Actors/Artists:  Alexandra Danilova, Frederic Franklin, Leon Danielian, Ballet Russe De Monte Carlo

Director:  Victor Jessen

Features:

• Audio commentary by Frederic Franklin
• Explanatory subtitles
• Interview with Frederic Franklin
• Documentary: The Saga of Victor Jessen
• List of productions filmed by Victor Jessen

Aspect Ratio:

Full Frame

Subtitles:   English

DC-DVD Price: £32.75

"I simply wanted," Victor Jessen once said, "to make a permanent record on film of some of the most important works of the most perfect living art: The Dance." To service this obsession, he mostly abandoned his job as an engineer in Los Angeles to film the great ballet companies of the age in theaters around the country. Over a ten-year period beginning in the mid-1940s, he would enter dressed all in black, camera hidden in a briefcase and pockets stuffed with film magazines. His 16mm camera required rewinding every thirty seconds, and so he had to return repeatedly to fill in gaps. In all, he recorded twenty-four complete dance works and substantial portions of nine more. In 1954, in a caper he called "The Ultimate Daring", Jessen lugged a bulky tape recorder into one theater, plugged it into a light socket, and recorded the music from a Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo performance of Leonide Massine's comedy ballet, Gaite Parisienne. He then laboriously edited his footage to this recording and created the remarkable film presented on this DVD. It shows the company featured on the brilliant and affecting 2005 documentary, Ballets Russes, in top form, performing one of it's most popular ballets led by the legendary Alexandra Danilova, Frederic Franklin, and Leon Danielian.