of the original, and uses the same step-on-every-beat tempo.
…you know, I’m not really sure what that joke is supposed to be, but it’s still a cool dance.
--The characters! Goddamn, there’s some cool stuff there. Between the Swan and the Prince, I think the Prince just squeaks out as my favorite. I dunno, I just like the angstmonkey fucked-in-the-head type. There's such a lot of interpretation over how much of the action is real and how much is happening in the Prince's head, and you just feel really damn sorry for the guy. Scott Ambler really deserves a lot of credit for the role, I think. Even though he's not as classically trained as his partner in the ballet, he still dances incredibly expressively and well. And he makes his dancing-ability comparison to Adam Cooper, the Swan, work for him in that his role is supposed to be the clumsier and more uncertain one anyway. The Swan's supposed to be this perfect embodiment of power and freedom and virility. So, right.
Lookswise, he impresses me, because like I said earlier: the dude was thirty-five and didn't look or move it at all. He was flexible. I think Adam Cooper was nine years younger, and they still moved the same. And bridging into Adam Cooper, yeah, it was just a really good partnership. It's always a pleasure to watch people whose bodies know how to move together. They had a ton of chemistry, both in the tender courtship scenes and in the threatening ballroom scenes and in the tragic ending. In a story like that, you need the chemistry in the partnership, period. Fortunately, it was there. Quite a few of the critics have said that it hasn't really been equaled in any of the subsequent reprisals.
Adam Cooper became terribly famous from this role, and deservedly so. He's a fantastic dancer, he's attractive, he can do impossible things with his arms and legs. I liked him as both the evil Stranger and the protective Swan. Adam Cooper is also hot in leather pants.
Something that impressed me was that even though the two dancers are the same height, Cooper always danced taller and Ambler always danced smaller. That might not make a lot of sense, but if you watch it, I'll bet you'll pick up on how much presence the Swan/Stranger has, and how easily the Swan/Stranger dominates the Prince. And Cooper has the added disadvantage of nearly always being in bare feet to Ambler who's nearly always wearing boots. It isn't until you see them standing side by side for the curtain call that you realize they're pretty similar in build and height. That Ambler can play himself more fragile and Cooper can play himself more massive is pretty cool.
--The German princess and her dominatrix costume and eyepatch was hot like a hot thing. She looks a lot like Franky from "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow." The Italian Princess was also no strain at all upon the eyes. I liked her dancing on the tabletops, and macking on the Stranger in front of her date.
--The Tango. Good lord, the tango. The music's good, the lighting's good, the whole thing is surreal and otherworldly. Facial expressions are excellent as well. The camera stays locked on their faces and arms. I think I would have liked to see what was happening below the waist a little more-- Cooper in particular seemed to be doing a lot of dance steps or moves that the camera cuts off-- but considering the tight focus on their facial expressions and the fact that it's meant as a scene to show Prince's world and mind crumbling, it's not too bad of a tradeoff, the eyefucking for the thighs.
It's interesting that there's only one lift in that dance, and it's performed by the Stranger on the Prince. And that it comes right after the almost kiss-- more thematic repetition of temptation and rejection.
In fact, the entire choreography of that dance is like that. I liked the way they show a clear difference between domination and leading. While the Prince stands in the traditional "leading" position, he constantly has to taking running steps to keep up with the Stranger, and the Stranger essentially directs the whole thing. The Stranger leads at several key moments, including the beginning of the dance, but even when the Prince returns to the leading position it's because the Stranger moves him there.
--The forehead stripe by the Stranger. (According to some interview, nearly all the dancers who play the Swan say that's one of their favorite parts to do, but nearly all of them mess it up the first time and don't draw a good stripe.) I'm a sucker for a good smirk. And the arm twisting and neck grabbing.
--The Fourth Act, where swan ensemble emerges from under the bed itself and through the walls of the Prince's bedroom. That was creepy as hell; the opening shots looked like something right out of Silent Hill, or possibly the Utena movie, bathed in all the greenish lighting and the distorted flickering shadows. The music is creepy as well. For some reason, the arm movements really stood out to me here; it's what I remember the most. This was also one of my favorite lighting scenes.
