Le Bal (1983 film)
Le bal is a 1983 Italian-Franco-Algerian musical film without dialogue directed by Ettore Scola that represents a fifty-year story of French society by way of a ballroom in France.
The film is set in Paris, covering the years from 1936 to 1983. The film begins with a victory of the left-wing Popular Front in the 1936 French legislative election. It proceeds to depict the Battle of France, the end of the German military administration in occupied France during [World War II|German-occupied France], the end of [World War II in Europe] and attacks on collaborators, the rise in popularity of swing music and rock and roll, the Algerian War, the Protests of 1968, and the end of a night of dancing in the 1980s.
Plot
The entire plot takes place inside a semi-underground dance hall in Paris. It consists of a frame story set in the present and seven flashbacks, each depicting a period of the 20th century. Each flashback ends with a snapshot that leads to the next flashback. The same actors/dancers always play different characters.1983
An old waiter enters the still-closed bar and makes the necessary preparations. Nine women, accompanied by the music J'attendrai, gradually enter the stalls, followed by eleven men together during the song What Now My Love. The band starts to play and the company dances. While the waiter pours a coffee, the first flashback begins:1936
The French Popular Front has won the 1936 French legislative election and its supporters are celebrating. While the party is dancing a valse musette, a pretentious bourgeois enters the restaurant with his festively dressed wife. The woman allows herself to be kissed by a dancer ; her husband first tries to take cocaine and later attempts suicide. The dancer stops him and the couple leave the bar. A representative of the political right then enters the pub, to which the dancers protest.1944
The dancing company consists almost exclusively of women who remember their husbands at the front. One of them drowns her sorrows in alcohol. While the radio plays We're Going to Hang out the Washing on the Siegfried Line, a French collaborator and a Wehrmacht officer enter the pub. They hastily switch to the German radio station with the song Lili Marleen. As the collaborator is unable to find a partner for the officer, he ends up dancing with him himself. Suddenly the peace bells ring and the officer flees. The Second World War is over in France.1945
People celebrate the end of the war with the men who have returned home. The former collaborator is pushed around in a circle until he manages to escape. The scene suddenly becomes serious again as an invalid with only one leg appears, but he too joins the dancers.1946
US culture moves in: While the Glenn Miller hit In the Mood is played, the waiter tries the new Coca-Cola and society tries the new swing - they are still struggling with both. The former collaborator drags two GIs into the pub; one of them has a trumpet and plays La vie en rose. The collaborator sells the dancers black market goods under the table.1956
While a Mexican combo plays, the company dances first samba, then tango. A group of teenagers enter the pub; they dance rock 'n' roll. The Algerian War is raging in Africa; a burly Frenchman takes an Algerian dancer to the toilet, where he beats him up. The inspector who then appears mistakenly arrests the bleeding North African.1968
During the Protests of 1968, demonstrators take refuge in the unlit dance hall after a street fight, where they dance to Michelle by the Beatles.1983
Back in the present, the party stops dancing; everyone leaves the pub one by one. The waiter shakes a short-sighted lady awake who thinks she has finally been asked to dance. She realises her mistake and also goes home. The film ends with the lights being switched off.Cast
None of the characters is named.- Étienne Guichard as Le jeune étudiant de province / Le jeune professeur
- Régis Bouquet as Le patron de la salle / Le paysan
- Chantal Capron as Le mannequin
- Francesco De Rosa as Toni, le jeune serveur
- Arnault LeCarpentier as Le jeune typographe / L'étudiant
- Liliane Delval as La fille aux cheveux longs / L'alcoolique
- Martine Chauvin as La jeune fleuriste / L'étudiante
- Danielle Rochard as La livreuse d'une modiste, La refugiée,
- Nani Noël as La fille de joie / La jeune juive / La jeune qui peint ses basses
- Aziz Arbia as Le jeune ouvrier
- Marc Berman as L'aristo / Le planqué / Le collaborationiste
- Geneviève Rey-Penchenat as L'aristo
- Michel van Speybroeck as L'homme qui vient de loin / Jean Gabin
- Rossana Di Lorenzo as La dame-pipi
- Michel Toty as L'ouvrier spécialisé
- Raymonde Heudeline as L'ouvrière
- Jean-Claude Penchenat as La 'croix de feu'
- Jean-Francois Perrier as le sacristain amoureux / l'officier allemand
- Monica Scattini as La jeune fille myope