Dancing Chaplin, And More

Speaking of recent films, I had the pleasure to watch Dancing Chaplin here in Hanno, where some good people are trying to set up an independent movie theatre.

Directed by Suo Masayuki, the film has two parts: a documentary approach and the real deal, filmed at the Toyo Studios in Tokyo. A ballet based on the films by Charlie Chaplin. I enjoyed every minute.


Starring dancers Tamiyo Kusakari, Luigi Bonino, Lienz Chang.

Quote from Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow:

Now director Masayuki Suo will be returning to the the big screen with another dance-themed film. The 54-year-old filmmaker is set to direct "Dancing Chaplin", a loose adaptation of French choreographer Roland Petit's ballet "Chaplin". This return to dance for Masayuki Suo is a labour of love in more ways than one. The star of "Dancing Chaplin" will be Suo's wife, ballet dancer Tamiyo Kusakari. Although Kusakari will be starring opposite dancer Luigi Bonino she will be apparently taking on six different roles in the film including a turn as Charlie Chaplin on whom the ballet was based.

Mark Schilling has this to say - and he is very inspired, even to the point of wanting to join a gym to get in shape:

The first half of the film captures everything from the 10 days of rehearsal for the performance to Suo's at times testy interactions with the sagely looking, smilingly firm Petit, who rejects the director's proposal to shoot a portion of the ballet in a park (though the quietly persistent Suo finally gets his way).

(...)

For me, most of the inspiration came from Bonino, 60 at the time the film was made, but as vivacious, energetic and flexible as a man decades younger. He is also a masterful instructor, gently working with a nervous Kusakari as she moves through her intricate steps, while whipping the young male dancers through their paces like a no-nonsense soccer coach.

Talking to Suo about his own role, Bonino admits to an initial dread of matching himself against Chaplin ("I could watch none of the films," he confesses) and asserts that, though the Tramp is his inspiration, the interpretation is strictly his own.

By the time the performance segment started, presenting 13 scenes from the ballet, I found myself rooting for Bonino, Kusakari and other dancers whose dedication and pain I had just witnessed (which was Suo's intention, though it compromised my objectivity as a dance critic).

Also, instead of the now-common strategy of filming dance with zooming cameras and five-second cuts, Suo takes a relatively straightforward, restrained approach, more like NHK than MTV. At the same time, by occasionally moving the show into the open air, he not only breaks the visual monotony of the typical performance film but also reminds us that Chaplin shot some of his funniest bits with little more than a park, a cop and a pretty girl. Suo was right, in other words, and Petit was wrong.

The Japan Times: 'Dancing Chaplin' A loving convergence of comedy and dance in Japan

Here is the official trailer (they really should put more of it on Youtube if they want people to find out about it):



That got me looking for the original films, as many of the ballet scenes allude to actual moments in Chaplin's classic films.

Except, I realized I haven't seen very many of them. Of course I know he is a comic genious, but...

Finding this gem, from The Great Dictator (1940) was eye-opening. Enjoy the barber scene to the tune of Brahms's Hungarian Dance No. 5:



And the final impromptu speech that has such a beautiful message:



But since I will use the humour lable for this post, I can't help add an image from North Korean propaganda, side-by-side with the famous image of Chaplin just before his solo dance with the big globe...:



(Image of North Korean military brass from It's Your World Blog of The World Affairs Council of Northern California)