Summary: Le Bal takes place in a hypothetical Parisian dance hall and its plot is communicated entirely through mime, its pop music soundtrack and period ballroom dances. The prologue section, set in present time, introduces us to the cast of characters. Then, the hall lights go on. the couples pair off. The music begins. And in a series of flashback sequences that use key moments in modern French history as their backdrop, we are presented with a clever yet poignant social commentary of prewar, postwar and modern times.
In seven vignettes, the dance hall and its customers are seen as the focal point for the whirlwind of political and social change sweeping French culture in the five decades from the '30s to the present. As expressed through music, social mores and dress of each era, the cast irresistibly conveys a more universal theme - modern man's never-ending search for love and an end to loneliness.
Le Bal
(1991)
