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(More customer reviews)Erik Bruhn and Carla Fracci were one of the most famous dance partnerships, and it's our good fortune that one of their "trademarks," Giselle, was preserved for posterity. (I mean, imagine how cool it would have been to have a video of Nijinsky and Karsavina dancing together.)
Both Bruhn and Fracci are better in the first act than the second. Fracci's radiance and beauty make her an enchanting village lass. You can see why Albrecht would fall in love. Plus, this is one Giselle who is visibly infatuated with Albrecht. Fracci is wonderful at conveying the almost feverish intensity of her love, from the way she stares at him, slack-jawed, to the way she blows him kisses in the Spessivtseva variation. They are a believable couple both in lust and in love. And I love the little touches Fracci puts in her mad scene. Instead of letting her hair fall down completely (like most Giselles) Fracci simply loosens one strand of hair from her bun. As she runs around the stage the bun becomes messier and messier. There are also real tears flowing from her beautiful face. Erik Bruhn has a stiff, aristocratic bearing that's also very appropriate for this role.
Unfortunately, I dont think Fracci and Bruhn are as great in the second "Wili" act. The second act is supposed to be about Albrecht's redemption. Bruhn doesn't show much in the way of remorse -- he's still the stiff noble of Act 1. I also own a Giselle with Rudolf Nureyev as Albrecht and with Nureyev you can see the remorse and ardor. The second act also exposes some flaws in Fracci's technique. At the start of the pas de deux one notices that her developpe is not very solid, for one. Her balances are a bit shaky. Fracci's Giselle in Act 2 is very different from her portrayal in Act 1. Fracci chooses to make her somewhat cold and remote, with a ghostly pale-powdered face and stern expression. Over time, I've come to accept this sterner, angrier interpretation of Giselle in the second act and even prefer it. Fracci is less skilled at the exposed developpes of the second act as she is in the little hops and entrechats. She and Bruhn choose not to do several now standard lifts between Giselle and Albrecht.
The thing about this film that *really* bugs me though is the way it was directed. The director Hugo Nieberling decided to be "cute" and shoot the movie somewhat like a music video. Tilted angle shots, weird cut-aways from the dancers to a basket of grapes, and a strange, long-take fixation on the backsides of some horses. It gave me a headache. I thought this nonsense would end in Act 2, but nope. Nieberling cuts away from the dancing of Giselle, Albrecht, Hilarion, and the Wilis to shoot their *reflections* in a pond.
Unfortunately, Giselle seems to be like Odette/Odile in that ballerinas, even the greatest ones, fall into the "either/or" category. Natalia Makarova, for instance, is hauntingly beautiful in Act 2, but she lacks the wholesome joie de vivre to be entirely convincing in Act 1.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Adam - Giselle / Carla Fracci, Erik Bruhn, John Lanchbery, American Ballet Theatre (1968)
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