..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

The Company
Directed by Robert Altman

Robert Altman's 2003 ballet movie, The Company, available from Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (01322, $27), is the diametric opposite of The Red Shoes, but it is almost as good and certainly one of the best fictional ballet films ever. It also makes a fantastic DVD, because Altman incorporates several complete Joffrey Ballet dance numbers and glimpses of even more, so that the film is a visual and aural extravaganza open to many repeat viewings. Where The Red Shoes had a gregarious drama, the plot of The Company is dry and minimal, yet an emotional subtext is not as absent as it seems at first glance. Neve Campbell stars (Altman gives her a Geraldine Chaplin aura) in the 112-minute feature, with most of the performers around her being real dancers-not that she isn't, because she's good enough to move with them for as long as the camera is pointing at her-and the story that is constructed is essentially vignettes based upon actual backstage incidents. She breaks up with one boyfriend and meets another; a couple dancers have injuries or lose their parts; a thunderstorm blows in during an outdoor performance; there are stresses involved in learning new routines-the subtle, or offhand manner in which these events occur are clearly how they occur in the real world. And the film also has what no other ballet movie dares to have, and that is Altman's wry sense of humor. Malcolm McDowell delivers an exquisite performance as the company's harried but consummate director, and the more often you watch him, the more the joy with which he tackles his part just makes you laugh in delight. So many of the details Altman picks out, such as his cuts to oddball costumes or his capturing of moments when the dancers lose their temper-moments readily available to other filmmakers but beyond their realm of understanding-are so deviously timed for comic relief that you barely notice the subliminal mechanics at work. Hence, what seems inconsequential on the first viewing become funnier or more emotionally precise on subsequent viewings, and while the movie does not strive to achieve grand dramatic leaps, it nails every plie.

But the DVD is even better, because you can jack up the audio and replay the spellbinding dances again and again. There is even an option on the DVD to play only the stage performances-it runs 35 minutes-with music ranging from Rodgers & Hart to Badalamenti & Lynch. The picture is presented in letterboxed format only, with an aspect ratio of about 2.35:1 and an accommodation for enhanced 16:9 playback, and the dances are staged and shot to accommodate the camera and editing in an ideal manner. The colors look fabulous. The 5.1-channel Dolby Digital sound is outstanding, placing you in the reality of the film but also overwhelming you with the beauty that dance can release from music. There are optional French subtitles and there is English captioning. The DVD offers two promotional documentaries running a total of 11 minutes. From a content perspective they are inconsequential, but in shifting from the letterboxed presentation of the film to vivid full screen video images of some of the same scenes and costumes, they have the entertainment effect of a good after dinner mint. Also featured is a captivating 2-minute extension of a rehearsal montage sequence.

Altman and Campbell also sit down to share an enjoyable commentary track, talking all about making the movie and about the Joffrey Company. The film was Campbell's idea. She spent a couple of years researching and developing the script with screenwriter Barbara Turner, and then sweet talked Altman into directing it. "We were not trying to make a dramatic film, we were trying to make a 'day in the life of,'" Altman explains. "The problem I had in doing this picture is that I had forty-five dancers and five actors. I couldn't make the dancers learn to act, and so I had to make the actors become kind of like non-actors."

Surprisingly, this was the first time Altman had worked with digital video, though it is doubtful he will ever go back to film, since the longer takes the format accommodates serve his style so ideally. At one point McDowell's character delivers a somewhat resentful speech after being honored by an ethnic civic group, and although it differs slightly in tone from the rest of the movie, Altman left it in because the speech was taken verbatim from a talk the real Joffrey director, Gerald Arpino, gave to the same group. Besides, whether he is shooting a budget meeting or a dance on stage, he looks forward to the flaws he uncovers. "If you make everything perfect, it's kind of like what Hitler did. The marching was perfect. Everything was perfect. But there's no soul, and it's also an inhuman standard, so the mistakes, at least in my art world, film, mistakes are the very, very best things. You take any film I've ever made and say, 'What are the six best moments in it?' Every one of them was an accident, a mistake or just something that occurred. No artist can do what another does. That's why you're an artist. You're unique. It doesn't mean you're best or worst, it's just you're unique."

August 24 , 2004

DVD Roundup: This Week's DVD Releases
The Review Vault

- by Douglas Pratt

Douglas Pratt's DVD-Laser Disc Newsletter is published monthly.
For a free sample, call (516)594-9304 or go to his website at www.DVDLaser.com