Beauties of Stage and Cinema

Today our Symbolism and Decadence lecture was postponed, and the professor arranged for us to watch The Dying Swan (Umirayushcii Lebed), a silent Russian film from 1917, directed by Yevgeni Bauer. Most of my classmates scoffed and chewed gum throughout, and indeed there are moments of the film that, to our modern sensibilities, seem mawkish or silly, and who knows, perhaps they did in 1917, too. Despite this, however, it is a haunting film, a gem of silent cinema. One caveat, however, and that is the rendition of The Dying Swan displayed in the film. Ah, no one could do it like Maya Plisetskaya. Behold: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWYYQN-6tJg).


Trying to describe anything she has done is like trying to describe In Search of Lost Time. Whatever I may say will be inaccurate, inarticulate, inadequate.

While on the subject of dance, here is a wonderful rendition of what must have been an even more magical performance by the imitable Loie Fuller. Shot by the Lumiere brothers! Is she a moth? A flower? A chimera?

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It was an interesting experience watching a silent movie amidst a room of people. Old films are a good litmus test for concentration and attention span, and the devil knows that such things grow in scarcity as the years pass. Thank goodness for newer films raising awareness of older ones, such as Cinema Paradiso, The Dreamers, and others, not to mention Turner Classic Movies, aka One of My Only Friends in High School. A great documentary came out in 2005 about Henri Langlois, the true Hero of Cinema. He ought to be sainted. Hopefully preservation work continues at a diligent pace, as reels are mouldering away at this very moment...