Hmm, this is interesting. Opus Arte has elected to release the POB's production of Nureyev's Cinderella ahead of the Royal Ballet's telecast with Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg. It will be available in the UK on October 1.

http://www.opusarte.com/pages/product.asp?ProductID=259

Cinderella: Agnès Letestu
Film Star: José Martinez
Stepsisters: Laëtitia Pujol & Stéphanie Romberg
Stepmother: Stéphane Phavorin
Father: Cyril Fleury
Producer: Wilfried Romoli
Director: Richard Wilk
His Assistant: Fabien Roques
Dance Teacher: Christophe Duquenne
The Prisoner: Mathias Heymann
Spring: Mélanie Hurel
Summer: Dorothée Gilbert
Autumn: Nolwenn Daniel
Winter: Emilie Cozette

It was filmed in early 2007, so I guess Opus Arte had a contract with the POB before the ROH took control. The leads were originally supposed to be Aurélie Dupont and Hervé Moreau, but he got injured. Such a shame the 1980s Cinderella VHS (featuring Sylvie Guillem and Nureyev himself as the producer) wasn't released instead...

Yes, definitely. It wasn't just Guillem that was marvellous. I remember the vivid spitefulness of Isabelle Guérin's stepsister most of all.

It is a shame!! Guillem was fabulous. And Jude was a wonderful partner!

Opus Arte has posted a minute-long clip from the final act pas de deux between Letestu and Martinez on its channel, opusarte, on YouTube.

Not available just yet, but Amazon.com lists the release date as November 18.

ASIN: B001F5IO4S

Here's the YouTube link mentioned by Rosa:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJisNyWDC0I

It's very short, so you can't tell much. Letestu is well on her way to becoming a grand movie star. They've blacked out the background to allow focus on the dancers, something not possible (I think) in the days of the older filming.

So far, there seems to be an agreement on this thread that the Guillem/Jude/Nureyev/Guerin/Louriders version deserve a re-release. (And possibly a re-mastering of some sort?) I've taken the old vhs off the shelf and intend to watch it again soon. In the meantime, here's a brief YouTube of Guillem dancing in an earlier scene. Feathered headdress is simiilar, but the feel is quite different. She is, I believe, auditioning, whereas Letestu has already become a kind of star and evere-so-slightly grand. The term nonpareil might have been coined for just such a phenomenon as young Sylvie Guillem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVCZEx7GZ1s...feature=related

Thanks for the heads up, volcanohunter.

I may end up caving in and getting it, mainly because I'm curious to see how Nureyev's production looks performed live. Also, according to Opus Arte's website, the DVD includes cast gallery, illustrated synopsis, and a documentary "Cinderella goes to Hollywood." One can only assume (and hope) the documentary will be part of the DVD released in the United States.

I saw this film at a movie theatre and enjoyed it more than I expected to. I'll admit that going in some of my anxietes were pretty darn shallow. I was worried that Letestu and Martinez, being in their late thirties, would look too old for their roles on a large screen. They didn't. I was also worried about Letestu's yellowish teeth, given that she was playing an aspiring movie actress. Not a problem. I wasn't distracted by the strangeness of her body proportions, with her super long torso, because she wore a longer skirt throughout. Mentally I'm sure I was measuring her against Guillem, but I enjoyed her Cinderella on her own terms. For his part, Martinez is one the few dancers that can handle Nureyev's choreography without awkwardness. No mean feat.

She's no Guerin, but temperamentally Romberg is well suited to her role, Pujol is very funny, and Romoli, as always, is charismatic. Best of all is Phavorin, who dances the Stepmother like a deranged Forsythe ballerina.

Amazon.com is now accepting pre-orders.

The documentary is about an hour long and is included on the second disc along with Act 3. Generally I thought that the performance clips complemented the interview segments less well than they had in Reiner Moritz's previous film about the POB's Jewels. It was interesting to see the interview with Stéphane Phavorin because his real-life personality comes across as not at all threatening or flamboyant, unlike his outrageous Stepmother. I had always thought that Nureyev's idea to transpose the story to 1930s Hollywood was a rather good one since the score strikes me as poorly suited to the tutu approach. So imagine my surprise to discover that it was actually the idea of set designer Petrika Ionesco and that initially Nureyev hated it. Given that, it's a bit funny to watch the POB dancers gush, as they always seem to, about how brilliant Nureyev's concept was, how it came out of his lifelong love for movies, etc. My favourite quote, though, comes from José Martinez, who describes Nureyev's choreography as "abundant," which is much nicer than calling it "cluttered."

Please don't misunderstand me, though. I like Nureyev's Cinderella more than most other productions, and I think that the DVD is worth having, even though the two-disc format drives up the price, and I'm still hoping for a re-issue of the Guillem performance.

Thank you, volcanohunter, for "reviewing" the documentary. Does it have English subtitles?

Yes, you have your choice of English, German, Spanish or Italian subtitles.