BFI London Film Festival 2011 - CRAZY HORSE
For his latest film, renowned documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman spent ten weeks filming at Paris's legendary cabaret club, Crazy Horse. A major fixture on the tourist map, Crazy Horse aspires to present the best nude dancing show in the world, and Wiseman films the processes and personalities that shape it. His time there coincides with the tenure of well-known choreographer Philippe Decouflé, charged with revitalising the show. Filming rehearsals and back-stage discussions as well as the on-stage set pieces, Wiseman weaves together a number of threads, some of which recall those in his earlier film, La Danse. As Decouflé attempts to balance creativity with the interests of the shareholders, Wiseman captures the gruelling work schedule and exacting standards required of the dancers, many of them recruited from ballet conservatoires. He excels in drawing on apparently incidental detail and flashes of humour to weave together a compelling picture of this fifty-year-old institution. One of the Crazy Horse staff remarks 'the ultimate thing is to seduce through restraint'. The same could be said of Wiseman's filmmaking process.