If we really want to get into Silent Hill-which we do not, because Silent Hill Crossed over with Swan Lake is something that my brain refuses to deal with-you could draw upon parallels in the ballet with the Mary/Maria and Odette/Odile relationships to the lonely and more than a little fucked-up male protagonist, as well as fear/obsession with the womb and female genitalia, transformations, denial of identity, and the fact that one of the endings winds up with lovers deliberately drowning in the lake.
BUT WE WON’T GET INTO IT.
--The Swan coming out of the Prince's bed, from under the pillows. I'm sure there's something to be said about symbolism and sexual repression, but really, it was just kind of cool to see the way they staged it.
Actually, what it makes me interested in is the bed itself as a piece of scenery. In high school and college, I always had a good time faffing about on stage crew. (erika_javert could tell you stories... but she won't, hopefully.) It took me a long time to get to the point where I could watch a production without trying to pick apart what they were doing technically. From the looks of it, the bed has a trapdoor or hole near the top that's hidden by the pillows, through which the Swan emerges and then later disappears. It's obviously quite high, and big enough for at least three people to have to come out from under. It had to be attached to a bunch of things, and judging from the firmness of it when people are jumping on and off, I bet it's uncomfortable as hell to lie on.
No point to this. I just thought it was cool. I want to know how they built it.
So, right. This review boils down to A+++!!! Ten thumbs up!!! Would watch again!!! And if you want to buy it, it's right here
Gonna swap out the mp3s for the next music post in a day or so, so grab anything you want before it goes down again.
But we're moving on to queer swans instead of gay ducks now.
I'd mentioned a little while back that I'd been fortunate enough to have received Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake as a present. I'd heard of the production before, been vaguely interested by it, but it always slipped my mind-- after all, it first came out in 1995 when I was still too young to have these things register on my radar. In grand and repeated tradition of arriving late to the party, I finally got around to watching it over ten years after its arrival. And I'm certainly glad I did.
Before I get to anything else, I should probably say that this DVD did terrible things to my conviction that I would never consider sleeping with anyone dressed as an animal.
What impressed me a lot about the DVD itself is that in comparison to a lot of the musicals or ballet productions that I've seen on video or DVD, it really had a decent composition and editing. A few of the cuts are really fast, and that's a bit dizzying, but there's nothing the rewind button can't fix. More importantly, with only a few exceptions, you don't run into the problem of shots where arms and legs get cut out of the screen, or there's too much focus on certain parts of the stage, or what have you. There's a pretty good balance between wide angle shots that encompass the entire action on stage, and tight close-ups on specific figures, faces, and actions.
And the facial expressions really make a lot of this production, as they do in anything that's dialogue-light or has no words at all. The thing is, when you see productions like this in person, unless you've got the cash to drop on front row seats or the patience to work your opera glasses/binoculars, you have to rely on the choreography and body language of the actors/dancers to follow along. And if it's a well-staged production, than that's all well and fine, but you still don't really get to see the facial expressions at all. So it's an extra treat to see these. Since the film itself was of a live production, I'm not sure how they got around the makeup issue-- being, makeup for stage looks way different from makeup for film-- but I never found myself being distracted by it.
Scott Ambler in particular, the dancer who plays the Prince, has a very expressive face. (And he was apparently thirty-five when he danced the role, which is both impressive and boggling, considering he looked about ten years younger.) I personally think that the Prince's character is one of the more complicated to act. The Swan's part is far more difficult to dance technically, but the Prince's character and facial expressions have to go through a much wider emotional range. It doesn't really hurt that the Swan and the Prince have several different moments where they're just supposed to stare at each other with varying degrees of smoldering, and the intensity certainly comes through with the camera's extreme close-ups.
Other advantages of the DVD itself is the fact that the film allows for inserting images or flashbacks that you can't do in the live production. I mean, maybe some theaters can do bullet-time live-- New York or something, I dunno, man-- but it's much easier to just get your dramatic black and white slo-mos and your warped filters in on the film version.
The DVD doesn't really have too many extra features, but it does contain a short interview booklet with Matthew Bourne, as well as chapter synopses, brief character information, and short bios of the dancers.
