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Pas de deux More at IMDbPro »
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| Index | 13 reviews in total |
11 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Glad I Gave This A Second Look, 13 July 2007
Author:
ccthemovieman-1 from United States
Wow, am I glad I decided to give this animated short feature a second
look. I only last two minutes the first time and thought to myself,
"Unless you are ballet dancer or big fan of ballet, this film would be
almost impossible to like and sit through." Watching 13 minutes of two
silhouetted-illuminated ballet dancers do their thing against a black
background would be unbelievably boring.
Well, I was wrong.
Norm McClaren proves once again you don't need bold colors to make an
incredible visual feast. This is black-and-white and words almost are
too difficult to come by in trying to explain, without getting
technical, how beautiful this film looks.
One female dancer morphs into two and then back to one several times.
After about five minutes, she is joined by a male dancers and the
images really get wild. I don't think I've seen two more graceful
figures than these two.
I admit my mind wandered off track a couple of brief times but for most
of this, I was totally mesmerized. This movie was part of the DVD
"Leonard Maltin's Animation Favorites From The National Film Board Of
Canada.
8 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
A revolutionary film, deserving of its place in the history of animation, 14 October 1999
Author:
David Johnston (ston@gladstone.uoregon.edu) from Eugene, Oregon, USA
The thing about this film is that yes, it is a little hard to approach. It was made in the context of the world of animation in 1968. No one had ever done anything like this before. McLaren chose the dance as the subject for his film not necessarily because he loved ballet (though I would guess he probably _did_ like ballet) but because the form of the dance very much lended itsself to the technique being employed (among other less craft-oriented and more art-oriented decisions). The technique used in this film had never been seen before. We look at it now and it seems like nothing special, but no one had ever thought of this multiple-exposure technique before McLaren. This is generally considered to be McLaren's magnum opus, and it is valuable viewing by any student of animation. Wathing it not as entertainment, though, but with an eye toward composition, staging, timing, and so on.
5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Yes, this is one of the great Canadian shorts., 19 August 2002
Author:
fiddybop from SF, CA
Yes, this is one of the great Canadian shorts, etc. etc.
I'm more interested in why someone could find this film boring, insisting
that one had to have an interest in the dance and/or music in order to find
something to like about it.
I'm not a "dance person" myself and in fact admittedly rarely have anything
to do with dance performance, dance films, etc. This film is not about the
dancing, though.
It's about human movement in particular, with the form of this dance being
used as a means to a much more imaginative end. By utilizing dance as a
mode of discovering the beauty of human grace and movement, McLaren can
explore these movements in fascinating ways, using optical printing to trail
print or multiple-expose their movements, using still imagery as well.
The result is an effect of three-dimensionalizing the movements (not the
dancers, who are obviously already 3-D) - giving substance and shape to
otherwise intangible, time-sensitive events. This film is just as
incredible and breathtaking as the chrono-photographs of Etienne
Jules-Marey, and in fact Pas de Deux is very much a brother of Marey's work.
McLaren even lit his dancers similarly to Marey's subjects, to get an almost
line-drawing effect from his subjects.
To dwell on the dance itself and whether or not you "like it" is completely
missing the point of McLaren's filmmaking and artistry here. He had an
incredible sense of the potential for movement and beauty, often to be found
in unique and unlikely places.
See this film at all costs and try to look beyond the dance content/music
content (if that bothers you), and you will hopefully find that Norman
McLaren created a masterpiece in his exploration of time and motion, mined
entirely from the particularly graceful movements of ballet
dancers.
4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Stunningly beautiful, 11 May 2008
Author:
Mudsharkbytes from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Reading some of the comments about how 'well, it's okay for the
background" or "boring - I didn't get it", provoked me to share my
observations.
When I was studying the art of film animation for a college class in
the mid 70s, I would check out 16mm movie prints from the local library
and have weekend 'film festivals' in my basement with a borrowed
projector, which is where I first saw "Pas De Deux".
We had already watched many McLaren films so we were prepared for
something that would be a visual feast. "Pas De Deux" did not
disappoint in this respect, but unlike the other McLaren films we had
seen, this one had an unexpected emotional content we were unprepared
for.
