The Company
With Neve Campbell, Malcolm McDowell, James Franco.
US, 2003, 35mm, color, 112 min.
Though Neve Campbell’s character Ry is the central protagonist, she frequently dissolves into the undulating masses of the Joffrey Ballet dance company as one of many dancers, whose lives each revolve around an implicitly deep dedication to their art. Altman downplays all of the characters’ dramas to the point that the story’s rises and falls appear to cycle through and whirl around like the meticulously choreographed bodies on stage. Apparently imitating the actual longtime director of the Joffrey, Malcolm McDowell’s Mr. A also echoes Altman, as he derives inspiration from each performer, makes things up as he goes along, and gives open-ended and contradictory direction in order to wrest something interesting out of his dancers. Emphasizing the greater work of art over the individual lives—sometimes to a shockingly cool extent—both the film and the Joffrey save the expression of passion and pain for that fleeting, spotlit moment before an audience.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson
Vincent & Theo
Fool for Love
Prêt-à-porter
California Split
Thieves Like Us
A Perfect Couple
A Prairie Home Companion
O.C. and Stiggs
That Cold Day in the Park
Corn's-A-Poppin'
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
The Gingerbread Man
Dr. T and the Women
Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
