Giselle: The Movie

The Royal New Zealand Ballet stages the classic ballet, while the two lead dancers fall in love.

Giselle is a new NZ feature dance movie on DVD, made in collaboration with the Royal New Zealand Ballet and acclaimed director Toa Fraser (No. 2, Dean Spanley). Featuring a score by the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra, the film departs occasionally from the hauntingly evocative stage settings and places the lovers within a real-world frame in New York & Shanghai.

GISELLE is acclaimed director Toa Fraser's inter­pretation of the Royal New Zealand Ballet's
production of Giselle. The classic story of love, erotism and death has been reinterpreted by Fraser to include both the on stage performance of the ballet, and an off-stage romance – interwoven with the ballet – that tells of two itinerant dancers, separated by time, distance and their abiding love for each other.

Critic Reviews:

• " The Royal New Zealand Ballet’s production of “Giselle” is considered by many dance enthusiasts as one of the best and most challenging interpretations of the ballet and Toa Fraser’s dance movie Giselle beautifully captures the performance in grand style. Mixing behind the scenes footage of the dancers practicing and preparing for their role, Fraser’s movie also captures the ballet in, from what I can tell in my limited knowledge of the performance, full. The dancers are wonderful but none are more impressive than Qi Huan whose power and stamina are evident in every scene. He’s spectacular and magnetic and I found myself completely drawn to him in every number and hoping for his return when he wasn’t on screen (which doesn’t happen often). Though Giselle doesn’t offer much in the way of insight into the ballet, fans of dance will not be disappointed by Fraser’s film which brings “Giselle” to the masses. " – Row 3 USA

• “ Leon Narbey's cine­matography beautifully captures the details you might not see from theatre seats, portraying the action from high angles, or intimate close-ups, making the most of the dancers' acting skills, as well as bringing every important twitch of the legs into relief. " – NZ Herald

• " IMPRESSIONISTIC SCENES OF backstage and city scenes of a girl in a cafe and a man dancing on a rooftop bookend and beautifully punctuate what is a highly traditional staging of Giselle. For anyone who saw the avant-garde production at Ballet B.C. earlier this spring, here is the New Zealand Royal Ballet’s real, frothy-tutu’d classic. Auburn-haired Gillian Murphy makes for a lithe, passionate lead. But it’s Qi Huan’s Albrecht who almost literally looks like he’ll get danced to death; just wait till you see the showstopping scissoring sautés the Willis put him through. " – Georgia Straight, Canada