Ron Gilbert

Crazy Horse ,an erotic documentary on the Parisian Cabaret

by Ron Gilbert

All I keep hearing on my mind’s sound track when I watched this documentary by talented director Frederick Wiseman , were the lyrics “you make me crazy”.
Years ago I had the good fortune to visit the Landmark Le Crazy Horse cabaret in Paris and so my memories were still intact. This film is a very inside view of the workings of this famed cabaret where all these beautiful dancers are more than just sexy but classy with no tattoos in sight. and the best sexy dancing in the world.
French choreographer Philippe Decouflé revamped the nude show a couple years ago and only the brilliant award winning director Wiseman could have created done this with his cinematographer John Davey capturing every move, and what really happens backstage with the creative process. and artistic differences.
The Film opens with shadow hand puppets and then we slip into the dressing room of some of the performers, a quick cut to some dance numbers which hooks you right in and you know that your eyes are in for a rare treat.
Le Crazy Horse has prided itself as “the best nude dancing in the world” since 1951 and is worlds apart from the average strip club
A new show called “DESIRS” is being staged and we see the day-to-day existence and the creative process behind the curtain and often in front of it As the club's costume designer explains, the show is designed "to make the men in the audience crazy," and while Wiseman certainly basks in the artful deployment of naked flesh even isolating in one sequence the performers' buttocks. This is pretty cool coming from an 82 year old director.This erotic revue is composed of songs and sequences that blend traits of old-fashioned burlesque, Bob Fosse and Cirque du Soleil, designed not only for the enjoyment of men, but also couples.
We see a single dancer sliding seductively on a couch to the tune of Antony and the Johnsons' "Man Is the Baby" or a group number in which a row of women in orange wigs wiggle while a projector spreads blue polka dots across their bodies, the performances are delirious mix of ballet, performance art, and striptease.
There have been dance films prior to this documentary but this films goes way beyond the dance numbers and what would any French film be without champagne and beautiful girls laughing and having fun.
http://vimeo.com/33371521
Film opens February 3 at the Landmark’s Nuart theatre in Los Angeles