The Sorcerer's Apprentice

1955

Unknown

6
IMDb Rating 6.4/10 10 234 234

ballet

Plot summary

Ballet performed to Dukas' "The Sorceror's Apprentice".

Director

Michael Powell Photo
Michael Powell

Top cast

Sonia Arova Photo
Sonia Arova as Solo Dancer
Max Aust Photo
Max Aust as The Sorceror
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
124.41 MB
1280*544
English 2.0
U
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
12 hr 13 min
Seeds 1
231.08 MB
1920*816
English 2.0
U
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
12 hr 13 min
Seeds 3

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by CinemaSerf 7 / 10

I really quite enjoyed this short ballet centred

I really quite enjoyed this short ballet centred around the water-gathering scenes from Goethe's story. The elegant and characterful Sonia Arova is the Prima Ballerina who delivers a classy and stylish performance - I could swear narrated by Joan Collins - as the youngster takes her wand when her master is away, and commands the broom to fetch her water. This all goes to plan, but she doesn't know how to make it stop. Indeed, her one moment of inspiration only doubles her problem. Like so many of Michael Powell's films, this depends a great deal on the marvellously creative set design - and here Hein Heckroth manages to marry the best in intricate stagecraft with the mischievous Braunfels score. The version I saw yesterday is clearly a shortened version of the original - the editing isn't always the most natural, but it's still a glorious short adaptation of the tale. I'm not especially well educated in ballet - but if you are looking for an introduction via cinema, this is certainly worth a watch for ten minutes.
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Reviewed by JohnHowardReid 7 / 10

One for fans of dancer, Sonia Arova!

Director: MICHAEL POWELL. Photographed in CinemaScope and Technicolor. Production designer: Hein Heckroth. Music by Sergei Prokofiev, played by the Hamburg State Opera Orchestra. Dancer: Sonia Arova.Copyright 1955 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. U.K. release: September 1955. 1,208 feet. 13 minutes. (The original length was no less than thirty minutes).COMMENT: The first ballet short in CinemaScope, the well-known story of the sorcerer's apprentice (used by Walt Disney as a Mickey Mouse vehicle in "Fantasia") would seem ideal for the talents of Michael Powell, here making a return to the screen. (His preceding film was the balletic "The Tales of Hoffman" in 1951). Rather unimaginatively choreographed and set, this is nevertheless a fascinating application of ballet to CinemaScope. As with an orchestral concert, the width of the screen seems perfect.A POSTSCRIPT: The unimaginative settings complained of above were not due to any lack of talent on the part of ace designer Hein Heckroth. Rather the reverse. The problem lay in the early CinemaScope lenses with their short depth of field. In order to overcome these problems with focus, it was decided to use extremely shallow sets. That the end result is rather flat was due to simple necessity. Or would audiences rather either the dancers, the backgrounds — or both — were out of focus?
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