User Reviews

Alessandra Mastronardi always looked weird to me. Her role in that Woody Allen film was probably the best that fit her features both physically and in spirit. Not that I expect female actors to have a plastic kind of appeal -which Mastronardi in her own way already has- but there is something off with the overall vibe.

Well... The title role in this biopic seems to work fine with her as the aura of the film is as ambiguous as the lead actor's on-screen charisma. So, this probably is not a production where she was miscast.

In other words, things are okay on that front.

However, the film is shot in such a manner that, if you are not really into the world of ballet, there is little to honeycomb you into the narrative. Neither visually, nor via the usage of music or acting.

Remember those paintings and sketches by Edgar Degas - they touch your soul in such a manner that, you breathe ballet regardless of your knowledge of or interest in the field.

This film is not to cinema what Degas' work was to art. I just don't see how or if they even tried to outgrow the subject matter. I have seen documentaries that carried more tension, emotion and enigma than this one, which by classification is fiction.

So, one may get bored before one begins to care about what will happen.

Even if you are really really into ballet, you might watch Billy Elliot or Aronofsky's Black Swan a 7th time before finishing this just once.

Emanuele Imbucci's biopic film brings to the screen the life of Carla Fracci, defined by the New York Times "Prima Ballerina Assoluta" and it is freely inspired by biography "Passo dopo passo" released by Mondadori. The screenplay is original and it boasted the consulence of the same Fracci together with his husband Beppe Menegatti. The film is close enough to her life, however, Imbucci wanted to underline certain aspects of her life.

The story narrated see the rise of her carreer on multiple timescales, not following a chronological timeline.

Much emphasis is also put on the ballerina's choice to become a mother, an unusual choice for an ètoile like her. She didn't want to give up on something that was part of her life. In the biopic we can also see her getting back to ballet after the pregnancy thanks to his friend Rudolph Nureyev who encouraged her to come back to La Scala's stage with Nutcracker.

When using cinematography to tell the story of a famous person, the danger is to being bombastic, but director Imbucci was aware of this and he avoided that narration style with stereotypes that does nothing but tell in a simple and predictable way the life of a celebrity. The non-linear narration choice allows to emphasize a very precast aspect of Carla: her being a modern woman. A woman who worked hard to not accept easy compromises, who researched for love as well as carreer, without giving up either of them. These aspects make the protagonist Carla a contemporary heroine, who shows us the exceptionalism of a well-lived life, where talent just represents a springboard that makes room for hard work and fatigue, that seem to remain behind the scenes but that permeates in every single performance and every single step.

The actress who plays Carla, Alessandra Mastronardi, was directly chosen by Carla Fracci. During the ballet's film shoots, Alessandra was helped by Susanna Salvi, her stand-in, who is ètoile at Rome Opera Theatre. However, Mastronardi, during the months preceding the shoot, followed a training with a dance coach to prepare herself for the role. Carla asked her to emphasize determination, fatigue, strenght and sacrifices during her ballerina carreer. Her milanese accent was accurate and gives us back an even more authentic Fracci.

The soundtrack is appropriate and functional to all the characters' emotions.

The beginning and the end of this film follow a perfect circle: great impact the image of the little Carla followed by the one of woman Carla trying to catch a dragonfly, the bird that inspired her in her whole carrer.

This is definitely a convincing biopic about one of the greatest ballet dancers of all time.