Gene Broadway - Dance ... or Love?
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Gene Broadway - Dance ... or Love? |
| Original title | J'aurais voulu être un danseur |
| Country of production | Belgium , Great Britain , Luxembourg , France |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 2007 |
| length | 103 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Alain Berliner |
| script | Alain Berliner, Sonia Bekhor |
| production | Patrick Quinet |
| music | Terry Davies |
| camera | Tony Pierce-Roberts |
| cut | Marie-Hélène Dozo |
| occupation | |
| |
Gene Broadway - Dance ... or Love? (Original title: J'aurais voulu être un danseur ) is a dance film by Alain Berliner from 2007, which was made as a co-production between Belgium , Luxembourg , France and Great Britain .
action
In 2030, a young professor will give a lecture and propose that you not only get the genes from your parents, but also their thoughts and secrets. These would be subconsciously imprinted in the back of your mind in childhood and lead to repeating the behavior of your parents in adulthood. As an example, the professor tells his students about a young man named François Maréchal who lived near Paris in 1996 :
In a failed robbery on a pharmacy, the aimless François meets the pharmacist's daughter, Blanche. Shortly afterwards, François, who is ready to change his life for Blanche, proposes to her. Blanche, who works in an office and dreams of a simple, regulated life with a house, a few children and a dog, accepts the application after initial hesitation. They get married, have a child and move into a house in a tranquil row of houses. When François, who has been working in a video store for two years and has just been promoted to manager of another branch, watches the DVD of Singin 'in the Rain on the recommendation of his boss , he is electrified by Gene Kelly dancing in the rain . On the way home, he begins to dance in the rain, too. Seized by the fever of tap dancing, he takes dance lessons and increasingly neglects his work - just like his father Guy Maréchal once did. Guy had seen Singin 'in the Rain in the movies in the 1970s and - inspired by the dream of becoming a great tap dancer like Gene Kelly - no longer cared about his auto repair shop. When his wife Ariane asked him, given their precarious financial situation, to quit dancing and go back to work in the workshop, he left her and their son François head over heels. Ariane then made François believe his father was dead. After his mother's fatal car accident in 1982, François grew up with wealthy relatives.
François eventually loses his job in the video store. While he makes Blanche think he's going to interviews, he practices tap dancing in his garage every day. He learns about a casting for a musical from his dance teacher Christian. There he meets an older tap dancer in whom he thinks he recognizes his father Guy. To make sure that it is really his father, he visits his relatives. Using old photos, he remembers how his mother once took him to a cemetery in Belgium and realizes that the grave of Guy Maréchal there did not belong to his father.
Blanche finally discovers that François has been lying to her for months and confronts him. Unable to return to a regular life, François then leaves Blanche and their son Antoine. He wrote to Blanche to pretend he was dead. On the street, where François is obsessively tapping in front of passers-by to earn a bit of money, he meets the casting manager Titi, who inevitably sends him to a certain Pépé's nightclub. In front of Blanche's father's pharmacy, François again meets Blanche, who is expecting a second child from him. When Blanche sees him and wants to talk to him, he leaves her without a word. In the evening he goes to the nightclub. There Pépé turns out to be his father Guy. Guy, who for his part recognizes his son in François, lets him appear on his stage as a dancer shortly afterwards and also gives him his old stage name "Gene Broadway".
When they were tapping on stage together one evening, there was also a woman named Claudia in the cheering audience. In a bar, Claudia François talks about himself and his father. They once learned tap dance together and were temporarily a couple. One day, Guy's mother, Nicole, came by and confessed to Guy that his father didn't die in the Congo, as she had her son believe. Maurice Maréchal, who had worked his way up with a brewery after the war, discovered tap dancing for himself and gave up everything for his dream of dancing like Gene Kelly on stage. Because he had given himself up to ridicule for lack of talent, he finally hanged himself. Nicole told Guy that it was a curse for her family. Guy then left Claudia without a word. When François later walks thoughtfully through the streets, he is suddenly on the film set of Singin 'in the Rain . He wants to speak to Gene Kelly, who has cursed his family, but is turned away by a police officer. To blame for the misfortune of his family is "the unspoken secret".
François finally returns to his terraced house. Blanche, who explains to him that the child in her belly is from him, doesn't want to talk to him and drives away angrily. In kindergarten, François sends his son Antoine a letter hidden in a cuddly toy, which, when he is older, is supposed to tell Antoine about the history of his family and to prevent him from making the same mistakes. Blanche, who is now with one of her work colleagues, unexpectedly turns up one evening in Guy's nightclub. She read the letter, but could not forgive François. Before watching his performance with Guy, however, she allows him to see his son on the weekend.
In 2030, a student thinks he will recognize François' son Antoine in his professor. The professor pretends to be wrong, but after the lecture he puts on a hat and begins to tap enthusiastically. Together with François, Guy and Maurice he dances up a flight of stairs that ends on Broadway .
background
Gene Broadway - Dance ... or Love? was one of the last films by French actor Jean-Pierre Cassel before he died of cancer in April 2007. Like his role as Guy, Cassel has been enthusiastic about American film musicals since his youth and tried his hand at tap dancing. In the Paris nightclub Saint-Germain he met Gene Kelly in the 1950s, who recognized Cassel's talent and entrusted him with a small role in his film Straße des Glücks (1957). According to director Alain Berliner, his film Cassel therefore offered the opportunity to close the circle and build on his past as a dancer. Leading actor Vincent Elbaz , on the other hand, had no experience in tap dancing and trained the dance steps with a choreographer for eight months before shooting.