One dancer, dramatically lit from the edges only against a solid black
background, so she appears almost like an outline, enthralled with
herself, splits herself into 'partners' which sometimes step out of her
form, sometimes remain in place after she moves, to follow her
movements, or sometimes become reflections that overlap.
The camera pulls away and a man, similarly lit, is revealed watching
her.
After a bit of her playing 'hard to get', the two join together and
proceed to create one of the most visually moving dance segments in the
history of film. Multiple afterimages spring from the two dancers and
blend to create moving shapes of unearthly beauty. The sense of joy,
abandon and love between the two dancers is intensified by these
techniques. Sometimes the movements are very slow with the afterimages
close together, giving a sense of the two individuals melting into one
- sometime they spring across the screen in opposite directions,
leaving behind complex forms. All this to the minimalistic
accompaniment of strings (largely holding onto static harmony) and
pan-pipe solo. The music is about as perfect an accompaniment to the
dance as you could hope for.
We were stunned and re-watched it several times.
I did not get an opportunity to see "Pas De Deux" again for many years
(It's not a particularly easy film to find). Recently I found a
watchable copy online and was able to see it again(it's on google
video). Certainly the techniques of animation have improved since this
film was created, but I would be hard pressed to find an animated film
that has more Art (with a capital "A") or humanity then this beauty
packs into its short 13 or so minutes.
3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Sublime phantasmagoria in transcendental choreography, 15 July 2010
Author:
Polaris_DiB from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
From Maya Deren's A Study in Choreography for Camera to Bruce Connor's
Breakaway, experimental filmmakers have been integrating choreographed
dancing to specially tuned cinematic techniques to add a new element in
the dance between performers, motion capture, and spectators. McLaren's
own history in Oskar Fischinger-like animated synaesthesia shows a
patience and care in the apparatus of motion to well adapt him for this
sort of live-action work. Utilizing wide-screen lens for depth, primary
key lighting for outline, and probably hours at a frame print machine
for editing, McLaren takes the formalism of ballet and transcends it
into the formalism of cinematography, creating a fully synthesized
whole.
The title Pas de Deux refers to the type of performance contained, as
two dancers, a male and female, choreograph with each other. Another
pas de deux is created between figure and camera, as both simultaneous
interact to create a whole larger than the sum of the parts. Meanwhile,
even the initial female's solo sequences reflect the general theme, as
McLaren uses freeze frames and ghosting effects to effectively create a
dancer choreographed with herself, obviously planned ahead of time so
that the dancer is, in fact, dancing with her own shadow in mind.
The shapes of the dancers themselves are trascendent. With such a sharp
outline, their silhouettes could have fallen flat and two-dimensional
on screen, but with some effective editing techniques and wide lenses,
this movie becomes more three dimensional than Avatar. At the height of
motion and visual effects, the forms melt into each other and become
smoke-like phantasmagoric displays, pushing the dancer's bodies into
shape and motion unachievable without the apparatus of the camera on
display (also, I believe the dance is in slow motion, but that may not
be the case as ballet is famous for its ability to evoke a sense of
weightlessness and fluidity). At the end of the pas de deux, the
dancer's bodies literally melt into each other. I have never been able
to get the idea of dance as virtual sex out of my mind, and that
concept is obviously on McLaren's mind as well. Here you see displayed
lovemaking beyond the wish-fulfillment fantasy of a wide range of
cinema into the sublime of passion.
--PolarisDiB
4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Uneven, but enjoyable and worth watching, 30 January 2001
Author:
Robert Reynolds (minniemato@hotmail.com) from Tucson AZ
This one is hard to describe, Two ballet dancers perform a piece while various visual effect are added to augment the performance. Some of the effects are stunning, while others are very jarring and don't quite work. Intriguing idea that works most of the time. If you've seen "A Chairy Tale" or "Neighbours" and enjoyed them, you'll like this. But it is unusual and somewhat off-kilter at times. Recommended for those who like the unusual or special photographic effects. Bear in mind that it is over 30 years old.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
The art of movement, 9 December 2008
Author:
ackstasis from Australia
I don't much like ballet. In fact, of all the popular dances out there,
ballet strikes me as the most uninteresting and tedious. At least, that
was until I watched Norman McLaren's 'Pas de deux (1968).' Suddenly,
every movement seemed gentle and graceful, hypnotic and inspiring.
