A Night at the Opera (2021)
A Night at the Opera
”Step into the glamorous world of Parisian high society in the 1950s and 1960s.”
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Why watch this film?
In this short documentary, filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa revisits (with brilliantly excavated archive footage) the glamorous Paris Opera in the 1950s and 1960s. Richly yet briefly, we sit in the audience alongside names such as Charles Chaplin, Marcel Achard, Brigitte Bardot, Grace Kelly and other famous people, as well as powerful figures like Iran's Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Belgium's Queen Fabiola and the UK's Queen Elizabeth II. Along with the music and rituals of high society, all this forms a political microcosm in which one can observe the connections of major Cold War names to the Parisian night.
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Plot summary
Using archive footage, Sergei Loznitsa revisits the Opéra de Paris’ gala evenings during the 1950s and ’60s. Between prestige and protocol, these events gathered the crème de la crème of the French and international elite, while crowds of ordinary people assembled to watch the spectacle from afar.
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