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18-565: The dances in the film were abridged versions of ballets created for the stage by the dancer and choreographer Roland Petit , who appears in the three of the four sequences along with his wife, the ballerina Zizi Jeanmaire . The film is also known as Un deux trois quatre! in France (short title). The four independent stories are performed in the form of ballet, interspersed with introductions by Maurice Chevalier . In two of them (Cyrano de Bergerac and Carmen), he periodically explains events as

36-482: A camp curiosity," the film was a "rare record of Petit's Ballet de Paris." She said that Petit had as much influence on Hollywood musicals, especially An American in Paris , as it did on modern dance. A 1986 New York Times review of the video release of the film noted that Black Tights "had little success upon its release in 1962" but "is now a highly enjoyable record of Mr. Petit's contribution to ballet. And that

54-456: A great big package of dance numbers from a musical film - just that, ballet numbers. For our personal taste, that's too much." He called the Chevalier narration "a little foolish and patronizing." In a 1986 review when the film when shown at a revival house, Philadelphia Inquirer critic Carrie Rickey wrote that "whether seen as a significant chapter in the history of modern dance or as

72-417: A master in the arts of pas de deux and of narrative ballet, but he succeeded also in abstract ballets. He collaborated also with the nouveaux réalistes including Martial Raysse , Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely . Le jeune homme et la mort ("The Young Man and Death") of 1946 (libretto by Jean Cocteau ) is considered his magnum opus and it is also his most well-known work; the choreography and

90-505: A seating banquette to a cafe, encounters a woman pickpocket (Zizi Jeanmaire, The Gold Digger), who is the leader of a pickpocketing gang, based next door to the cafe. The delivery man and the gold digger fall in love with each other, the latter leaving her criminal gang to go off with her new love. Cyrano de Bergerac is a tragic romantic story, based on a play of the same name. Both Cyrano de Bergerac (Roland Petit) and Christian de Neuvillette (Georges Reich) love Roxanne (Moira Shearer). But

108-472: A shopping trip to buy a dress. A strange man (Roland Petit) flirts with his wife in a cafe. The husband challenges the flirting man to a duel which the husband fatally loses. The wife starts to enjoy her widowhood. The story is a black comedy. Carmen is the tragic story of the soldier Don José (Roland Petit) falling in love with the Gypsy Carmen (Zizi Jeanmaire). The plot of the ballet roughly follows

126-650: Is his ability to marry popular forms with a poetic realism." Three dancers who appear in the film—Dirk Sanders, Hans van Manen , and Gerard Lemaitre—went on to form the Netherlands Dance Theater . Roland Petit Roland Petit (13 January 1924 – 10 July 2011) was a French ballet company director, choreographer and dancer. He trained at the Paris Opera Ballet school, and became well known for his creative ballets. The son of shoe designer Rose Repetto , Petit

144-479: The Carmen ballet was "the real show-stopper." New York Daily News critic Wanda Hale awarded the film four stars and called it "a most unusual ballet picture, artistic, beautiful, saucy and naughty." The Boston Globe , while praising Black Tights an "intriguing picture to watch" and "rare entertainment," said that there are "occasional dull spots which slow up its pace and deaden its magic." The Guardian called

162-501: The Ballet National de Marseille for the next 26 years. For the décor of his ballets, he would work in close collaboration with the painter Jean Carzou (1907–2000), but also with other artists such as Max Ernst . The creator of more than 50 ballets across all genres, he choreographed for a plethora of famed international dancers. He refused the free technical effects; he did not stop reinventing his style, language, and became

180-610: The European Grand Prix by film critics in Europe. Reviews at the time of release were largely favorable. Writing in the Los Angeles Times , critic Philip K. Scheuer called the film "artistic without being forbiddingly highbrow" said that 'the film "could do as much to popularize French Ballet as West Side [ West Side Story ] did for American." He praised the cinematography as "visually dazzling" and said that

198-551: The Paris Opéra in 1965 to mount a production of Notre Dame de Paris (with music by Maurice Jarre ). He continued to direct ballets for the largest theatres of France, Italy, Germany, Great Britain, Canada and Cuba. In 1968, his ballet Turangalîla provoked a small revolution within the Paris Opéra. Four years later, in 1972, he founded the Ballet National de Marseille with the piece "Pink Floyd Ballet". He directed

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216-624: The costumes are of astonishing modernity. In his 1949 ballet Carmen , he made an unusual use of the en dedans , while he gave a non-figurative treatment to Turangalîla . Among the films to which he contributed are Symphonie en blanc by René Chanas and François Ardoin (1942 short film on history of dance) in which he appeared as a dancer; the choreography for the 1948 film Alice in Wonderland , The Glass Slipper in 1954, Anything Goes (with others) in 1956, and Black Tights as choreographer, writer, and dancer in 1960. In 1994, he

234-404: The film "threadbare" and "very lightly blessed with talent or imagination." The unsigned review described the dancing as "a mixture of modern wiggling and traditional ballet." New York Times critic Bosley Crowther said that the "over-all effect of the picture, apart from its meaning for those who are stringent ballet students or lovers and have particularly keen eyes for technique, is that of

252-498: The poet Cyrano has a big nose and is too shy to declare his love to Roxanne. Instead, he helps his friend Christian woo Roxanne, writing love letters on his behalf. Deuil en 24 heures translates as "mourning in 24 hours" or more loosely as A Merry Mourning. (A shop appearing in the film shows "Deuil en 24 heures" as the shop name.) Along the Champs-Élysées, a wealthy man (Hans van Manen) accompanies his wife (Cyd Charisse) on

270-624: The story of the opera with some variations in plot detail. The ballet features music by Georges Bizet . In the Lillas Pastia scene, the ballet troupe sings l'amour est enfant de bohème in a half-sung/half-spoken fashion. La Croqueuse de diamants Cyrano de Bergerac Deuil en 24 heures Carmen Black Tights received the Biennale Special Golden Award at the Venice Film Festival and

288-542: The story progresses. La Croqueuse de diamants translates as "The Gold Digger", or more literally as "the diamond cruncher". (Twice during the story, the title character swallows a diamond, with a crunching sound.) The story, a romantic comedy, opens in Les Halles . Amid the hubbub of street activity, a group of woman street vendors sing in French about their trade. A furniture delivery man (Dirk Sanders), while delivering

306-710: Was awarded the Prix Benois de la Danse as choreographer. In 1954, Petit married dancer Zizi Jeanmaire , who performed in a number of his works. His memoirs were published in 1993 under the title J'ai dansé sur les flots ("I Danced on the Waves"). He and Jeanmaire had one daughter, Valentine Petit, a dancer and actress. Petit died in Geneva , Switzerland, aged 87, of leukemia in 2011. During his career, Petit choreographed 176 works, including: Carrie Rickey Too Many Requests If you report this error to

324-741: Was born in Villemomble , near Paris. He trained at the Paris Opéra Ballet school under Gustave Ricaux and Serge Lifar and began to dance with the corps de ballet in 1940. He founded the Ballets des Champs-Élysées in 1945 and the Ballets de Paris in 1948, at Théâtre Marigny , with Zizi Jeanmaire as star dancer. Petit collaborated with Constant Lambert ( Ballabile - 1950), Henri Dutilleux ( Le Loup - 1953), Serge Gainsbourg , Yves Saint-Laurent and César Baldaccini and participated in several French and American films. He returned to

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