The shooting took place in 2005 under the working title Broadway dans la tête in Belgium and Luxembourg. The film was shot in Brussels , for example at the Place des Barricades, on the Boulevard Simon Bolivar and in the Saint-Jacques quarter, and in Saint-Josse-Ten-Noode . Pierre-François Limbosch was responsible for the production design . Catherine Marchand appeared as a costume designer . The Danish Mette Berggreen , who had previously choreographed Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark (2000), was responsible for the choreography. The budget for the film was around 5.5 million euros.
Gene Broadway - Dance ... or Love? premiered on April 25, 2007 in Belgium. The film was released in French cinemas on August 29, 2007. On September 24, 2007 it was also shown at the Copenhagen International Film Festival . It was first released on DVD in Germany on March 7, 2008.
Music and dance numbers
The music for the individual dance scenes was mainly contributed by Marc Collin from the French band Nouvelle Vague . In addition to songs composed especially for the film, Collin covered several songs from the 1980s and early 1990s, as he usually did with his band, in order to give both the film and the tap dance a more modern touch:
- Colore by Les Innocents in a cover version by Marc Collin, sung by Silja - François dances in the rain with three women and their colorful umbrellas.
- Two Tender Shadows by C. Vervoort and P. Roger, sung by Sophie De Meyer - Guy dances with Claudia in the garage.
- She Drives Me Crazy by Fine Young Cannibals in a cover version - François practices stepping at home and in the video store.
- Cyd Charisse by Marc Collin, sung by Phoebe Killdeer - François is tapping in the garage, imagining himself dancing with Cyd Charisse .
- Souris puisque c'est grave by Alain Chamfort in a cover version by Marc Collin, sung by Silja - François tapers on the street in front of passers-by.
- Pump Up the Jam by Technotronic in a cover version by Marc Collin, interpreted by L. Collins - François tapping with three women on the stage of Guy's nightclub.
- Broadway by Marc Collin, sung by Jean-Pierre Cassel - Guy sings and tapes in his nightclub and brings François onto the stage, where they tap together.
- Final by Marc Collin - Antoine, François, Guy and Maurice tap together and dance up white stairs.
Reviews
L'Express stated that Alain Berliner had alreadyshown a weakness for bizarre and dreamlike scenarioswith his films Mein Leben in Rosarot (1997) and Depth of Sehnsucht (2000). The "beautiful" three-generation story of Gene Broadway - dance ... or love? is primarily "carried" by the actors, especially Vincent Elbaz, who is an "excellent dancer and actor", as well as Jean-Pierre Cassel and Cécile de France. The director, however, could not convince. The film suffers from the not very fluid transitions between the individual time levels and from the far too bold message that one has to live out one's dreams. The director should have focused on telling the actual story instead.
According to Le Monde , the film jumps back and forth between eras and different genres "without ever finding its rhythm". The audience really appreciates the body language of Jean-Pierre Cassel in one of his last roles. Compared to Cassel, Vincent Elbaz seems rather clumsy in his movements. The film touchingly takes off its hat to Jean-Pierre Cassel, who, in addition to his acting activities, was also a respected dancer, wrote Le Journal du Dimanche . Leading actor Vincent Elbaz tries “sincerely” to “be believable” in his role, but the film “the poorness of its choreographies and its involuntary kitsch” is a shame.
The lexicon of international film was more conciliatory and described the film as "a loving homage to the great tap dancers of the Hollywood musical and to the French director Jacques Demy ". Vincent Elbaz lacks charisma and he can "not always [...] convince", but this is compensated for by "confident supporting actors and atmospheric photography".
German version
The German dubbed version was made at Elektrofilm in Berlin . The dialogue book was written by Stephan Hoffmann , who also directed the dialogue.
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| François | Vincent Elbaz | Jaron Lowenberg |
| Blanche | Cecile de France | Gundi Eberhard |
| older Guy / Pépé | Jean-Pierre Cassel | Kaspar Eichel |
| Ariane | Circé Lethem | Ghadah Al-Akel |
| young guy | Pierre Cassignard | Tobias Kluckert |
| Claudia | Jeanne Balibar | Anke Reitzenstein |
| Tony | Eric Godon | Peter Reinhardt |
Web links
- Gene Broadway - Dance ... or Love? in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Gene Broadway - Dance ... or Love? on allocine.fr (French)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Guillaume Massart: Broadway dans la tête: Berliner fait des claquettes on filmdeculte.com
- ↑ Certificate of Approval for Gene Broadway - Dance ... or Love? Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , January 2008 (PDF; test number: 112 849 DVD).
- ↑ a b c cf. allocine.fr
- ↑ Mateusz Kukulka: Le Mirano fait son cinéma . In: La Dernière Heure / Les Sports , August 6, 2005.
- ↑ “Un beau sujet porté, notamment, par Vincent Elbaz (excellent danseur et comédien), le regretté Jean-Pierre Cassel (id.) Et Cécile de France, mais que Berliner gâche par un manque de fluidité dans le mélange des époques et par un message trop appuyé (il faut vivre ses désirs). ” Eric Libiot: J'aurais voulu être un danseur . In: L'Express , August 30, 2007.
- ↑ “Le film multiplie les allers-retours entre les époques, et les registres […] sans jamais trouver son rythme.” Isabelle Regnier quoted in Le Monde . according to premiere.fr
- ↑ “Mais, malgré les efforts sincères de Vincent Elbaz pour être crédible, ce film embarrasse par la pauvreté de ses chorégraphies et son kitsch involontaire.” Stéphanie Belpêche in Le Journal du Dimanche quoted. according to premiere.fr
- ↑ Gene Broadway - Dance ... or Love? In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 5, 2020 .
- ↑ Gene Broadway - Dance ... or Love? In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing index , accessed on July 5, 2020 .