Bolero movie storyline. Paris, the Roaring 20s, the golden age of the 20th century… Choreographer Ida Rubinstein chooses Maurice Ravel for the best selection of the new ballet show she is planning. Rubinstein wants something bold and passionate: “Sensual! Fascinating! Erotic!”
He describes his desire as follows: Ravel, who is loved and accepted as France’s most respected living actors, realizes with horror that he cannot write anything new despite this order. The actors, who relived their memories, faced their old loves and failures, close friendships, and military service during the First World War, return from their journey in the sea of memories with their greatest success, the famous Boléro. This new biopic of Anne Fontaine, brilliantly brought to the big screen and premiering at the Rotterdam Film Festival, is as colorful and passionate as the 2019 Coco avant Chanel from the beginnings of the famous fashion.
In the two decades between the First and Second World War, Maurice Ravel was feted as France’s greatest living composer. Like Debussy, he was aligned with the Impressionists – a term they both loathed. His work also melded modernism, baroque and neoclassicism, with later compositions also embracing jazz.
About üne Film
For all his range, Ravel is best-known for his 1928 composition Boléro, whose conception lies at the heart of Anne Fontaine’s elegant film. It weaves Ravel’s working process and life through his encounters with three women: the Russian dancer Ida Rubinstein, whose commission led to the music’s creation; his patron Misia Sert, and his pianist friend Marguerite Long. The past bleeds into the present through restrained flashbacks, which add depth to this consummate portrait of a skilled, sensitive artist.
Fontaine is no stranger to the biopic, her Coco avant Chanel (2009) was a colourful portrait of the fashion designer and iconoclast. Based on acclaimed French musicologist and journalist Marcel Marnat’s admired 1986 monograph Maurice Ravel, Fontaine’s drama captures the composer’s life with passion, intelligence and wit, and is aided in no small part by Raphaël Personnaz as Ravel, with excellent support from Jeanne Balibar, Doria Tillier and Emmanuelle Devos.
Boléro (2024)
Directed by: Anne Fontaine
Starring: Raphaël Personnaz, Doria Tillier, Jeanne Balibar, Vincent Perez, Emmanuelle Devos, Sophie Guillemin, Alexandre Tharaud, Florence Ben Sadoun, Mélodie Adda, Katia Tchenko
Screenplay by: Anne Fontaine, Marcel Marnat
Production Design by: Riton Dupire-Clément
Cinematography by: Christophe Beaucarne
Film Editing by: Thibaut Damade
Costume Design by: Luca Costigliolo, Tiziano Musetti, Anaïs Romand
Art Direction by: Roxane Adelet, Pauline Carrat, Julie Castelain
Music by: Bruno Coulais
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: SND Films (France)
Release Date: March 6, 2024
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