Anyway, the production itself is just damn cool. I think maybe one of the reasons I liked the choreography so much is that all the dancers really do come across as swans. We had swans living in a pond in a park near us, and man, as anyone who's spent time around them can tell you, swans are graceful but they'e also mean motherfuckers and can be scary as hell. I was once down at the pond throwing bread to the various waterfowl when I saw one of the swans casually lift a wing and just coldcock a mallard duck out of the way of a choice bread crust. And they have no problem with biting you if they feel like it.
So, it was just interesting to see all this new choreography being violent and powerful instead of wistful and delicate. I mean, both versions are very graceful, but I really liked seeing the powerful one as a contrast. The gauzy pants are kind of cool, and the makeup is also striking as hell-- the black "beak stripe" down the hair, forehead, and nose; and also, the darkened eyes and the white body makeup. I was curious about what kind of body makeup they used, because the DVD closeups let you see that these guys are seriously sweating from the effort of their dancing, and I wonder what they used that didn't streak or run. (And yet, they apparently have to be able to get it off quickly enough to do a lot of the scene changes.) Mostly, I wondered if they had the problem of it coming off on the Prince's clothing, because he and the Swan do a lot of nuzzling. Maybe that's why the Prince wears all-white nearly all the time.
...you know what, every time I try to type out a semi-serious review of something, I just feel stupid as all hell. I function much better if I can just get on AIM afterwards and flail around in a welter of punctuation at someone. I think I'm just going to try and list the things I liked. So in no particular order:
--The music, of course. It's great music. The classic pieces are there, as are a few additions, I think. I think there’s more woodwind noise in this version than in the original, but I can’t say for sure.
--The lighting. They did some fantastic things with shadows, particularly whenever the swans were dancing. And the lighting changes for whenever the scene slipped from real-time to the Prince's imagination were mood-evocative and striking. I think my favorite lighting bit was actually at the very end, when the bed moves forwards and the lighting suggests the sunrise. I don't know why I like it so much, I just do.
--The costumes and makeup. The costumes were very memorable. As previously mentioned, the costume changes on the swans are the most striking, considering they're not in tutus or anything. I wonder what they used on the hair to whiten it so the beak stripe would show up. Whatever it was must wash out quickly. With the exception of the main Swan, all the swans had very close-cropped hair.
But the costumes on the guests at the royal ball were a lot of fun to look at-- the German Princess most of all, I think. And the Queen's costumes did a good job of making her look ageless. The Girlfriend's initial costume is like an assault on the eyes, but as that's the point of the whole thing, it's a success.
The Prince's costumes are pretty bland, but I think they're meant to be that way to reflect his initial character. And, I suspect, to help with the white makeup rubbing off thing. During the lake scene when he's sans overcoat, the trousers are tight enough to show off his ass-- always a plus. It's interesting that he wears the same jacket and trousers in both the child and adult roles, as well as the same pajamas, emphasizing how he hasn't really grown into his own person.
The Stranger's costume is also hot. The riding crop was a bit much-- who the hell brings a riding crop to a fancy ball?-- but I did like the white scarf and leather pants.
I think more of the female characters get the short end of the stick in terms of costuming. Most of them have to wear goofy wigs in the ensemble scenes and you only see their real hair in the royal ball scenes. And the wigs and rubber Queen-masks they wear in Act IV are just friggin' scary.
--Choreography. It’s a very cool choreography. It’s not at all classic ballet; it’s much more a combination of ballet, acting-dancing (I’m sure there’s a real term for it, I’m just frightfully ignorant) and… I don’t want to say interpretative dance, because that calls to mind the wrong association, but that’s sort of what it is. Contemporary dancing, maybe. The dancers seem to be jacks of all trades.
I think one of the major differences between this production’s choreography and the original is that in the original, you never forget you are watching classical ballet dancers, and in this production they break away from the classical steps and really go for trying to move like swans would. The dancers’ arms are nearly constantly in positions that mimic either wings or necks; they use their hands to form “beaks”; they cock their heads in a birdlike fashion and get each other’s attention with head-nuzzling instead of using their hands. Hell, they even preen themselves when they’re supposed to be hanging out in the background.
