Boléro (2024 film)

In the opening scene, the composer Maurice Ravel takes the dancer Ida Rubinstein into metal work factory and tries to tell her that the machine noises are music to him. The film flashes back to 1903, when Ravel fails in his application for a scholarship. Hearing an oriental melody outside that fascinated him, he accidentally falls there out of a window and injures himself.

By 1927, Ravel meets the dancer Ida Rubinstein at a reception, who announces that he would soon be writing ballet music for her. During its composition, he shares the company of his (lady) piano teacher Marguerite Long and artist-muse Misia Sert, who is in an unhappily marriage, who takes an interest in Ravel.

Prior his American tour, Ravel suggests to Ida Rubinstein that he orchestrate the dance cycle Iberia by Isaac Albéniz. In America, he encounters jazz and expresses his interest in this musical genre. In an interview during the tour, Ravel explains that an idea could take up to several years to mature before he starts to compose it.

After his return from her American tour, Ida Rubinstein repeatedly urges Ravel to write the ballet music, but he was suffering from writer's block. Hoping to overcome it, he retreats to the seaside and spent his time with Lisia. Then Ravel learns that he is not allowed to orchestrate "Iberia" because the copyright belonged to the conductor Arbós, and so he returns to Paris. There, Ida Rubinstein was considering having Igor Stravinsky compose the ballet, but there Rubinstein and Ravel agree on a ballet length of 17 minutes.

Finally, Ravel comes up with the right theme for the new ballet music, the Boléro; he decides to extend the one-minute-long theme, to 17 times, before its conclusion. Ravel presents the Boléro to Ida Rubinstein in the factory, because he sees it as an "ode to modernity" and a "metaphor for the modern world." Ida Rubinstein is enthusiastic about the idea of performing the Boléro in a factory setting. However, during its rehearsals, she downplays Ravel's factory idea and instead she spices her dance performance by the Boléro with its eroticism, which upsets Ravel.

Ravel recalls taking a leave of absence from his war-time medical service, visiting his mother, and learning of her illness, from which she soon dies. He then recalls a childhood scene with his mother and further remembers his five defeats at the Prix de Rome. At its premiere, "Boléro" was a huge success. Ravel admitted to Ida Rubinstein that "Boléro" might have something erotic about it, something he himself hadn't noticed until then.

The pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm due to a war injury, commissioned Ravel to compose the Piano Concerto for the Left Hand. At that time Ravel was working on his Piano Concerto in G major, and experienced difficulties composing. Ravel collapsed during a rehearsal and was unable to write down his music as told his neurologist friend Cipa. Ravel was also reluctant to undergo brain surgery. Further When Marguerite put on a recording of Boléro, Ravel did not recognize his own composition. Marguerite takes Ravel to the hospital. In a dream, Ravel hears the "Boléro."

• Raphaël Personnaz as Maurice Ravel
• Doria Tillier as Misia Sert
• Jeanne Balibar as Ida Rubinstein
• Vincent Perez as Cipa
• Emmanuelle Devos as Marguerite Long
• Sophie Guillemin as Madame Revelot
• Anne Alvaro
• Marie Denarnaud

The film had its world premiere on 27 January 2024 in the Limelight programme at the 53rd International Film Festival Rotterdam.^[4][5]

It was released in French theaters on 6 March 2024 by SND.^[6]