The Film That You Can't Watch
The film in question is A Midsummer Night's Dream (1967).
So, I was browsing online when I came across these promotional pictures for a ballet from the '60s. It was A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's a ballet by George Balanchine, based on the play by William Shakespeare. The promotion worked so well that I wanted to see the ballet despite it having been about 60 years since then and despite living nowhere near New York.
I went online to see if I could find a taped version of this play. That is something that people do sometimes, just holding a camera up to the stage. I couldn't find it, but I found out that there actually is an officially filmed version of this production. It was filmed in 1966 and "released" in 1967 by a company called Oberon Productions. I've been calling it a "film", it's not a film adaptation or anything. They just filmed the ballet as it was being performed. It is a professional shoot though, so you get multiple camera angles and stuff.
So far as I can tell, the film was never actually released for the public to purchase. I can't find much about the production company Oberon Productions, or Films Obéron. IMDB lists that they only made three films, this being one of them. So then I thought, if I can't just find it uploaded on youtube or on a random website, maybe I can find it through more legitimate means: Libraries.
The larger and more established libraries in big cities tend to have recordings of plays, musicals, ballets etc. in their collection. I figured that maybe a library would even have the film viewable online, through their digital collection or something. Well, I was wrong about the second part, but right about the first. The New York Public Library does have a copy of the film!
It's in the form of a DVD, it has two discs for the two acts. Their call numbers are *MGZIDVD 5-5995 and *MGZIDVD 5-5995. I checked the cast and the production details and yeah, this is the film. We find out from this website that it's 93 minutes. But in order to view it, you would need to physically be at the New York Public Library. Which, to be honest, is what I was expecting. It being available online was a very slim chance. This is generally how these recorded plays work at libraries, you need to book an appointment, and they put it on for you. They have dedicated showing rooms for these, I presume. I don't know, I have never actually used them. The website also notes that it's a "DVD, transferred from 3/4" cassette". It being transferred from a casette means that the video quality is most likely very low. I mean, that's fine! If it's the best version that I can watch, I'll watch it! I don't even actually mind that much. But in either case, I do not have any plans to go to New York anytime soon. And if I did, I'd probably do other touristic things and not sit and watch a DVD for 93 minutes. I'd be better off seeing an actual ballet.
Upon further research, I found out that the British Film Institute also has a copy of the film. And their website lists it as being the actual 35mm film master! Which means this is the highest quality that the film exists in! It's 5 reels of film. It says they have some little scratches, and some heavy marks at certain points. Now, the problem with viewing this one is that it's considered a "preserved film" and there is restricted access to it. There are some films that the BFI owns that you can just walk in and watch, and those are clearly marked. For this film, I presume I would need to apply for a "research viewing service." You send in an application form, they read your application and give you an appointment about 15 days out. The application form asks you what your position is, whether you're working at a university or are a student... I am a university student, currently... Studying a subject that has absolutely nothing to do with film... I do wonder whether that would actually work. I just send in my application being fully honest, not even acknowledging the lack of relevancy of my subject.
There's another problem. As I understand it, you are supposed to work te video equipment on your own. They don't have a person come and put it on for you or operate the machine for you. Since this is a film, they give you a Steenbeck table viewer. One of these:
I do not know how to operate them. I, in fact, did not know about their existence before looking into this film. They seem cool, though.
So, now what? Well, there is this guy called John Clifford. He was a choreographer for the New York City Ballet and worked closely with Balanchine. He also has a YouTube channel. Like I said before, the film isn't uploaded anywhere, in full. But John Clifford has clips from the film up on his channel. They are in casette quality, but that's alright. They are the only viewable portions from the film that we have.
There is also another taping, from 1986, and that one is in full. But it's not the same! I'm sure these ballerinas did just as good of a job, but the costumes aren't the same, and the stage design isn't the same, and the lighting isn't the same. They don't even have a real bird!
1966 (bird) 1986 (no bird)
In general the 1966 version seems to have a much higher budget and a much better realized stage and higher quality environments. That was what wowed me about the promotional images in the first place. They had an actual waterfall on the stage with real water flowing!What the 1986 version does give us is the structure. We can take it as a reference and figure out what goes where when looking at the 1966 clips, and what is missing. As we found out, the film is 93 minutes long. The clips that we have total up to 51 minutes and 24 seconds. So, we have about 42 minutes missing.
The 1986 version has the first chapter of the ballet, which we don't have the 1966 footage for. It makes up about the first 13 minutes of the ballet. Oberon and Puck dance with bugs. Helena comes in crying. Oberon tries to steal the child, Titania doesn't let him. Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius, and Helena appear before the Duke and make a whole ruckus. The others leave, Helena is left crying, and the bugs try to cheer her up.
The next chapter we DO have from 1966! Titania wakes up from inside her scallop shell, releasing a live dove. She then dances with a character called "Titania's Cavalier". The fairies of the forest accompany them. Puck appears at two points and tries to steal the child, but the fairies shoo him away. It is a wonderful scene to watch. Very whimsical. I like it a lot!
We do NOT have the next scene. It's a scene that lasts for about 8 minutes, where Titania dances with her fairies and then goes back to sleep in her scallop.
Then we have another scene that we DO have. Hermia dances in the forest sadly, looking for Lysander (who is under the spell of the flower).
Another scene that we do NOT have, with the mechanicals. They're a bunch of drunks who are putting together a play within the play. Puck comes in and beats them up and curses the character Bottom to give him a donkey's head. He then finds Titania's scallop, where she's sleeping. He puts the flower's spell on Titania. This one is about 3 minutes long
Then, another scene that we DO have. Titania wakes up and falls in love with the donkey-headed Bottom due to the spell. They dance together. Bottom dances very clumsily. It's kinda cute!
Sadly, this is the last scene from Act I that we have. There is a huge, 20 minute chunk after this, making up the ending of Act I and basically the end of the story, that is missing.
I did see a production of Shakespeare's play a couple years back, though I don't remember it too well. As I understand it, Act I of this ballet makes up the entirety of the story of the original play. There is an Act II which is completely original to the ballet, which takes place during the weddings of the lovers, and Hippolyta and Theseus.
Act II lasts for about 30 minutes, of which we have 18 minutes of footage from the film. The footage is from the middle of the act, so we don't have the first 6 minutes and last 6 minutes. I'd say the ending is interesting, with Oberon and Titania dancing together, and then Puck dances with the bugs and closes it out.
So, that's it. That's the ballet, and this is all we have of it. Will it ever be released in full? Most likely not. I've been calling the scenes "missing" which is not really true. We literally know where exactly they are, they're just not widely available. It's NOT "lost media" but it's difficult to reach. I don't think there is much interest for this film, probably due to the fact that there isn't much information about it either. Not many people know or care about it. Who knows who even owns the rights to it? Is Oberon Productions still in existence? Did it get bought out or absorbed into another company? Would anyone be interested in restoring this film and making it widely available? I hope! But I don't expect! So we'll just have to admire the clips of it that we do have.
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What coincidence; I was thinking about these pictures/this play just the other day, and then I find this! Thank you for compiling everything.
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading! I'm glad it was useful :)
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