Jirí Kylián's long and distinguished career as choreographer and artistic director of the Nederlands Dans Theater is recognized in this second Arthaus release of his work, which like the first (Nederlands Dans Theater Celebrates Jirí Kylián, reviewed in VL-3/08) also features three of his creations. Two are short telefilms dating from the 1980s, both performed on stage and set to the music of Claude Debussy. “La cathédrale engloutie” features two pairs of dancers performing wildly on a beach against the sound of rushing waves, until Debussy's piano piece brings them into a more reflective—even worshipful—attitude. “Silent Cries,” set to the famous “Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune,” is a solo in which a female dancer struggles to escape confinement from a glass box—a metaphor for self-discovery and liberation. The most recent item is a 2006 film made in collaboration with director Boris Pavel Conen, which recasts the Carmen story as a wildly slapstick tragicomedy involving four scraggly vagrants who cobble together cars from scrap metal they find near an abandoned mine, backed by an adaptation of melodies from Bizet's opera that lend the music a brittle, metallic sound. Taken together, the three pieces exhibit both Kylián's imaginative power and his range, as well as the extraordinary virtuoso demands that his choreography places on performers. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)
Jirí Kylián's Car Men
(2006) 61 min. DVD: $32.98 (booklet included). Arthaus Musik (dist. by Naxos of America). ISBN: 978-3-939873-54-9. Volume 23, Issue 5
Jirí Kylián's Car Men
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