Director: MICHAEL POWELL. Photographed in CinemaScope and Technicolor. Production designer: Hein Heckroth. Music by Sergei Prokofiev, played by the Hamburg State Opera Orchestra. Dancer: Sonia Arova.
Copyright 1955 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. U.K. release: September 1955. 1,208 feet. 13 minutes. (The original length was no less than thirty minutes).
COMMENT: The first ballet short in CinemaScope, the well-known story of the sorcerer's apprentice (used by Walt Disney as a Mickey Mouse vehicle in "Fantasia") would seem ideal for the talents of Michael Powell, here making a return to the screen. (His preceding film was the balletic "The Tales of Hoffman" in 1951). Rather unimaginatively choreographed and set, this is nevertheless a fascinating application of ballet to CinemaScope. As with an orchestral concert, the width of the screen seems perfect.
A POSTSCRIPT: The unimaginative settings complained of above were not due to any lack of talent on the part of ace designer Hein Heckroth. Rather the reverse. The problem lay in the early CinemaScope lenses with their short depth of field. In order to overcome these problems with focus, it was decided to use extremely shallow sets. That the end result is rather flat was due to simple necessity. Or would audiences rather either the dancers, the backgrounds — or both — were out of focus?
Copyright 1955 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. U.K. release: September 1955. 1,208 feet. 13 minutes. (The original length was no less than thirty minutes).
COMMENT: The first ballet short in CinemaScope, the well-known story of the sorcerer's apprentice (used by Walt Disney as a Mickey Mouse vehicle in "Fantasia") would seem ideal for the talents of Michael Powell, here making a return to the screen. (His preceding film was the balletic "The Tales of Hoffman" in 1951). Rather unimaginatively choreographed and set, this is nevertheless a fascinating application of ballet to CinemaScope. As with an orchestral concert, the width of the screen seems perfect.
A POSTSCRIPT: The unimaginative settings complained of above were not due to any lack of talent on the part of ace designer Hein Heckroth. Rather the reverse. The problem lay in the early CinemaScope lenses with their short depth of field. In order to overcome these problems with focus, it was decided to use extremely shallow sets. That the end result is rather flat was due to simple necessity. Or would audiences rather either the dancers, the backgrounds — or both — were out of focus?