Yvette Chauviré is a retired French dancer and teacher, widely
recognised as the greatest French ballerina of her generation
and one of the finest in the world. She was born in Paris, in
April 1917 and celebrated her 90th birthday in 2007.
Chauviré studied at the Paris Opera Ballet School and joined the
Paris Opera Ballet as a principal in 1936. She was immediately
noticed by renowned Ukrainian (of French origin) dancer and choreographer
Serge Lifar (1905-1986). He quickly became her mentor and developed
her career at the Opera by giving her leading roles right from
the start. In 1941, at only twenty-four, Yvette Chauviré was promoted
to étoile (star) of the Paris Opera after her acclaimed
and stunning eighteen-minute solo in Lifar’s ballet Istar.
Apart from a few short absences when she pursued her own ventures,
Chauviré remained with the company until her retirement in 1972.
Chauviré was an
extremely elegant and graceful dancer, with a statuesque figure,
always beautiful to watch. Her execution of steps and movements
had an extraordinary fluid quality. Her style possessed a well
balanced classical brilliance, with a perfect line and positioning
of the body and shoulders, which created performances of exquisite
beauty, rising above other remarkable ballerinas of the
time.
This tribute to
Yvette Chauviré’s career and artistry was filmed by Dominique
Delouche, a well established French filmmaker, known for his
love of ballet and his various films about the art and its greatest
exponents. The film was originally called Yvette Chauviré:
une étoile pour l’example and as such was a Cannes Film
Festival selection in 1987. It comes to us on this VAI DVD with
a slightly different title. It was lovingly filmed and Delouche’s
admiration for his subject is obvious from beginning to end.
The DVD presents two versions of the film: The original version
in French and an alternative English translation. The idea of
having it also in English is a good one but it is clumsily made
as voice-over by Chauviré herself with the original French commentary
and dialogue still audible in the background. Hard though she
tries, Chauviré is not fluent neither can she express well her
feelings or her instructions in English. For this reason, after
a few minutes, it becomes annoying, even slightly irritating
to listen to the English version, which considerably spoils
the enjoyment of the film. If one is a French speaker, I strongly
recommend watching the French version and forgetting about the
English alternative. To my mind, it would have been better and
more effective to just subtitle the original, however incomprehensibly,
the DVD offers no subtitles whatsoever.
From a historical
perspective, this is a wonderful documentary about one of the
greatest female classical dancers of all time. It is a loving
tribute to a great star ballerina and an interesting,
fascinating personality. It is presented in the format of memoirs
and Chauviré appears herself, at the time the film was made,
in various locations, looking at places where she performed
or visited during her extensive career. She does not speak but
we hear her voice in the background reminiscing and telling
us the stories she can remember. This is an interesting characteristic
of the film and one of the details that elevated it above other
similar documentaries. Unfortunately, the colour and picture
definition is poor by modern standards; the period footage,
in black and white, showing Chauviré dancing some of the great
roles that Lifar created for her, is actually more attractive
than the modern chapters. The sound quality is also poor, appearing
muffled throughout, possibly because it is mono but, as this
is a documentary and not a performance, it does not have a significant
negative impact. To me, the real interest of the film lies in
the parts where we see Chauviré giving master-classes, coaching
the young rising stars of the late eighties to dance some of
the roles, which Lifar and others choreographed especially for
her, and that she created on stage. Particularly interesting
are the moments with the fabulous Sylvie Guillem - just beginning
her career at the time the film was made - in Gsovsky’s Grand
pas classique, from 1949. Chauviré was as good a teacher
as she was a dancer and one sees how her directions considerably
improve the performance of the young dancers, most notably of
Isabelle Guérin in Lifar’s Istar. The highlights of the
film are however when Chauviré is shown dancing at the height
of her career. The footage of her dancing Giselle with Nureyev
is beautiful and her rendition of The Dying Swan is as
amazing as it is exquisitely elegant.
Historically, this
DVD is also interesting for two other reasons: This is, on the
one hand for containing a brief tribute to Chauviré by Nureyev
at the time of filming, made the more poignant if one bears
in mind that he died only a few years later, in 1993. On the
other it depicts Chauviré’s friendship and unassailable trust
in her mentor Serge Lifar. She tells the story of how he was
banned from the Paris Opera and how his ballets were not allowed
to be performed there due to his trial after the Second World
War, accused of collaboration with the Nazis. Lifar went to
Monte Carlo and she joined him there for the 1946-47 season
at the Nouveau Ballet de Monte Carlo. Her belief in his innocence
and her firm conviction that he was wronged are touching and
give the film a more human and warm character. It was at this
time that Lifar created one of his most memorable ballets and
so offered Chauviré one of her greatest roles, namely as the
Shadow in Les Mirages. Her performance in this ballet
became an instant hit when she returned to Paris, in 1947, accompanied
by Lifar.
Overall, Delouche
created an absorbing, interesting film, which is well worth
watching even if one does not enjoy ballet and is not interested
in Chauviré’s career as a dancer and a teacher. The historical
archive footage and her memoirs of the particularly difficult
period of Nazi occupation, its consequences for artists in France
and the personal impact on her life and that of the people she
loved make it a human, warm story, which anybody will appreciate.
At the same time, it is wonderful to be given the opportunity
of seeing how Chauviré coached young dancers but, most of all,
it is a rewarding experience to watch her dance when she was
at the top of her art.
Margarida Mota-Bull
VIDEO ARTISTS
INTERNATIONAL VAI4479 
[81.00] 
