This writer knows just enough about ballet to get the joke when Homer Simpson hears the word and pictures bears in a circus ring. Still, it's hard not to be moved by Daniel Geller and Danya Goldfine's tremendous documentary on the Ballets Russes.
In 1929 Serge Diaghilev, the ballet impresario, died, leaving his influential ballet company in limbo. As various enterprising types rushed to fill the void, the battle for Ballets Russes commenced. With costumes by Matisse and sets by Dali, rival troupes would tour America bringing unparalleled spectacle where before there had only been bear-baiting entertainments. The convoluted business entanglements alone would've made this documentary worthwhile, but it's the former dancers - many of them in their 80s when interviewed for the film - that provide the real razzmatazz.
Frederic Franklin is, throughout, an absolute hoot. "Well they booed and jeered," he recalls of one tour through the boonies. "It was marvellous." Best of all are two dance partners reunited in their old age, attempting excerpts from their greatest performance. She, we learn, has married badly many times since she turned down his proposal. Inevitably, we later happen on the soapish tale of the bean-counter who fell for one ballerina, thereby alienating all the others.
Deftly mixing interviews and opulent archive material, Ballets Russes is a poignant affair. Watching the elderly often frail former conscripts, one can't help but think how fleeting their moment was.