Cirque du Soleil: La Nouba (2004 Video) User Reviews

Magic

[orangeyred · 9/10 · 11 April 2005]

This show is based in Walt Disney Florida. "La Nouba" means to party, to live it up and this show definitely matches its name.

It has fewer acts than a lot of other Cirque du Soleil teams but the acts it does have are outstanding.

Over 14 people perform in one act inches from colliding creating a gasps throughout the live audience. One performer (Rokardy) balances 25 feet above the stage floor on chairs and a chandelier. All the performances appear to defy all laws of human biology and gravity.

As with most things filmed live it doesn't quite capture the performance on camera but it does offer the advantage of being able to see the acts in much more detail than you could in the audience. Even though, this DVD captures the magic of Cirque du Soleil enough to make you want to see this show live.

Added extras include interviews, performance selector and meeting the musicians.

Good follow up but not the real thing

[RTalbott0112 · 7/10 · 12 December 2006]

This film will give you a sense of what goes on but to fully appreciate the awesomeness of the act it must be seen live. If for no other reason than to feel the height some of these acts work from or to hear the all live music.

Another detriment to the tape is that it almost always uses up close shots so you can not see that in any given act there are also always at least four or five other preformers on stage doing something interesting even if it is only les cons making amazed faces.

A word of advice, see the live show before watching the movie, and read the program before you watch the show, if you don't know what's going on before hand there is a good chance you won't figure it out.

Must see

[ambie031816 · 10/10 · 20 November 2006]

If you are a fan of dance, gymnastics, or even comedy. You'll love this gravity defying spectacle!!!!

It has a bit of everything for everyone, Clown that will have you laughing, Stunts that will leave you in awe. With such things as Aerial silk dancing, to trampoline, and even bike tricks for the men of the family! But please don't think you can just go outside and do the same things gentlemen! lol . And what they call the Power Track, which is amazing, And beautiful music that is very touching and moving. And does tell a story,

To really have the true experience, you'll have to go to Walt Disney World, Downtown Disney West Side to be exact, Disney owns the rights to La Nouba and this show cannot be seen anywhere else. Other than the T.V of course, Prepair to be Wowed!

Flying camera snaps the tethers

[chaos-rampant · 9 February 2013]

I was with acrobat friends yesterday who know I dabble in movies, they wanted to share some of the finest spectacle, recommending this as good introduction, and I'm always interested in movies about dance of every sort, from ballet to martial arts. So we sat down and watched this.

The bad news. The director all but ruins the show. The camera swoops and circles as in a concert film, there is dramatic cutting, slow-motion, even replays of some of the action. Can you imagine? He edits in mid-air between leaps. And cinematic rearranging of space simply negates what these people can do, which is that they are actually doing it in real time, a single impossible flow. And he makes it seem more ordinary than it is. One of the acts is two astronaut mimes move in slow-motion, but the magic fizzles out when the filmmaker shoots in the next segment in slow-motion.

To my surprise, none of my company even noticed this was a problem.

But what goes on on that stage is most of the time pretty great—barring some repetitive gymnastics in the end. I was in awe of the trapeze artist who stacks chairs one on the other fifteen feet high to light a chandelier that is being pulled from him higher and higher. The most thunderous applause in the hall was for the two stuntmen on bicycles, a lesson that something impresses much more when you have a notion of it than when it is abstractly impossible.

But what contrasting feelings when you are the passive observer of a show. You know some of the acts have been years in the making. You know rigorous training has gone into it, a passion and love for dancing and flying. You know it miraculously works because of all the times it didn't.

And all that has been condensed to a three minute act, and then on to the next to entertain. And it made me feel bad, because I recognize the effort, yet gorging on it like this one after the other, diminishes each artist having mastered his body, the preciousness of it. It made me think of Greenaway's Cook, Thief, Lover.

This is fine for an hour, surely impressive but lacks the narrative backbone to carry it, it is a bit sketchy.

But I'd much rather see a film about the life inbetween acts, the acts themselves but also the sort of nomadic living that goes on the edge of things, about the falling down of it, taut tethers and what orbits pull them back up again. There's a film I'd like you to see called Ballets Russes.