And it isn’t just the swan ensemble choreography, although that’s certainly what takes the most attention. There’s also some really fun choreography in the opening scenes where the royal family is traipsing about they everyday schedule, doing presumably royal things. I wasn’t too impressed with the ballet-within-a-ballet, but it was all right, as was the nightclub scene. The ball scenes, with different dances by the different princesses and their ensembles were quite interesting to watch, especially with the Stranger slinking around and the constant one-upmanship that he and the Prince go through while dancing.
--Lifts. The lifts are quite interesting to watch, especially in terms of what types they do and who performs them. I’ve rather liked watching any lifts in ballet, ever since I was ten and watched the Snow Cavalier go to perform a lift and then accidentally drop the Snow Queen into a Christmas tree during a production of the Nutcracker. (Later that evening, the Nutcracker Prince nearly pitched the Sugar Plum Fairy into a gazebo wall, but managed to pull it out just in time.) It’s like schadenfreude, or something. I mean, they’re lovely to watch when they do it right, and they’re hilarious to watch when they go wrong. It’s a win-win situation!
Anyway, lots of lifts choreographed into the production, with the Swan and Prince both lifting each other, and of course that’s rather different than the original. I don’t know what the different types of lifts are called, but there are slow ones and quick ones. I think the Swan actually does most of the lifting-- two of the key moments in the ballet are when the Swan lifts the Prince and holds him in his arms/wings, taking the place of the traditional bit when you’d find a kiss or something. The entire ballet runs on a theme of rejection/acceptance and reaching out/pulling back, and both of the Swan’s major lifts are the two moments in which the Prince finds happiness through perfect and unconditional acceptance. But it’s interesting that some of the lifts that the Prince performs are the very typical male lead ones; they sort of illustrate how he grows from being this downtrodden and shy person to someone competent and passionate in his own right.
However, the ones between the Queen and the Prince also really stand out, particularly in their quick little number before the Prince hits the night club. Whenever they dance together, it’s either really clingy or really stand-offish. It’s deliberately awkward, almost painful to watch, but in a good way. You can see the strained, almost incestuous relationship between the two of them, and it makes you squirm uncomfortably.
The swans also lift each other, which is always fun to watch. It’s alarmingly athletic. If I feared anything while they did their lifts, it was that one of the swans was accidentally going to get launched into the orchestra pit-- ten points if you hit a musician, twenty-five if you nail the conductor. Or maybe even clear the pit and land right in the audience; I’m not sure what the point value would be on that one.
--The Dance of the Four Little Swans. I love this dance. It's so gawky and funny in the middle of the big serious act, this sort of ridiculous little number with arm flapping and head bobbing and the swans jumping on each other's backs. Apparently there's some joke about its choreography; it’s reminiscent of the original, and uses the same step-on-every-beat tempo.
…you know, I’m not really sure what that joke is supposed to be, but it’s still a cool dance.
--The characters! Goddamn, there’s some cool stuff there. Between the Swan and the Prince, I think the Prince just squeaks out as my favorite. I dunno, I just like the angstmonkey fucked-in-the-head type. There's such a lot of interpretation over how much of the action is real and how much is happening in the Prince's head, and you just feel really damn sorry for the guy. Scott Ambler really deserves a lot of credit for the role, I think. Even though he's not as classically trained as his partner in the ballet, he still dances incredibly expressively and well. And he makes his dancing-ability comparison to Adam Cooper, the Swan, work for him in that his role is supposed to be the clumsier and more uncertain one anyway. The Swan's supposed to be this perfect embodiment of power and freedom and virility. So, right.
Lookswise, he impresses me, because like I said earlier: the dude was thirty-five and didn't look or move it at all. He was flexible. I think Adam Cooper was nine years younger, and they still moved the same. And bridging into Adam Cooper, yeah, it was just a really good partnership. It's always a pleasure to watch people whose bodies know how to move together. They had a ton of chemistry, both in the tender courtship scenes and in the threatening ballroom scenes and in the tragic ending. In a story like that, you need the chemistry in the partnership, period. Fortunately, it was there. Quite a few of the critics have said that it hasn't really been equaled in any of the subsequent reprisals.
