Center Stage

Overview

"The ballet school drama Center Stage comes to DVD with a surprising amount of features, including a widescreen, anamorphic transfer, Dolby Digital 5.1 and Surround Audio, and a commentary by director Nicholas Hytner. A ""making of"" featurette and extended dance sequences emphasize the film's attention to choreography and ballet fundamentals, while the isolated music score and deleted scenes provide more insight into the creative processes behind Center Stage. Theatrical trailers, production notes, cast and crew biographies, and the video for Mandy Moore's ""I Wanna Be With You"" complete this fairly substantial and entertaining disc."

Product Details

Release Date:	10/24/2000
UPC:	0043396052901
Original Release:	2000
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMT
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:56:00
Sales rank:	31,910

Special Features

Digitally mastered audio and anamorphic video; Widescreen presentation; Audio: English, French 5.1 [Dolby Digital], and English 2-channel [Dolby Surround]; Subtitles: English, French; Director's commentary; Mandy Moore music video: "I Wanna Be With You"; Extended dance sequences; Deleted scenes; Making-of featurette; Isolated music score; Theatrical trailers; Talent files; Interactive menus; Production notes; Scene selections

Editorial Reviews

What's fun, filled with buff bodies, and totally hardcore? Why, ballet, of course. This undeniably formulaic teen movie brings the competitive world of professional dance to center stage. While the ups and downs of ballet-school life (eating disorders, overbearing mothers, "bad feet") are portrayed with all the depth of an after school special, the en pointe posse gives the audience a surprisingly heartwarming sense of the bonds formed between fellow dancers. It's not that the acting is particularly good -- it isn't -- but it's the love of the craft that makes this movie charming. Perhaps it's due to the fact that the actors are largely professional ballerinas themselves (Amanda Schull, who plays Jody Sawyer, is an apprentice at the San Francisco Ballet; Ethan Stiefel, Cooper Nielson in the film, is famous in his own right within the American Ballet Theater). Dance fans and those with a soft spot for unlikely triumphs will cheer Jody in her end-of-term performance in the tradition of Flashdance and Fame.