McLaren uses optical effects to bring out the majesty of human motion,
to create a dizzying duet of silhouettes, dancing a routine that slows
down and transcends time and space. Utilising an optical printer to
reprint images from one frame of film to the next, McLaren elegantly
manipulates the typical flow of time and motion. This was an
achievement with which the animator was well-acquainted. In his most
famous short, 'Neighbours (1952),' Mclaren parodied the typical
mechanics of movement, in which pixilation (stop-motion of live-actors)
was employed to create a disorientatingly-unreal morality play – though
I found that particular short to be too unsubtle and obvious to be of
any real note as a war-allegory.
'Pas de deux,' on the other hand, is completely graceful is every
respect. Human bodies diverge, are occasionally suspended in time, but
often dance alongside their mirror-images. Finally, with perfect
precision, the corresponding images fuse into one single entity, and
the ballet continues. Time is a fleeting concept; once a particular
moment has passed us by, it is lost in eternity and can never be
retrieved. McLaren recognises movement as the chief indicator of
passing moments, and so, as he toys with the movement of human bodies,
he also toys with human notions of time, capturing and replaying
otherwise lost moments for us to experience once again. By the film's
end, the two ballet dancers are all but indistinguishable, perceived
only as a blur of transitory silhouettes, moving as a subtle mist that
only vaguely resembles the human form. Like translucent ghosts, the
dancers perform their routine, every movement, rather than existing
only for a fleeting movement, remaining on screen long enough for us to
saviour its grace and dignity.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Started A Trend, 12 March 2008
Author:
Theo Robertson from Isle Of Bute, Scotland
I heard that Norman McLaren , the Scots born Canadian animator was a
leading pioneer in his field and is famous the world over . Somewhat
typically even a Scottish film buff like myself had little awareness of
him until I chanced upon this musical short
PAS DA DEUX is a monochrome short featuring a pair of ballet dancers .
Exactly , I was thinking the same " Oh a black and white film featuring
a couple of dancers . Can things get anymore tedious . Wake me up when
it's finished " but there's something rather hypnotic about the way the
music and the choreography merge together . I'm also reliably informed
that this was the very first time that " after image " had been
achieved on film , something that became very popular years later in
everything from DOCTOR WHO to MTV pop videos .
It seems somewhat bitterly unfair - though again typical - that
everyone in the world is aware of BRAVEHEART , a Hollywood movie filmed
in Ireland , starring an American brought up in Australia , but not
even Scots are aware of their compatriot who made such an innovative
and much copied visual technique
3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
A visual masterpiece, 11 June 2006
Author:
Coby Beck from Vancouver, BC, Canada
Stunning, enthralling, captivating, breathtaking.
A visual masterpiece composed from two dancers, clever back-lighting, a
pan-pipe and some stop motion/multi-exposure effects. Proof that in the
hands of an artist the sum surpasses the parts, must be seen to be
believed! The progression from the simplest expression of human motion
into a cascade of frames and forms draws the viewer from first to last
image. The beauty of the initial simplicity turns into a delicious
betrayal of epectations as subtle new effects are thrown into the mix.
The music, passionate and stark, is a perfect match and even the
synchronizing between aural and visual ebbs and flows is impeccable.
Should be seen by anyone who enjoys film as art.
Talk about serendipity --, 16 July 2007
Author:
rulerattray-2 from United States
In 1969 I went to a middle-class matinée showing of "Easy Rider". At
the break, we all got up to leave, happily surfeited with the phony,
sad (and politically correct for the times) ending. Any southern
redneck would shoot a hippy on sight. Okay. We bought that and started
shifting around in preparation to leaving.
Then as I remember it, a single word appeared on a dead black screen.
"Duo". A back-lit ballerina pirhoutted across that screen and danced
away from her own still image. She did it again. We were mesmerized.
Ten seconds of stunned silence followed the last frame. The applause
that followed had a quality I can only describe as "awed".
Breathtakingly beautiful, that's all.
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