"The Company" is everything movies like "Center Stage" try to be: it's a ballet movie that's actually, seriously, about ballet. It's not about anything else, and besides dancing, not much else happens. But honestly, in a movie that is strictly about ballet, dancing is about all I want to happen.
Unlike other soap opera like films that are merely set in the world of ballet, "The Company"'s plot actually revolves around the day to day life of The Joffrey Ballet. The action in the film is continuous, with no definite beginning or end, and no stopping point, because that's what life is like for these dancers - they just go about their business, doing their job every day. When watching it, once you settle in to the fluidity of the story, you're just amazed and intrigued at how these people spend their time. Although some viewers have complained that the movie has no plot, and therefore no conflict, I saw it as completely the opposite.
There were definitely relationships with the dancers' parents, money issues, injuries, romance, all of those things - but you have to really pay attention to notice some of them. I liked the subtlety of Neve Campbell's relationship with her mother, as if it's just something she deals with every day. I liked the ho-hum quality of the dancer who rents out her living room for $8.50 a night to other dancers, as if she's just doing what she needs to make ends meet, nothing more or less. Unlike films like "Center Stage" or "Fame," there was no melodrama, no climactic scene where people yell at each other, and no hostile takeovers of the ballet company. Instead, we were able to see the dancers' emotions and heartaches through their dancing, with minimal dialogue and schmaltz.
Neve Campbell, who was once a professional dancer in real life, plays Ry, an up and coming ballerina who gets her big break when she gets to take over for an injured dancer. Throughout the film, she breaks up with one boyfriend and gets another, deals with her mother, and tries to move up in the ranks of the ballet company. Although I've always been a fan of hers, in this film I was most impressed with her dancing. I found that you could see the character development through her dancing, and that she effectively expressed herself through the movement. And for those of you who were skeptical about her part time job as a waitress - I'm not entirely convinced that apprentices at ballet companies get paid all that much, and actually found myself wondering how she affords that gorgeous apartment with the bathtub.
James Franco plays Ry's boyfriend, and Malcolm McDowell, in one of the most interesting parts of the movie, plays the company's artistic director, Mr. A. Mr. A was an intriguing character - he's one of those people who is constantly spewing stuff that doesn't make any sense, even though he thinks he's the most important person in the world. Watching him spew stuff, and then seeing how the rest of the company reacts, along with how much of what he wants actually gets done, was one of the enlightening parts of the movie - it really showed how a ballet company might be run.
Aside from the subtleties of the script and the acting, there was, of course, the dancing. The last time I saw the Joffrey Ballet perform was when they were still based in New York, so watching all those ballets was a treat for me. My one complaint is that although I admired Altman's direction of the film as a whole, I wished he would leave the camera in one place. I feel as though ballet is something that needs to be viewed as if it were on stage and we're in the audience, so that we can see the whole ballet - the corps as well as the principles, and the sets along with the dancers all at the same time. What ends up happening with all the weird camera angles is that I found myself looking at the dancer's feet when I want to be seeing the choreography, or staring at their butt when I want to see the intricate footwork. In this way, the camera work took away from the dancing. Since the movie is intrinsically about dancing, it was disappointing to take anything away from it.
All in all, "The Company" was an excellent film, a long awaited vignette into the world of ballet.
Unlike other soap opera like films that are merely set in the world of ballet, "The Company"'s plot actually revolves around the day to day life of The Joffrey Ballet. The action in the film is continuous, with no definite beginning or end, and no stopping point, because that's what life is like for these dancers - they just go about their business, doing their job every day. When watching it, once you settle in to the fluidity of the story, you're just amazed and intrigued at how these people spend their time. Although some viewers have complained that the movie has no plot, and therefore no conflict, I saw it as completely the opposite.
There were definitely relationships with the dancers' parents, money issues, injuries, romance, all of those things - but you have to really pay attention to notice some of them. I liked the subtlety of Neve Campbell's relationship with her mother, as if it's just something she deals with every day. I liked the ho-hum quality of the dancer who rents out her living room for $8.50 a night to other dancers, as if she's just doing what she needs to make ends meet, nothing more or less. Unlike films like "Center Stage" or "Fame," there was no melodrama, no climactic scene where people yell at each other, and no hostile takeovers of the ballet company. Instead, we were able to see the dancers' emotions and heartaches through their dancing, with minimal dialogue and schmaltz.
Neve Campbell, who was once a professional dancer in real life, plays Ry, an up and coming ballerina who gets her big break when she gets to take over for an injured dancer. Throughout the film, she breaks up with one boyfriend and gets another, deals with her mother, and tries to move up in the ranks of the ballet company. Although I've always been a fan of hers, in this film I was most impressed with her dancing. I found that you could see the character development through her dancing, and that she effectively expressed herself through the movement. And for those of you who were skeptical about her part time job as a waitress - I'm not entirely convinced that apprentices at ballet companies get paid all that much, and actually found myself wondering how she affords that gorgeous apartment with the bathtub.
James Franco plays Ry's boyfriend, and Malcolm McDowell, in one of the most interesting parts of the movie, plays the company's artistic director, Mr. A. Mr. A was an intriguing character - he's one of those people who is constantly spewing stuff that doesn't make any sense, even though he thinks he's the most important person in the world. Watching him spew stuff, and then seeing how the rest of the company reacts, along with how much of what he wants actually gets done, was one of the enlightening parts of the movie - it really showed how a ballet company might be run.
Aside from the subtleties of the script and the acting, there was, of course, the dancing. The last time I saw the Joffrey Ballet perform was when they were still based in New York, so watching all those ballets was a treat for me. My one complaint is that although I admired Altman's direction of the film as a whole, I wished he would leave the camera in one place. I feel as though ballet is something that needs to be viewed as if it were on stage and we're in the audience, so that we can see the whole ballet - the corps as well as the principles, and the sets along with the dancers all at the same time. What ends up happening with all the weird camera angles is that I found myself looking at the dancer's feet when I want to be seeing the choreography, or staring at their butt when I want to see the intricate footwork. In this way, the camera work took away from the dancing. Since the movie is intrinsically about dancing, it was disappointing to take anything away from it.
All in all, "The Company" was an excellent film, a long awaited vignette into the world of ballet.