Swan Song

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Swan Song

Released Jul 26, 2024

1h 40m

Documentary

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86%

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21 Reviews

80%

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Fewer than 50 Ratings

An immersive, behind-the-scenes look at one of the world's leading ballet companies as it mounts a new production of Swan Lake. Ballet icon Karen Kain, on the eve of her retirement, directs the National Ballet of Canada. The film weaves together intimate scenes of the creative process and the dancers' personal lives.

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Kevin Maher

Times (UK)

Ballet enthusiasts will, presumably, find plenty of eye candy in this whoppingly unremarkable backstage documentary about eight busy weeks of preparation before the National Ballet of Canada’s production of Swan Lake in 2022.

Rated: 2/5

Aug 16, 2024

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Leslie Felperin

Guardian

McMullan has a light touch with these deeper themes, and edits together the dance sequences seamlessly, tweaking the music in places to give the film an extra modernity.

Rated: 3/5

Aug 12, 2024

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Lisa Kennedy

Variety

Director Chelsea McMullan, along with co-writer and producer Sean O’Neill, have crafted a work that echoes the artform’s grace and rigor, physical demands and details.

Aug 12, 2024

Full Review

Hayley Croke

Loud and Clear Reviews

What McMullan is able to do through their filming style is nothing short of revolutionary. We as the audience become a part of the Swan Lake corps. With every breath, every grunt and every bead of sweat captured.

Rated: 4.5/5

Oct 25, 2024

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Eileen G'Sell

Hyperallergic

The dancers we grow to know (and love) in Swan Song are sweating, swearing, soaring women, at odds with conceptions of purity and frailness.

Oct 17, 2024

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Victoria Luxford

City AM

Swan Song does a terrific job of showing the grittier side of ballet, something still dismissed by many as too gentile and cosseted. It may not inspire anyone to pirouette, but you leave the film with a new respect for what the dancers go through.

Rated: 3/5

Aug 21, 2024

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Tanya M

Watched the original mini-series on CBC Gem. Very moving and honest documentary about the price paid by young artists, in this case ballet, in societies whose governments do not value and sufficiently support them. Get a job in Europe, girls! Lots of scenes of Canada's sweetheart, Karen Kain, keeping the whole thing going, and the magnificent new performing arts hall in Toronto.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

07/31/24

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Chelsea McMullan

Director

Karen Kain

Self

Sean O'Neill

Screenwriter

Chelsea McMullan

Screenwriter

Sean O'Neill

Producer

Christina Carvalho

Producer

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Synopsis

An immersive, behind-the-scenes look at one of the world's leading ballet companies as it mounts a new production of Swan Lake. Ballet icon Karen Kain, on the eve of her retirement, directs the National Ballet of Canada. The film weaves together intimate scenes of the creative process and the dancers' personal lives.

Director: Chelsea McMullan
Producer: Sean O'Neill, Christina Carvalho
Screenwriter: Sean O'Neill, Chelsea McMullan
Distributor: Greenwich Entertainment
Production Co: Quiet Ghost, Dogwoof, Mercury Films Inc., Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Visitor Media
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 26, 2024, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jul 26, 2024
Runtime: 1h 40m

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