Adam Cooper became terribly famous from this role, and deservedly so. He's a fantastic dancer, he's attractive, he can do impossible things with his arms and legs. I liked him as both the evil Stranger and the protective Swan. Adam Cooper is also hot in leather pants.
Something that impressed me was that even though the two dancers are the same height, Cooper always danced taller and Ambler always danced smaller. That might not make a lot of sense, but if you watch it, I'll bet you'll pick up on how much presence the Swan/Stranger has, and how easily the Swan/Stranger dominates the Prince. And Cooper has the added disadvantage of nearly always being in bare feet to Ambler who's nearly always wearing boots. It isn't until you see them standing side by side for the curtain call that you realize they're pretty similar in build and height. That Ambler can play himself more fragile and Cooper can play himself more massive is pretty cool.
--The German princess and her dominatrix costume and eyepatch was hot like a hot thing. She looks a lot like Franky from "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow." The Italian Princess was also no strain at all upon the eyes. I liked her dancing on the tabletops, and macking on the Stranger in front of her date.
--The Tango. Good lord, the tango. The music's good, the lighting's good, the whole thing is surreal and otherworldly. Facial expressions are excellent as well. The camera stays locked on their faces and arms. I think I would have liked to see what was happening below the waist a little more-- Cooper in particular seemed to be doing a lot of dance steps or moves that the camera cuts off-- but considering the tight focus on their facial expressions and the fact that it's meant as a scene to show Prince's world and mind crumbling, it's not too bad of a tradeoff, the eyefucking for the thighs.
It's interesting that there's only one lift in that dance, and it's performed by the Stranger on the Prince. And that it comes right after the almost kiss-- more thematic repetition of temptation and rejection.
In fact, the entire choreography of that dance is like that. I liked the way they show a clear difference between domination and leading. While the Prince stands in the traditional "leading" position, he constantly has to taking running steps to keep up with the Stranger, and the Stranger essentially directs the whole thing. The Stranger leads at several key moments, including the beginning of the dance, but even when the Prince returns to the leading position it's because the Stranger moves him there.
--The forehead stripe by the Stranger. (According to some interview, nearly all the dancers who play the Swan say that's one of their favorite parts to do, but nearly all of them mess it up the first time and don't draw a good stripe.) I'm a sucker for a good smirk. And the arm twisting and neck grabbing.
--The Fourth Act, where swan ensemble emerges from under the bed itself and through the walls of the Prince's bedroom. That was creepy as hell; the opening shots looked like something right out of Silent Hill, or possibly the Utena movie, bathed in all the greenish lighting and the distorted flickering shadows. The music is creepy as well. For some reason, the arm movements really stood out to me here; it's what I remember the most. This was also one of my favorite lighting scenes.
If we really want to get into Silent Hill-which we do not, because Silent Hill Crossed over with Swan Lake is something that my brain refuses to deal with-you could draw upon parallels in the ballet with the Mary/Maria and Odette/Odile relationships to the lonely and more than a little fucked-up male protagonist, as well as fear/obsession with the womb and female genitalia, transformations, denial of identity, and the fact that one of the endings winds up with lovers deliberately drowning in the lake.
BUT WE WON’T GET INTO IT.
--The Swan coming out of the Prince's bed, from under the pillows. I'm sure there's something to be said about symbolism and sexual repression, but really, it was just kind of cool to see the way they staged it.
Actually, what it makes me interested in is the bed itself as a piece of scenery. In high school and college, I always had a good time faffing about on stage crew. (erika_javert could tell you stories... but she won't, hopefully.) It took me a long time to get to the point where I could watch a production without trying to pick apart what they were doing technically. From the looks of it, the bed has a trapdoor or hole near the top that's hidden by the pillows, through which the Swan emerges and then later disappears. It's obviously quite high, and big enough for at least three people to have to come out from under. It had to be attached to a bunch of things, and judging from the firmness of it when people are jumping on and off, I bet it's uncomfortable as hell to lie on.
No point to this. I just thought it was cool. I want to know how they built it.
So, right. This review boils down to A+++!!! Ten thumbs up!!! Would watch again!!! And if you want to buy it, it's right here
Gonna swap out the mp3s for the next music post in a day or so, so grab anything you want before it goes down again.