Le Bal **** (1983, Étienne Guichard, Régis Bouquet, Francesco De Rosa) – Classic Movie Review 3287

Writer-director Ettore Scola’s beautiful, wordless 1983 French film tells the 50-year story of a ballroom in France from the 1920s onwards. Le Bal condenses five decades of 20th-century European history into a single night at a dance hall as the fashions and dances change throughout the years.

It starts in the 1983 present and flashes back to tell the story in a series of mostly comedic music and dance sequences.

Scola ensures that it is exhilaratingly cinematic, thanks to the colourful spectacle, swirling camera, rhythmic choreography and eye-catching compositions in the cinematography of Ricardo Aranovich.

The screenplay by Scola, Jean-Claude Penchenat, Ruggero Maccari and Furio Scarpelli is based on a play by the Théâtre du Campagnol from a story by Jean-Claude Penchenat. Scola was the winner of the best director award at the Berlin Film Festival in 1984.

It stars Jean-Claude Penchenat, Chantal Capron, Etienne Guichard and Régis Bouquet. Also in the cast are Francesco de Rosa, Martine Chauvin, Liliane Delval, Michel Van Speybroeck, Olivier Loiseau and Nani Noël.

Leading Italian director for four decades Ettore Scola died on 19 January 2016 at the age of 84. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said his death ‘leaves a huge void in Italian culture’. The director of 41 films, he was one of the last of a generation of great Italian film-makers.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3287

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