In body: Cédric Klapisch films dance with finesse (review)
After several documentaries, the filmmaker beautifully expresses his passion for dance through fiction. And reveals the acting talent of star dancer Marion Barbeau.
Released in March 2022 in cinemas, In Bodyby Cédric Klapisch, will be broadcast this Sunday on France 2. Not to be missed.
The opening ofIn body lacks neither audacity nor panache. Ten minutes of a ballet performance, The Bayadere, without anyone guessing what the film is going to be about. A bias by which Cédric Klapisch places the spectator in an active position, draws him into what led him to imagine and shoot this film. His passion for dance which had already been expressed through various documentaries and recordings but never through fiction.
The story here is deliberately contained in one sentence: after a serious injury, a 26-year-old classical dancer tries to repair herself when she is told her career is over. In body there is nothing suspenseful about his ability to practice his art again or not. What interests Klapisch is the process of reconstruction, the bridges between two worlds – contemporary and modern dance – that so many swear are irreconcilable. He never treats this art through the prism of exacerbated competition (like a black swan) but by the way in which he views the practice of this art: a passion rather than a priesthood.
His knowing eye and the camera on the lookout for Alexis Kavyrchina (Goodbye idiots) give birth to an enveloping work but never cutesy and subtly sprinkled with moments of comedy as Klapisch knows how to craft them so well, with the help of inspired supporting roles (Pio Marmaï, François Civil, Denis Podalydès, Muriel Robin, Souheila Yacoub…) . But this building would collapse like a house of cards without the luminous performance in the central role of Marion Barbeau, a prima ballerina who is making her acting debut. A first attempt like a masterstroke.
Cédric Klapsich: “I am very proud of L’AubergeEspagne”
