 | | | | Black Tights: Bolshoi Ballet '67 |  | Directors: Aleksandr Shelenkov, Leonid Lavrovsky, Terence Young
Actors: Zizi Jeanmaire, Cyd Charisse, Roland Petit, Moira Shearer, Maurice Chevalier
Studio: Sling Shot
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $16.22
You Save: $3.77 (19%)
Buy New/Used from $14.49
Avg. Customer Rating:  (8 reviews)
Sales Rank: 145747
Format: Classical, Color, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 200 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Academy Ratio
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 6305805245
UPC: 017078917024
EAN: 9786305805243
ASIN: 6305805245
Release Date: March 26, 2002
Theatrical Release Date: September 29, 1966
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Historic Ballet July 23, 2008
Some have quibbles with the quality of the visuals on this DVD, but every version has some problems, because the film this was made from was almost lost ... I'm jut happy to be able to see it in any form - it's a really important moment of ballet & ballet film history.
4 ballets here, all very different, with different strengths.
The Diamond Muncher - an unusual "modern" fable with marvelous melodies, especially the pas de duex. With Zizi Jeanmaire
Cyranno - A lyric production that uses techniqes developed by the Archers, some slow-mo layering in the night time sequence... so very fitting to have Moira Shearer play Roxanne in this. This one has really memororable visuals.
24 hour mourning - Is a truly funny story of a gold-digger played with fantastic articulation and fun by gorgeous Cyd Charisse ... It is a selfish and playful role with really witty choreograpy - esp. in the duel sequence. The almost di-rigeur ballet strip sequence for her. But done with great humor and still G rated.
Carmen - The most traditional of the bunch, this is just a really solid and interesting version of the ballet based on the opera... it stretches boundaries, because some of the flamenco is really hard to translate to ballet, but Zizi is the right woman for it.... and some of these sequences are almost NOT G... the pas de deux is about as suggestive as ballet has ever gotten.
It's a tour de force for the Paris Ballet, and it is joy that it has not been lost entirely. It is also a time capsule of a very specific time in choreography, and in the filming of ballet. Not to be missed for balletomaines!
 miserable disc quality --- beautiful dancing July 5, 2008
i can't believe how poor in quality this disc was. sometimes you can hardly make out any of the details. but the dancing is magnificent. and to see cyd charisse so young and glowing and absolutely gorgeous is a real treat. and cyrano was wonderful, as was carmen. i wasn't crazy about the first piece, but the rest are all worth it. i want to give this disc a five star rating for what it contains, but it is just such a miserable printing.
 But Unmentioned Surprise Bonus: Early Experimental Dance Film April 14, 2008
This DVD would not be very high on my list were it not for the final 10 minute bonus at the end of the program. After the unbearably kitschy Black Tights and Bolshoi '67, we discover an unexpected little gem titled Spring Night, an early experimental dance film.
Spring Night is a lushly erotic miniature ballet in the stylistic lineage of the Ballets Russes. It was made in 1935, only a half dozen years after the death of Serge Diaghilev. It was choreographed by the beautiful and sinuous Russian dancer David Lichine, who danced with and choreographed for Colonel de Basil's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, one of the splinter companies that formed after the death of Diaghilev.
Spring Night is a Symbolist fusion of stunningly innovative dance, drama, spiritual subtext, cinematographer's art and music, produced by the very long-lived Adolph Zukor, who was one of the pioneers of the film industry. The elegant and hypnotic camera work was done by George Clemens, who went on to do the cinematography for Twilght Zone and other popular television shows.
The dancing is exquisite. Lichine's partner, Texan Nana Gollner is a lovely and inspired match for his exotic beauty, grace and elasticity. Their dancing has a mystical sensuality that is rarely seen. Lichine was a dancer/choreographer for the Ballets Russes, the same company that bore the crown jewel Nijinsky, one of the 20th century's most ingenius, mysterious and innovative dancers. Watching Lichine in the role of the Faun in Spring Night evokes images of Nijinsky as the same character, but in different works. Incredulously, there are no films of Nijinsky dancing, although photographs of him elude to something so beautiful, strange and uniquely groundbreaking that one weeps for more, and for his lost genius, stolen by schizophrenia extreme to such a degree that he had to leave the stage at a quite early age.
If you are at all interested in the Ballets Russes and its contributions to modern art, Spring Night is a gift. Especially if you have seen the outstanding, recently released documentary, Ballets Russes, you may find Spring Night to be especially important and informative. David Lichine's wife was one of the Baby Ballerinas featured in the documentary Ballets Russes, and is interviewed extensively there. There are film clips in BR of the beloved dance team David Lichine and his wife Tania Riabuchinska. She and her husband provided the dance of the Hippos in Disney's Fantasia. Ballets Russes
This short appears on a DVD with Black Tights and Boshoi '67, two lesser offerings that nonetheless have valuable moments, including a surrealistic Bolero danced by dazzling Bolshoi artists on the latter DVD. You'll also have opportunities in Bolshoi '67 to see some of the greats of the Bolshoi during this era, including Maximova, Bessmertnova, Timofeyeva and Mikhail Lavrovsky. Some of the choreography might be unbearable, like "Paganini", where the dancers are running around with violins (or pretend violins) but it's still a treat to view some of these greats in their prime.
Black Tights does have abundant beautiful women with long, gorgeous legs. But the choreography, music and content do not appeal to me, although it may to many others because of their attachment to some of the beauteous stars of the film, like Cyd Charise, Zizi Jean-Maire and Moira Shearer of The Red Shoes and Tales of Hoffmann.
The price of this DVD is worth paying just to experience Spring Night, a sacred artifact from the passing age of the Ballets Russes.
My only fear is that this short is not mentioned on Amazon's description of the program (although it never was, and was consequently quite a delicious surprise). If you are interested in seeing Spring Night, I recommend you contact the seller to see if it's listed on the box.
Excellent. Brilliant Carmen. July 12, 2007
Best combination of fetching legs since Eleanor Powell danced alone. The Carmen sequence was enchanting.
 Dancers who should not be forgotten February 25, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I am a lifelong fan of Cyd Charisse and consider her the very best female dancer hollywood has ever produced - she never disappoints and her feature is the best of the DVD. Moira Shearer, whom I also like but know less of, is also wonderful in her way, vulnerable and graceful. I found Roland Petit's Cyrano (ballet, not his performance) a bit convoluted - a lot of material to get into a feauterette. Zizi Jeanmarie is the epitome of the French dancer and the ballet itself the epitome of what we foreigners think Paris was back in the early 20th centura.
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