(From SmART Film – Marian Luntz, Houston Chronicle)
One of the year’s best documentaries, Fred Wiseman’s La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet is now playing at the Angelika Film Center. The Chronicle’s rave review joins a long list of praises this extraordinary film has inspired. Octogenarian Wiseman is a master of the observational style of filmmaking: his subjects reveal themselves with no voiceovers and no talking heads. This film, his 38th, goes behind the scenes of this legendary dance company through rehearsals, meetings, and performances, in an absolutely captivating way. You’ll be surprised when its 2 1/2 hours are over…(more)