Nicolas Le Riche

The true story of Elle France editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who, in 1995 at the age of 43, suffered a stroke that paralyzed his entire body, except his left eye. Using that eye to blink out his memoir, Bauby eloquently described the aspects of his interior world, from the psychological torment of being trapped inside his body to his imagined stories from lands he'd only visited in his mind.

Once upon a time there was a kingdom where dancing was forbidden by a tyrant king. Defying the edict of her father, the Princess Aurore continues to dance, for the amusement of herself and brother, Solal. With the kingdom virtually bankrupt, the King has no choice but to marry his daughter to a wealthy prince. As preparations are made for a ball that will set the seal on the marriage, the princess discovers that she is in love.

A film by Frederick Wiseman following the ins and outs of 7 ballets by the Paris Opera Ballet.

Young and extremely talented dancer Yulya Olshanskaya from a small mining town draws a “happy ticket”: she is noticed by a former ballet dancer Pototsky and he promises her a future of great ballerina, worthy of the main stage of the country. However, in order to become a diamond, anyone, even the most outstanding brilliant, needs to be cut, and the way to the legendary stage of The Bolshoi Theatre for Yulya lies through the walls of the ballet school, where the more capricious teacher Galina Mikhailovna Beletskaya takes custody of the rebellious provincial. Turning into a prima will require incredible self-denial, and Yulya herself will have to make sure that the big ballet is not only the whiteness of the packs, the gold of the boxes and the slip of silk ribbons. But no obstacles will stop the one who has the big dream.

Roland Petit’s ballet Carmen was a smash hit at its premiere at London’s Prince’s Theatre in 1949. Structured in five scenes, the work reimagines the classic opera, using an innovative mixture of modern and classical ballet, mime, and Spanish-style movement to create a contemporary interpretation of Bizet’s Romantic masterpiece. In this 2005 production at the Palais Garnier, Clairemaire Osta (Carmen), Nicolas Le Riche (Don José), and Guillaume Charlot (Escamillo) star, framed by Antoni Clavé’s vibrant decor and costumes. Experience this landmark ballet in a striking 21st-century revival!

Nicolas Le Riche and Marie-Agnès Gillot star in the legendary Roland Petit and Jean Cocteau's pioneering one-act ballet Le Jeune homme et la Mort. This 2005 production at the Opéra de Paris stays true to Petit’s original scenic and choreographic conception, from the dark, dingy apartment of the Young Man to the disturbing yellow dress and jet-black coiffe of the villainess. A mesmerizing drama in dance as virtuosic as it is unsettling!

Raymonda is an emotional three-act ballet with music by Alexandre Glazunov. Premiered at the Mariinsky Theater in 1898 featuring choreography by Marius Petipa, the ballet is performed here with Rudolf Nureyev's adapted choreography for his 2008 production at the Opéra de Paris, starring the great Marie-Agnès Gillot, José Martinez, and Nicolas Le Riche.

Giselle, the Romantic ballet par excellence! Relive the story of a young country girl's innocent love for the Duke Albrecht. When she learns that he is already engaged to marry a princess, Giselle suffers violent hallucinations and then dies. In vengeance, the Queen of the Wilis—the ghosts of young girls who die before their time—condemns Albrecht to dance until he dies of exhaustion...

Sergei Eisenstein's grand unfinished 1940s-50s film trilogy 'Ivan the Terrible' had elaborate incidental music by Sergei Prokofiev. In 1975 Yuri Grigorovich, for thirty years the chief choreographer of Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet, made a ballet on the same subject and used a conflation of Prokofiev's music from the film. It was quickly taken up by ballet companies the world over. This DVD is a film of a performance recorded live at the Opéra National de Paris in December 2003 and featuring three premier dancers of that company in the solo roles of Ivan, Anastasia and Kurbsky. The stage is filled at times with as many as eighty dancers as boyars, oprichniks (Ivan's personal police, assassins actually), maidens from whom Ivan picks his bride, and 'the Russian people.'

In 2008, the Opéra national de Paris honored the legendary Jerome Robbins. Though the general public may remember him primarily for his staging and choreography of Bernstein’s West Side Story, Robbins was also a brilliant ballet choreographer. In this production, we discover three of his works of classical ballet—En sol, In the Night, and The Concert—paired with Benjamin Millepied’s Triade.

Inspired by Goethe's early romantic play Clavigo, Roland Petit's ballet recounts the agonies of a weak-willed lover torn between the contradictory promptings of his heart and his evil spirit, which urges him to serve his own interests and forsake true love in favor of a life of debauchery. Recorded live at the Opera National de Paris, Palais Garnier, October 1999.

Billie and Louis have the good fortune of loving each other passionately and of having a family. But then one day terrible news turns their existence and that of their friends' upside down. Marie, a famous actress who is Billie's friend and confidant, redoubles her determination to give life, while Alice, her nurse, fighting for freedom, maintains that life 'is here and now and in the moment.' A film about love, hope, and the conviction that the force of life, despite the toughest tests, will always gain the upper hand.