BEAUTY: Dancer--Harrison James Wynn

Harrison James Wynn is a principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada...and has a beautiful face.

https://www.instagram.com/h.j.kiwi/

Just watched...

..."Young Men," an exquisite dance film about war by BalletBoyz.

In 2015, the all-male English dance company BalletBoyz--started by veteran dancers and co-Artistic Directors Michael Nunn and William Trevitt--mounted a highly successful live dance performance about World War I and the effect of war on young men titled, appropriately enough, "Young Men." And now that stage performance has been adapted and filmed on location in northern France in locations that simulate battlefields of World War I. Choreographed by Iván Pérez and danced--as well as acted--beautifully by the members of BalletBoyz, the film is hypnotic and intimate. It doesn't try to tell the story of an entire war, an entire armed force, or an entire country's reaction. It is told through the lens of a very small regiment, and most specifically a soldier for whom the war is clearly against his nature. At the core is a fight between two men: the Sergeant and the Soldier.

But the most arresting part of the film is the miraculous score by Keaton Henson (previously here). It is gripping, tender, and profound.

The trailer for the film gives you a good idea of its tone and timbre.

Here is the end of the "Training With The Sergeant" section:

And here is a bit of the "In The Trenches" section:

It was shown on PBS here in the States as part of the Great Performances series. I don't see where one can buy a DVD of the film. Looks like if you are in the UK, you can stream it from BBC, but otherwise, a DVD of the original stage production is available through the BalletBoyz SHOP section of their site.
http://www.youngmenmovie.com/
http://www.balletboyz.com/home/

Just watched...

...Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan."


I have liked all of Darren Aronofsky’s films: “Pi,” the gut-wrenching “Requiem For A Dream,” and the sci-fi/ historical/ love story “The Fountain” (I have not yet seen “The Wrestler”). They all feature people in some sort of extreme psychological situation and “Black Swan” fits into his oeuvre perfectly.

I am sorry that this review is going to be short: I feel I shouldn’t say much for fear of giving too much away. Suffice to say that the trailers and ads presented the film a certain way (I was led to think of “Single White Female”) and now that I have seen the film, I see that was just a diversion from the real issue in the film. In this way, I feel that “Black Swan” has more in common with “Fight Club” than with “Single White Female.” It goes somewhere and brings up some issues that are rather unexpected.

I will however say that Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis trained for six months and it shows. They both look like ballet dancers, at least to my untrained eye. They both have the same kind of grace and confidence with their upper bodies that I see in dancers. The acting is very strong: Portman certainly deserved her Oscar as she manages to sustain a rather keyed-up (and for an actor, energy-draining) pitch through the entire film. And the special effects are subtle, powerful and, despite the fact that they are subtle, quite breath-taking at moments. Aronofsky uses them judiciously.

The film is a very insulated, peculiar experience… claustrophobic, tense, and disorienting. I can’t say much more. If you have not seen it, you deserve to discover it as the filmmaker intended.

Recommend? Definitely.

http://www.foxsearchlight.com/blackswan/