- One of the art restorers featured in Wiseman’s National Gallery
Frederick Wiseman’s National Gallery, which received its local premiere last night at the Chicago International Film Festival, climaxes with a dance performance inside one of the exhibition halls. Though Gallery is a film about painting, I wasn’t at all surprised that Wiseman worked in a scene of ballet. He’s already devoted three features to the subject (Ballet, La Dance—The Paris Opera Ballet, and Crazy Horse), and his last film, At Berkeley, concluded with a choreographed sequence as well. And last month it was announced that Wiseman is collaborating with the Minneapolis company Sewell Ballet on an adaptation of his debut film Titicut Follies. It seems as though America’s greatest living filmmaker just can’t get his fill of dance. Or does Wiseman’s enthusiasm for ballet speak to some crucial aspect of his art?
National Gallery opens at the Gene Siskel Film Center on November 21 for a two-week run. See here for more information.
