Bolero

A sweeping, music-soaked epic that drifts across decades and countries, rewarding patience with an overwhelming, cathartic finale.

Directed by

Claude Lelouch

Genres

Drama, Music

Starring

Robert Hossein, Nicole Garcia, Geraldine Chaplin

Tagline

The dance of life!

Overview

The film follows four families, with different nationalities (French, German, Russian and American) but with the same passion for music, from the 1930s to the 1960s. The various story lines cross each other time and again in different places and times, with their own theme scores that evolve as time passes. The main event in the film is the Second World War, which throws the stories of the four musical families together and mixes their fates. Although all characters are fictional, many of them are loosely based on historical musical icons (Édith Piaf, Josephine Baker, Herbert von Karajan, Glenn Miller, Rudolf Nureyev, etc.) The Boléro dance sequence at the end brings all the threads together.

How it feels

Melancholic, earnest, romantic and dark. Slow-burning and demanding.

About

War, family, music, grief

Content

Mild violence, gore, sexual content and language.

Note

Written by AI, so it can be wrong. Full breakdown

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