Babel by Sidi Larbi Charkaoui

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Damien Jalet >
Babel (words) (2011)

Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina

Having read Anna Karenina, and watched several cinematic versions of the book, I was not ready to be impressed by the recent version of Anna Karenina.
Several friends had in fact told me how disappointed they had been by the adaptation, after having read the book. Despite the film cutting out quite a large chunk of the story, and reducing characters such as Alexei Karenin to a shallow caricature, and Vronski to a pretty boy with a ridiculous hairdo and a curly moustache, it has brought the story of Anna Karenina back to life in a completely new and inspired way. This is mainly thanks to the wonderful choreographer, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Originally Belgian (a bit of national pride there) and Moroccan, Sidi was selected to choreograph the film for his sense of originality, although he previously did not know much about waltz and 19th century dancing.
He admitted feeling quite nervous about the request, as he felt he knew little about the period. However, when he found out that the whole set was to be filmed on a theatre stage, he felt immediately comfortable and back in control, having worked with theatre productions quite a lot. The result is a beautifully choreagraphed film, rather than a ballet-like film (which was the original intent). In the notorious bal scene, where Vronksi chooses to dance with the older Anna, rather than the young Kitty, Sidi decided to focus on the movement of the hands, which are extremely intricate and delicate in this scene. “I felt, for filming purposes, it would be much more beautiful if Anna and Vronsky’s arms had just as complicated a choreography as their legs, which you don’t see much of anyway,” he adds. Neither of the protagonists being trained dancers, Sidi nonetheless described the process as very interesting. Apart from the beautiful dancing (waltz and almost tango-like at times), the set is absolutely stunning, mixing theatre sets with elaborate ballroom scenes. I could also dedicate a whole paragraph to the incredible costumes, but you can see this for yourselves. I leave you with one of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui recent dance productions, Babel. Strange but fascinating: