Dancing Dancing

It is worth to watch Ettore Scola’s all films. This Italian artist started to his cinema life as a modest Italian humour creator and presently he reached to a level of a considerable director that all his movies have great historical / sociological effects. Le Bal is a different film of Scola that achieved an attractive performance through the world since last year’s Berlin Film Festival. The film, adapted from a play of Jean Claude Penchenant, has a unique theme: Giving nearly a half- century’s history of France by only dance and music on a dancing hall decor…We meet a couple of people who are frequent visitors: First at 1980’s, at their older ages… Afterwards, flash backs and faces the same people in 1936 during their activities at public front. The costumes, styles, dance of those years… For instance, we meet a man who is the very image of Jean Gabin. Moreover, during the war, the strikers, the collaborators, the traitors, etc., all meet in the same hall in their prototypes…ln 1945 after the freedom, Americans arrive: with their dollars, chewing gums, “be hops”, and Glenn Miller styles. Latin films are popular during the Algerian War at 19505. We also hear a Dario Moreno song. Afterwards, 1968 events and “students” appear… Returning to date again, as well as the youngies, the oldies appear with a freshly started course, and having their completed mission. It is not so easy to create a mute film only propped up by music. Scola succeeded to stay away from the traps, cliches, monotonous theme that such an attraction can create… From time to time, the film turns out to an interesting ballet- pantomime-play mixture show, and consist a nostalgic theme with the popular song of the age, and proves that a production like that can be universal and because of using music instead of words it can be watched by all audiences from different countries. We will feel the internationality” as we watch the film. Atilla Dorsay, 1985