Pas de deux (film)

Last updated
Pas de deux
Directed by Norman McLaren
Starring
Cinematography Jacques Fogel
Distributed by National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
Release date
  • 1968 (1968)
Running time
13 minutes
CountryCanada
Budget$15,000 [1]

Pas de deux (released as Duo in the United States) is a 1968 short dance film by Norman McLaren, produced by the National Film Board of Canada. [2]

Contents

Production

Pas de deux is choreographed to Romanian pan pipe music by Ludmilla Chiriaeff. [3] Ballerina Margaret Mercier dances by herself (or rather, with images of herself), before being joined by Vincent Warren to perform the pas de deux of the title. [4]

It was filmed in a studio where the walls and floor were painted black. Lighting was from the sides, so only the dancers' silhouettes appear, and their images are repeatedly multiplied 10 times. [5]

The film was photographed on high contrast black and white 35mm Kodak stock, [6] with optical, step-and-repeat printing, for a sensuous and almost stroboscopic appearance.

Awards

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References

  1. Evans 1991, p. 157.
  2. "Pas de deux". onf-nfb.gc.ca. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  3. Melnyk, George (2004). One Hundred Years of Canadian Cinema. University of Toronto Press. p. 72. ISBN   978-0-8020-8444-6.
  4. 1 2 Alain, Dubeau (2001). Guide to the Cinema(s) of Canada. Greenwood Press. p. 168. ISBN   978-0-313-29931-5.
  5. Classical ballet transforms into a dance of the surreal in this duet from 1968|Aeon
  6. CanadARThistories
  7. 1969|Oscars.org

Works cited