Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Cirque Du Soleil: Worlds Away

This is topic Cirque Du Soleil: Worlds Away in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Stu Jamieson (Member # 4626) on 02-22-2013, 07:21 PM:

A pretty girl (we don't know her name so let's call her Pixieface - for that is what she looks like) goes to a circus and immediately falls for the trapeze artist; literally, as it turns out, as Pixieface (Erica Linz) plummets after Trapezeboy (Igor Zaripov) through an unexplained interspacial wormhole into a parallel circusverse. She alights in this trippy circusland just outside a tent city; within each pavilion plays a Cirque Du Solei show. Pixieface pursues the abducted Trapezeboy through each show so that, in the end, they may consummate their spontaneous and inevitable love for each other.

As is typical of cinematic presentations of stage acts, the plot threads tying together the individual components are tenuous at best. If only the story were given as much attention as the performances then this would be a milestone cinematic experience. Stage shows have inherent limitations in terms of time and space, many of which simply don't apply to cinema. Cirque Du Soleil: Worlds Away, for the most part, does not take full advantage of this point, for while there are cinematic interludes between segments, this is mostly just a filming of the stage show. From an accomplished director with a reasonably impressive body of work such as Andrew Adamson, this is a little disappointing.

This counts for little in Cirque Du Soleil, of course, as the real talent lies in the circus acts. And the talent on display here is considerable. The feats of the featured acrobats are a marvel to the study of physics and are performances of great grace and beauty to boot. It boggles the mind how long it must take to perfect the stunts performed here. Equally, the eye popping costume and set designs are wonderful, providing magnificent eye candy throughout.

The film seems to be a "greatest hits" compilation of Soleil shows thus far, a taster if you like of what you might find in a real live show, and perhaps a reminder to those who have seen one before (I haven't). On that score the film is an effective advertisement for the real deal. Fans of The Beatles 'Love' album will be pleased to know that a segment from that show is included here also and, for some, may be worth the price of admission alone.

Like most such films these days the 3D is redundant. There's nothing in this production which specifically calls for it and within 5 minutes you'll forget you're watching it in 3D - unless 3D annoys hell out of you, in which case it will annoy you all the more. Also, the show doesn't entirely succeed in overcoming the modern perception that circuses are a bit freakish - who doesn't find clowns at least a little creepy these days? Do the images represent a wondrous dreamscape or a nightmare? Each will decide for themselves, I suppose.

The film gets 9 out of 10 for the talent on show and the spectacular set design, but as a slice of cinema it gets........

7.5 out of 10

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 02-22-2013, 09:59 PM:

I thought the the PBS television special: 'Flowers in the Desert" was similar in concept (minus the 3D) but superior - it was more of a straight showcase of the Vegas shows and didn't attempt the rather lame narrative that the film didn't do so well at.