Violette et Mr B.

A Feature film of

Dominique Delouche

Produced by

Les Films du Prieuré

Production year2001

French release19/12/2001

Runtime1 h 25 min

Synopsis

Among her many claims to glory, Violette Verdy can include that she was a famous actress when only fifteen, becoming Jean-Louis Barrault’s partner for the production of “Malatesta” by Montherlant. An act she topped by becoming star dancer in Roland Petit’s “Le Loup, Dutilleux”. George Balanchine then invited her to join the New York City Ballet in 1958, where she created such ballets as “Tchaikovski Pas de deux”, “Jewels”, “Liebeslieder Walzer” and “Sonatine” among other masterpieces, and where Jerome Robbins created “Dances at a Gathering” and “In the Night” for her… Rolf Liebermann appointed her Dance Director at the Paris Opera (1976), and she then returned to the United States, where she radiantly conveyed the good word, the ‘beautiful gesture’ of her master, Mister B, as he is familiarly and respectfully known in ballet circles. Thirty years later, it is Balanchine’s neo-classic approach (with a foray into Robbins) that is the primal material for my film. Violette Verdy conducts master classes, based on the aforementioned ballets, with top-level dancers so that they can achieve the “Balanchine touch”, the secrets of which she knows firsthand. Like in my earlier films, the sequences of “Memoire pour le XXIème siècle” are mixed with biographical material, along with archival extracts which illustrate the subject.