'Le Ballet' By Louis Thomas

Our previous Featured Video was Le Ballet by Louis Thomas, an animated film of a ballet at the famous Opera Garnier in Paris. Copy and paste the following link into your browser to watch it:

http://vimeo.com/48547146

This is a hugely enjoyable short film built around The William Tell Overture by Rossini and that opens with a quote from Leonard Bernstein:

“The original energizing motor that makes me compose is the urge to communicate, and communicate with as many people as possible; because what I love about the world and about life is people (...)”

Bernstein’s sentiment is enthusiastically taken up by Louis and expressed with wonderful hand drawn animations carried out in a nostalgic style reminiscent of the 1950s. Fantastic dance sequences (the film credits include acknowledgements to choreographers & dancers; Roland Petit, Jerome Robbins & Marius Petipa) which are mixed with panning shots of the audience.

That audience, wow what a line up! So many famous faces on one night...  There are the ones that you may spot on first viewing: Laurel & Hardy; Tin Man, Scarecrow, Lion & Dorothy; InspectorClouseau & Alfred Hitchock on cymbals. At a second viewing, you might see David Hockney and Sammy Davis jnr. The orchestra is conducted with flair and panache by Leonard Bernstein. At the end of the film there is a full list of the audience in the order that they appear  – this is a VERY long list, and will help if you want to try and put a name to a face with the help of the ‘pause’ control.

This is a wonderfully fun and creative work of animation, that shows such a lot of care taken over the drawings. Louis’s skill and style is neatly complimented by Rossini’s music, together making the film such a success.

If you have enjoyed Louis’s film, you may be interested in watching another short film on Vimeo that gives an insight into the work behind Le Ballet; paste this link into your browser to see how the film was assembled:      https://vimeo.com/48093601