Classics Tip
Legong, Dance Of The Virgins (Region 1) - Legong: Dance Of The VirginsReleasedatum: 16 november 2004
On the day of the temple feast of Tampaksiring, Poutou, a young maiden who performs the legong, the dance of the virgins at the sacred temple, meets Nyong, a carefree youth from Northern Bali. As they gaze at each other, she remembers a prophecy warned "Should love enter thine eyes and go to thy heart, beware. For should he whom thou chooseth not return thy love, thy gods will frown and disgrace will befall thee..." In the 1930s, Bali became the place to be. Extolled as a paradise on Earth with beautiful (mostly topless) natives and an exotic culture, the small island was soon swarming with the rich and famous. When the Marquis Henry de la Falaise de la Coudray - or "Hank" to ex-wife Gloria Swanson and current wife/producer Constance Bennett - arrived in Bali with a Technicolor crew in 1933, there had already been a slew of "documentaries" that reaped box office success in the United States. Directed by the dilettante husband of two famous movie stars, how good could this film be? Slashed apart by censors around the world, Legong quickly disappeared and was forgotten. Now fully restored to its glistening two-color Technicolor by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, Legong has been revealed as a cinematic classic. With its impressive sensitivity to Balinese customs (the dance and religious rituals they filmed have become extremely important for their ethnographic value alone) and an eye for the natural beauty of the island, the film ranks with F.W. Murnau's Tabu as an enduring masterpiece of tropical splendor. A spectacular addition to Milestone's award-winning Age of Exploration series, Legong is a feast for the eyes and the imagination.
DVD Extra's:
Restored picture and soundtrack by the UCLA Film & Television Archives. A second optional track featuring a new score composed by Richard Marriott and I Made Subandi and performed by Gamelan Sekar Jaya and the Club Foot Orchestra. Henry de la Falaise’s previously "lost" film, Kliou the Killer, shot in Indonesia. (1937. B&W version. 52 minutes.) Complete feature film: Gods of Bali (1952. 56 minutes). Camerawork by Nikola Drakulic. Prepared under the supervision of Robert Snyder. Courtesy of Allegra Fuller Snyder. DVD-rom article written by ethnomusicologist Katherine Hagedorn and film studies expert Peter Bloom for Gamelan Sekar Jaya. Video interview with the composers of the new soundtrack. DVD-rom press kit written by Milestone Film & Video.
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