Only in France will you have ballerinas who smoke. I came to this after — and because — of a similar dance documentary made similarly for French TeeVee but of classical Russian ballet corps. This group mixes modern and classical. They are French in the old sense of balancing passion with institutionalized grace. These dancers could have been the stuff of a truly remarkable film. We simply needed more of them, more of them in motion and fewer words.Making a film is a collaboration, a recipe from many larders. Here you have the performers are real performers seen mostly when not in their performance but the filmmaker's. This is rare. They are inherently full of focused life made physical made visible made accessible. We have a camera operator who is really quite in tune with what is going on. The eye moves, the camera is mobile. It has more than curiosity; it has composition out of minor discoveries; patterns not intended. I liked the camera. The editor understood this and — while not as inspired — accommodated the feel. It is offputting at first, then helps you find the groove.The thing that destroys this is the director himself. He apparently did not understand what all the creative people around him were doing, so made some obviously bad decisions on what he decided to shoot and include. The overall shape of the thing is a mess. It moves from a backstage exploration to group biographies, to actually photographing some fantastic dance.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Beautifully shot, beautifully edited, a gem of a documentary. This should be required viewing for parents who want their little darlings to be dancers.The Paris Opera Ballet operates under the auspices of the French government, who help fund the company and the school that trains dancers from the age of 8 until they are ready to enter the company (IF they are ready to enter the company). The level of technical command is impressive, even in the school segments. Most frightening amongst the injuries, exhaustion and prospect of a short career, is the dancers bodies, especially the women. Even for Parisians, most of the dancers are scarily thin. (and yes, I know dancers and work with dancers. We're talking below 10 percent body fat.)

Etoiles: Dancers Of The Paris Opera (2001): Starring Brigitte LeFevre, Jiri Kylian, Claude Bessy, Maurice Bejart, Aurelie Dupont, Laurent Hilaire, Manuel Legris, Nicolas LeRiche, Jose Martinez, Elisabeth Platel, Marie Agnes Gillot, Clairemarie Osta, Celine Talon, Nathalie Rique, Miteki Kudo...Director Nils Tavernier This document was a smash hit in Europe and was a triumph in foreign document, art-house theaters. It follows the process of casting, training, rehearsals and production of ballet performances in the Paris Opera ballet, which has a long history of terrific ballets and an excellent school, dating as far back as the 18th-19th centuries. The top dancer right now is Aurelie Dupont, and we do get to see her shine on the stage as the etoile, the highest rank, but we also see what life is like for the lower-rank dancers. They respond the interviewers' questions with honesty, casualness and still have the glow of youth and happiness on their faces. Dancing is a living passion, but is also as demanding and rigorous as any sports profession like football. This is evident as we see how much these dancers train, sweat and compete against one another to make it to the top. Although we don't see any dark sides to this competitive art world, we do see how it can isolate the youth from a social life, even alienating them from one another. The ballet is a beautiful world, and an art form that combines music, art and dance, but these dancers pay a price to make it big. There is no morals or investigative reporting here. Simply a candid look into the world of ballet. From Brigitte LeFevre, the Director, we learn much about how the dancers take difficult exams (sort of like Ballet American Idols) and are judged fit or unfit to move on to a position in the company. The lowest ranks are the quadrilles and other members of the corps de ballet, the second highest is premiere danseurs and the highest are the etoiles, the French word for "stars". This is how it's always been since the time Charles Garnier's Paris Opera house was established. The documentary is well-made. The Paris Opera's wings and rehearsal rooms are full of activity such as I would never have expected to see. These are true athletes, ready for anything but doing what they love only for a short time in their young lives.

There were quite a number of documentaries I saw in 2003, "Etoiles: Dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet" (aka "Tout près des étoiles") is one of the unforgettable ones. A documentary dedicated to the dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet is a labor of love from filmmaker Nils Tavernier, who followed the company for 3 months in 1999, including their Tokyo performances. We were given an insider's look of what goes on behind the curtains, at rehearsals, studio practices, students at the Nanterre school, and many insightful interviews. It was fascinating listening to the responses and comments just from the casual, on the spot interviews, be it one on one or in groups. The subtitles by Lenny Borger and Cynthia Schoch facilitated remarkable understanding of the world of these ballet dancers. A woman dancer: "The word love is not strong enough for dancing. Dance is more than love. It is something that devours you." A young male dancer: "The stage is a drug. Every time (even though I'm not happy with how I danced, and have fear before going on stage)…I wanted to go back on." A dance teacher: "The weeks and months…all the effort of many rehearsals for a few minutes on stage. It's insane. You can't put a prize on it." "What rank are you?" Nils asked. "Quadrille. The lowest rank. But I dance a lot," a young ballerina happily replied while doing her makeup. To another dancer: "Which ballet are you in?" "I'm an understudy. I'm not dancing. I'm used to that," the lanky dancer walked away with a smile. "Yes, there's pain," a dancer nursing her foot said, "you forget a lot of things on stage. It [the pain] goes away." These are just a handful of sample exchanges/scenes as we get to watch close to the stars (étoiles), be it premier danseur or danseuse, young quadrilles or 12 and 14 year old dance students, dance teachers who gave up their ballet shoes, or mother (father) dancers who wanted a child and family instead of a star career, and a prima ballerina's last performance as she retires at 40 ("men retire at 45"). It's 1 hr. 36 mins. well spent, especially for those who appreciate the ballet. What a compact yet comprehensive look into the everyday (stage) life of dancers at the Paris Opera Ballet company. There are excerpts from about seven ballet performances. The ballet music and selective film score match the thoughtfully edited together documentary, which is engrossing drama as good as any mainstream movie. "Etoiles: Dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet" is available on DVD. Other memorable documentaries: Mark Moskowitz's "Stone Reader" (intriguing journal in locating an author of a book), Jeffrey Blitz's "Spellbound" (following eight 1999 National Spelling Bee teenage contestants), and Dana Brown's "Step Into Liquid" (surfing is another dedicated lifelong sport/adventure).