While this is beautifully filmed in color, it is a ridiculously melodramatic and often dull soap opera concerning a ballet star who has finally hit the top, left incapacitated by a car accident after discovering her husband has been having an affair, and all of the ridiculous situations that occur after her forced retirement. Mai Zetterling is very good as is Terrence Morgan as the cheating husband, but the script is ridiculously over the top, culminating in a situation where their daughter is trapped inside a burning building, while a neighbor woman asks someone trying to rescue the girl to help her pack. Meanwhile, the public blocks access outside, with one woman commenting that the people who left the girl inside should be strung up without finding the details. Instant eye roll.
While I am not a fan of ballet, I can certainly see the drama of what can go on behind the scenes just as I could with the goings on behind the scenes of a movie or play or any kind of business. This makes me wonder why in all films about ballet they always use the same source for performances or the same music, as if there was nothing other than "Swan Lake" written for ballet dancers to work in. That's lazy thinking and an assumption that the audience won't notice or be interested in something obscure. This is a film that consistently tops itself in having one situation more ridiculous than the ridiculous situation that it followed. It is equivalent and even more exaggerated than the soap opera melodramas at Ross Hunter was producing in Hollywood at the time, and not nearly as fun.
While I am not a fan of ballet, I can certainly see the drama of what can go on behind the scenes just as I could with the goings on behind the scenes of a movie or play or any kind of business. This makes me wonder why in all films about ballet they always use the same source for performances or the same music, as if there was nothing other than "Swan Lake" written for ballet dancers to work in. That's lazy thinking and an assumption that the audience won't notice or be interested in something obscure. This is a film that consistently tops itself in having one situation more ridiculous than the ridiculous situation that it followed. It is equivalent and even more exaggerated than the soap opera melodramas at Ross Hunter was producing in Hollywood at the time, and not nearly as fun.