On 25th May 2011 the world renowned Ballet de l'Opéra national de Paris presented Rain, its first ever performance of a choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. The filmmakers Olivia Rochette and Gerard-Jan Claes followed the rehearsal process from the auditions to the opening performance. The documentary focuses on how De Keersmaeker and the Rosas dancers convey the dance idiom of the choreographer to the classically trained ballet dancers. The rigidity of ballet gives way to another kind of severity, namely the mathematical pattern of Rain, which, however, conceals a powerful emotional layering. A poetic documentary about searching, looking and hesitating within the walls of the opera.

A comment on Sophie's remark that the filmmaker doesn't even use his art to 'tell us a story'. Thank god! There is a fundamental difference between telling a story in film and in dance; in film, you construct sense by cutting, by 'montage'; in dance, you positively destroy sense by montage. All the sense is in the sequence and use of space as defined by the choreographer. If you like, the choreographer has already done the montage. Hence the only way to film dance is from a single camera angle, or at least, with minimum change of angle. Of course, a director and choreographer can choose to cut the filmed version, but presumably they'd do that on the principle that the filmed version is not in the least trying to be like the live version. Both are fine, but if you want to see something akin to the original, best avoid the director's cut.