If you missed it today, you still have three chances to see Frederick Wiseman’s latest documentary La Danse:  The Paris Opera Ballet in the Triad this week.  Fitting Wiseman’s signature style, known generally as an observational mode, the story unfolds in its edited form with minimal intrusion and manipulation.

For two hours and forty minutes, viewers get a sense of time and space in the Opera House with many more minutes devoted to rehearsal than performance just as it would be in life.

The filmmaker’s perspective is evident in the choices made (a lone worker repairing a crack in the aging ceiling, a meeting with a young dancer who is thrilled that the company’s artistic director has noticed her work and that she has lost weight, empty hallways in the cavernous building, another meeting where art and commerce nearly collide, and the painstaking and largely solitary work in the costume shop), but mostly there is the beauty of the dance.

The style of the film makes it seem that it should be enormously accessible to viewers, but the truth is that not everyone likes documentary or dance or films with long running times.

Fortunately, I have a thing for docs and ballet and am thrilled that a/perture cinema has brought La Danse to the Triad (and pleased that there was a healthy crowd attending the noon screening today because I’d love to see a steady stream of documentary offerings).

Three showtimes remain this week – Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 8 p.m.  Get there early to snag the best seats, which are at the rear of these screening rooms.