“The Paris Opera,” the new documentary by Jean-Stéphane Bron, masterfully dives into the lyrical backstage.
We see segments of 5 to 10 minutes on singers. There are fleeting shots of girls washing costumes, wigs; that’s what I would have liked to see.
We hear incredible lines. We see (Stéphane) Lissner (director of theatrical and opera stages in France) asking for (Benjamin) Millepied’s resignation over the phone.
The director talks at one point about ticket prices, then we find ourselves at a moment when temporary performers are on strike…
There are moving moments, like when they reference the Bataclan. There are also slightly ‘celebrity’ moments.
The camera always observes the operations of this extremely hierarchical institution from behind the scenes, where 1,600 people work tirelessly toward a single goal: the curtain rising.
The Swiss director wanted to show the society that is the opera, two houses, a huge entity to manage. The show that interests him is not on stage, but backstage: he films all his protagonists, whether they are cleaning staff or leading figures in the art of opera.
This film lifts the curtain on this lyrical institution through a human perspective. That’s its greatest quality.
