I knew a dancer back in the States who worked with the Washington Ballet ... by day. Some nights, under a different name, she performed as a stripper in a seedier part of town. While recognizing the need for secrecy, she herself had no problem with moonlighting as a peeler, and in fact enjoyed it. I always loved her for being able to embrace the duality — highbrow/ lowbrow, innocent/ vulgar, white swan/ black swan — with no explanation necessary. Life is all these things.
Documentary director Frederick Wiseman clearly also gets it: He chose to follow up his 2009 film "La Danse" — an in-depth exploration of the Paris Opera Ballet — with "Crazy Horse," a look at a more tawdry Paris institution. The 82-year-old director spent 10 weeks filming the nude dancers at the legendary cabaret club, just as innovative choreographer Philippe Decoufle was brought in for a major overhaul of the show.
Let's get one thing out of the way: If you want to see this film for the same reason people go to the actual Crazy Horse club — inconceivably leggy beauties in various states of undress who are all rather amazing dancers — you will not be disappointed. (And the French aesthetic au naturel thankfully avoids the pneumatic implants favored by American nude revues.)