Ballet Shoes Review

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(More customer reviews)BALLET SHOES (starring Emma Watson... celebrated for her lead roles in the Harry Potter films...along with an all-star acclaimed ensemble cast) is absolutely wonderful. I personally am in love it. Targeting a very large and underserved audience which is best defined as "moms and their daughters", Ballet Shoes is a film about realizing ambitions; a film where its tag line `dreams do come true' is really the `spot on' underlying message of the film... and the storyline. I believe it is destined to be a huge success for it is a tale of inspiration indeed.
A big-budget Granada film production, originally for the BBC, Ballet Shoes is based on the literary classic penned by Noel Streatfeild that women especially are very familiar with as key reading material from their childhood. A costume drama with absolutely stunning cinematography, the film portrays 1930's London with a sense of dreamy realism. For those who recall the box office smash "You've Got Mail", the book is the one being sought after that Meg Ryan launches into a verbal expose about. Ms. Ryan was right on the money, as is this adaptation of the tale.
Ballet Shoes is the story of three orphan girls; Petrova, Posie and Pauline (Emma Watson) who are raised as sisters after being brought together by a rich, world traveler as babies. As they grow up, each girl develops a dream of their own. Pauline wants to be an actress; Petrova longs to be an aviator; Posie wishes to dance. Circumstances bring them together, and together they vow to go down in the history books. "We three Fossils vow...". This vow launches the three Fossil sisters on their voyage, a journey that they travel individually as well as together, one that can only serve to inspire any young girl who watches the film.
On a personal note, I watched this film with my 8 year old daughter and 6 year old son. While my son fought to pay attention (not surprising), my daughter was riveted throughout the film. The appearance of `Hermoine' as a teen brought her into focus early on, and then the tale itself kept her eyes and ears wide open. She's asked repeatedly to watch Ballet Shoes again, which of course she has. My son, of course, is back to watching `his thing', Spiderman, Superman and The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers...
Ballet Shoes, in a certain sense, is a long form faerie tale, and I recommend it with no reservations whatsoever as superb family viewing.


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Dreams do come true… Emma Watson (Hermione from Harry Potter) stars in Ballet Shoes, a heartwarming and uplifting film based on the beloved, best-selling novel by Noel Streatfeild and featuring an award-winning cast that includes Emilia Fox, Victoria Wood, Richard Griffiths and Eileen Atkins. "We three Fossils vow to put our name in the history book, because it is ours, and ours alone…" With these words, three orphans, raised as sisters, leave their sheltered lives and embark on an exhilarating journey that takes them to the heights of the stage, screen and sky! DVD EXTRAS: Exclusive 20-Minute Interview with Emma Watson Deleted Scenes, Ballet Shoes Audiobook Excerpt

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Tchaikovsky (2007) Review

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(More customer reviews)Despite the fact that this BBC documentary/drama is extremely watchable, it is also extremely flawed. Great life, great music - how can one go wrong? Well, our guide through Russia and Tchaikovsky's life - conductor Charles Hazelwood - takes one stroll too many, pops up a bit too often with many banal commentaries and if I had to watch him conduct one more time, I probably would have had to put the DVD on pause and take a break. (Come to think of it, in the recreations of Tchaikovsky's life, why are there no scenes of Ed Stoppard as the famous composer conducting? Maybe Hazelwood did not want to share his beloved baton? As to Ed Stoppard, his performance - unlike Tchaikovsky's music - is decidedly one-note.) Anyway, too much Hazelwood, no mention of T's extended family, no info as to his wife's eventual sad fate, no account of T's early suicide attempt (hauntingly captured in Ken Russell's biopic),not a wisper of "The Nutcracker" and no exploration of the mystery of how T actually died. The filmed flashback takes his brother's account as gospel, even though his recollections are historically suspect (as pointed out in this disc's terrific extra). As to the filmed flashbacks, they are extremely reminiscent of scenes from Ken Russell's "The Music Lovers" - as another reviewer here perfectly pointed out. The movie with Richard Chamberlain (despite some historical inaccuracies and compressions) is actually a much better take on Tchaikovsky than is this BBC production. The Russell film had it all: great performances, more insight into the creative process, full exploration of T's tortured marriage and unique relationship with his widowed patron, and a great shot of a living, exhilerated, conducing T in springtime turning in one cut into a frozen statue atop a pedestal in the snow, a cut which speaks volumes about the nature of fame. It is a cut as awesome in its way as the jump from Moonwatcher's skyward flung bone to a spaceship in moon orbit in "2001." Plus...the movie didn't have Hazelwood strolling in and out and hamming it up for the cameras whilst conducting. Now, what I much preferred on the disc in question was the extra! The 1993 Omnibus "Who Killed Tchaikovsky" was much more interesting and illuminating than the more current BBC production, the main feast on this disc. The ending shot at Tchaikovsky's grave in the "extra" is, in itself, worth the price of the DVD. It is absolutely moving and utterly Tchaikovsky-esque and left me shaken. I won't reveal what this closing shot of the extra is, simply know that it, like the scene referred to earlier in the Russell film, silently (wordlessly) speaks volumes through visuals and music. So, in summation, the extra on the disc is better than the main feature and "The Music Lovers" is likewise much better. One final note: in the Hazelwood production, none of the interviewed Russian music students and dancers and singers has anything very interesting or original to say about Tchaikovsky - although in the one scene shot in a bar, you can see that the musicians do love their beer! I got thirsty myself watching that scene! But not thirsty for a cholera-tainted glass of water.

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Conductor Charles HAZLEWOOD travels to Russia in search of the real Tchaikovsky, an elusive figure who's long been painted as a hypersensitive neurotic and whose musical reputation as suffered. Hazlewood brings his insight as a conductor to delve into the secrets of Tchaikovsky's greatness.

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