THIS WEEK’S FEATURED FILM (Dec. 31-February 29): "Danse!”

WATCH THE TRAILER (CLICK IMAGE ABOVE FOR THE FULL MOVIE)

September 9, 2012: After months of preparation, 370 amateur dancers participated in the La Biennale de la Danse parade in the choreography "Pluie de Danses" directed by Bouba Landrille Tchouda.

9 years later, Danse! tell about this wonderful human adventure through the eyes of those who lived it.

Runtime: 3 hours, 24 minutes, 06 seconds
Best Viewed: Cinema Presentation

Director Biography - Godefroy de Maupeou
Born of an architect father and an engraver-sculptor mother, Godefroy de Maupeou grew up in the artistic world and was passionate from a very young age for image, cinema and music. He studied at the E.N.S.A.D. in the cinema section. Starting from Super 8 to arrive at 4K, he directed numerous commissioned and fictional films for which he wrote, composed, shot and edited his films himself. Danse! is his second feature film. The first, Le Jardin des Cimes, an enclave at altitude, was selected in many festivals and received prizes including best cinematography (BIMIFF), excellence original music (Death of Field International Film festival), special mention (Madras Independent Film festival)

Director Statement
In 2012, I saw an announcement of Château Rouge, a theater in Annemasse, looking for people to film the participation of amateur dancers in the Défilé de la Biennale de la Danse.

I answered without really knowing what I was going to film, if it would be just a few images or more. I had a choice, but from the first day of shooting a rehearsal, it became obvious to me that it would be all I could until the Parade.

I didn't know much about Dance. Filming is transcribing the movement and that of the dancers was simply fascinating.

For nine months, I shot more than 300 hours of rushes.

I regularly edited small films, the Stolen Moments that were published as they were made, but there came a time when it was no longer possible as the mass of images was important and my desire to do something other than a simple assembly of plans.

I then thought that I could later make a feature film to tell this story. For several reasons this was not possible in 2012.

Why finally do it then in 2019

Because over the years, this adventure had been so intense emotionally for the participants that in 2019, they were still talking. The link created was strong.

- Because when I watched the rushes, I was still fascinated by the beauty of this story and I thought it couldn't stay sleeping in the hard drives.

- Finally because they had trusted me by letting me film everything I wanted and as I wanted. They considered me one of theirs (I even had a costume for the Parade). Somewhere, I had to the participants to go to the end of this project as they had been to the end of theirs. So I started shooting in 2019.

The principle was as follows:

place the dancers in their rehearsal place, show them images they had never seen by filming their reactions and then discuss with them their feelings.

- for the supervisors, whose job it was, it was a question of interviewing them more classically.

- insert the Stolen Moments that were an integral part of this adventure and that become a kind of recreation throughout Danse!. Their 16/9th format is respected so the film is in 4K DCI. COVID has arrived and it has become impossible to film all groups for obvious health reasons. Despite everything, the film reflects the initial idea well. There remained the problem of confronting images shot in 2012 in intertwined HD with 4K DCI images from 2019 to 2021.

This is where I discovered Topaz VAIE, which allows you to recalculate old images in the desired resolution. The software was a beginner and, as a beta tester, I saw it evolve at full speed, so that as it evolved, I regularly recalculated the mounted plans. Some unusable ones suddenly became usable.

The current quality is without comparison with that of 2019, I relaunched in the spring of 2023 an ultimate recalculation of all the plans to have the final version of the film, the one you can now watch.

Credits:
Completion Date: September 1, 2023
Country of Origin: France
Country of Filming: France
Language: French
Shooting Format: 4K DCI
Aspect Ratio: 17:9