The final scene from the film................

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SolidarityForever
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Re: The final scene from the film................

Post by SolidarityForever »

I loved when Elliott danced with Liam Mower in Live. Because the majority of the audience knew Liam was one of the first to play Billy and he was now dancing as an adult and professional dancer, with a younger Billy. That was beautiful.
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angelenroute
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Re: The final scene from the film................

Post by angelenroute »

SolidarityForever wrote:I loved when Elliott danced with Liam Mower in Live. Because the majority of the audience knew Liam was one of the first to play Billy and he was now dancing as an adult and professional dancer, with a younger Billy. That was beautiful.
If it were any other adult in the usual role, it probably wouldn't have been introduced the way it was, the clarification from Stephen about Liam. So by Liam participating, both those who knew and those who didn't have now been told forever at the start of this cinematic presentation. :)

Sean

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Sheepdog
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Re: The final scene from the film................

Post by Sheepdog »

The fact he is dancing with his older self surely shows the audience that he does achieve his dreams and becomes an adult ballet dancer.
Hear, hear.

It IS "obvious" that the person at the back is Older Billy, isn't it??

I think the film's ending works for the film because we're used, in films, to "jumping around" in time. Older Michael (in the film) is, clearly, older Michael... nice to see HE has "grown up" happy in his world, TOO... missing from musical... but it helps the film's ending "work", in that the older Michael tells us that the dancer we are going to see is grown up Billy.

But for the theatre, with the more "immediate" connection we make with the actors, I think it would be hard to "believe" in a suddenly introduced and transient older Billy. And, as previous posters have said, that special moment, the good-bye, the promise of "the next stage", etc, all "work" so well...

In connection with the ending: Minor question/ complaint... what do others feel? I think that when the boy playing Michael stays perfectly still, ALL THE WAY through the final inches of the curtain coming down, the effect is much better that when he turns the bike wheel, moves away from the centre of the stage before the curtain is FULLY down. What do you think? (I think the movement breaks the spell... pre-maturely.)
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Re: The final scene from the film................

Post by Todd »

Sheepdog wrote:The fact he is dancing with his older self surely shows the audience that he does achieve his dreams and becomes an adult ballet dancer.

It IS "obvious" that the person at the back is Older Billy, isn't it??
Actually, I've always felt like it was a bit presumptuous that first-time visitors to the show would catch on that the adult in the scene is supposed to be Older Billy. A friend of mine who saw the show said that he liked it, but thought that the scene with Billy "dancing with that guy" seemed a little weird. When I told him that it was supposed to be Billy dancing with his older self, he said, "Oh, well, that makes a lot more sense then." A number of people have also made the incorrect assumption that when Small Boy climbs up on the stage to begin the show, it's supposed to be Billy at a younger age.
Sheepdog wrote:In connection with the ending: Minor question/ complaint... what do others feel? I think that when the boy playing Michael stays perfectly still, ALL THE WAY through the final inches of the curtain coming down, the effect is much better that when he turns the bike wheel, moves away from the centre of the stage before the curtain is FULLY down. What do you think? (I think the movement breaks the spell... pre-maturely.)
I would agree. I think when you can see Michael turn and ride his bike off stage before the curtain falls, it's almost like Michael's saying, "Oh well, that's that. Time to move on." I find it to be more moving as well when Michael sits and watches Billy leaving until the curtain's down.
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ERinVA
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Re: The final scene from the film................

Post by ERinVA »

When the show first started, Older Billy and young Billy were not costumed the same, and lots of confusion resulted. That is why, after a while, the creatives realized that Older Billy should wear the same shirt as young Billy, to give the audience a visual clue about the the relationship between the two dancers.

As for Michael riding off before the curtain is all the way down, they all do it. They are told to exit at a certain point in the music, so that is what they do. I'm sure this is to allow the curtain to rise and cast to come on stage immediately after the music ends. But I agree that I would much prefer it if Michael did not move until after the curtain is all the way down.
Ellen



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patc
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Re: The final scene from the film................

Post by patc »

ERinVA wrote:As for Michael riding off before the curtain is all the way down, they all do it.
Ellen, actually not all of them do this. The main reason I know this is that a certain Forum member, who I have no doubt will comment on this subject, goes bananas every time Michael rides away before the curtain hits the floor and purrs with delight when he doesn't :D :D :D .

You are absolutely right about the different costuming of Billy/Older Billy. Dream Ballet has always been my favourite scene but it took many shows before someone told me what it represented :oops:. The recostuming was a great idea but I still wonder does everybody get it first time.

Pat
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StevenKing
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Re: The final scene from the film................

Post by StevenKing »

I first saw dream ballet in the Elton John Electricity music vid and I did find it odd till comments explained it so I understand the confusion.
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Eltonjohn
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Re: The final scene from the film................

Post by Eltonjohn »

To address the second point first, Michael rides out to see his friend off. (Why he's allowed to ride his two wheeler INDOORS* at the beginning is a bit contrived and a kind of a book end I suppose.) He's rewarded with a return kiss but it's platonically fraternal, confirming that they must both go off on their separate ways and paths in life. Michael, ever resilient, wheels around to begin the next chapter of his life, one without Billy as his confidante. So life goes on as the curtain touches the stage.

The film speaks only of electricity. Whereas the lyrics of Electricity introduce a second metaphor, flying like a bird, foreshadowing flight which lends itself to stage theatrics, unlike electrical energy (thunderbolts?). So an aerial performance of some sort was conceived for the play version from the get go. A second performer is needed to help animate the flight (not so in Peter Pan, Spiderman, Mary Poppins?).

So I regard the scene more as a dream fantasy than as foreshadowing. (He COULD be a star if Mrs. Wilkinson's assessment is indeed correct.)

But then again, an alternative interpretation is that his actual future self supernaturally appears to him with the power to transform his daydreamstate flight of fantasy, escaping the bonds of gravity as well as of his hopeless situation, into an actuality, deus ex machina like. (like Cinderella's fairy god mother?)

I would consider the chair as an inanimate, surrogate dancing partner, so the Dream Ballet starts off as a Pas de Quatre; minus the chairs it then becomes a Pas de Deux. In the final part, it's more like an assisted solo perhaps. There's no allusion to the Bourne version whatsoever; nor to Michael's fate.

It is so effing amazing that a Billy actually winds up dancing in Bourne's Swan Lake. Beyond foreshadowing.

*In the ballet about the life of Elton John by the Alberta Ballet, Love Lies Bleeding, a young Elton rides his tricycle.
BETM: "the most expensive school play ever."
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in Playbill October 2008
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