While in Hollywood in 1924, Anna Pavlova visited Douglas Fairbanks at his studio, where the latter was then currently filming his big-budget Arabian Nights action-adventure epic The Thief of Bagdad. Ostensibly at dance-enthusiast Fairbanks’ behest, the famed ballerina agreed to perform several of her most celebrated routines on set for the cameras during lunch breaks, including her iconic “The Swan”. The footage, not intended for public exhibition at the time, now represents “the finest record of the legendary dancer” (David Robinson). Thirty years later, a musical soundtrack was added in London with the help of former members of Pavlova’s company, who identified the pieces to which the dances were originally performed (which included compositions by Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns, Riccardo Drigo, Josef Bayer and Léo Delibes). With no screenable 35mm print available, the footage has been freshly digitised in high definition especially for the occasion of the screening at Il Cinema Ritrovato.

Oliver Hanley