Mao's Last Dancer

This is a beautiful, romantic film that you'll particularly enjoy if you appreciate ballet - the dance scenes are spectacular. Based on the autobiography of Li Cunxin, who grew up in a peasant family in China, was selected at age 11 to train as a ballet dancer in Beijing, and defected to the US in 1981 after spending the summer as a student with the Houston Ballet Company. He went on to become one of their principal dancers and later joined a ballet company in Australia. The film moves between the stories of his early life in China and his time in the US, including the very tense situation of his defection. The role of Li Cunxin is played by Chi Cao, a wonderful dancer who trained in both Beijing and the Royal Ballet School in England; he's currently principal dancer with the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Bruce Greenwood is excellent in the role of Ben Stevenson, who was artistic director in Houston and responsible for Li Cunxin being in the US in the first place. The film is directed by Australian Bruce Berseford, well known for a number of excellent films including Tender Mercies and Driving Miss Daisy.

Youssou N'Dour: I bring what I love

I'm still mystified by the fact that until I watched this film, as far as I can remember I had never before heard Senegalese super-star singer Youssou N'Dour, despite the fact that I've been listening to "world music" for many years. This documentary includes many clips of him singing at various concerts and recording sessions, and I predict that even if you've never been a fan of African or any other international music before, you won't be able to watch this film without at least smiling and possibly being compelled to get up and dance. I plan to now purchase one of his albums! He has been a well-known, popular singer in Senegal for over 30 years, and then in 2005 he released the controversial album "Egypt", which includes musicians from Egypt and is spiritual in nature, all the songs having themes from his Sufi-Muslim religion, of which he's a devout follower. As well as including clips from his early life and music, the film follows the controversy generated mainly by his fellow countrymen because of the feeling it was inappropriate to so popularize their religion in music. It also includes the album's wildly successful concert tour in Europe and North America, ending in his winning a Grammy for "Egypt". I loved this film and was completely taken in by the music and Youssou N'Dour's amazing voice and charismatic presence. I've read some critical reviews of it as being mainly for the purpose self-promotion, but that's not how it seemed to me.

The September Issue

Those of you who read my review of Valentino: The last emperor in my 2009 Film Reviews document will know that I by no means consider myself to be a fashionista, but as with that film, I found this documentary about the amazing and lengthy process to create and publish Vogue magazine's huge September issue completely fascinating. I like nice clothes and enjoy seeing people who are smartly dressed, but I watch this level of involvement in high-end fashion with a combination of admiration and revulsion. From my point of view it's actually a completely unnecessary and disgustingly extravagant activity, plus many of the dresses are really unwearable by normal people, yet in watching this film I could kind of see the designers, editors, photographers, etc., as purely creative artists rather than wondering how they could justify the expense and lives devoted to this kind of fashion. The film revolves mainly around Anna Wintour, who has run Vogue for many years and has the last word on everything, and Grace Coddington, Vogue's Creative Director also for many years. It's fascinating to see their very different personalities, how they often seem to clash and yet manage to come out with their product every month. It also demonstrates, to me at least, that what's considered beautiful in fashion or photographs is purely a matter of personal taste of the moment, rather than any absolute truth of beauty.