Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away

A circus show, made into a film. There is a fairground. A girl comes as a spectator. There is an aerialist on the stage. He is on the trapeze and falls in the middle of the act. She goes after him. The sand opens and the two of them descend into another world. From there the film is a story of searching. She is looking for him and every place she finds is another tent. Each tent is a separate show. They pass in turn: a stage on water, a Vegas cabaret, a Beatles arrangement, a fire act and an acrobatic section. All of it is real. The production takes sections from seven separate shows staged by the same company in Las Vegas and places them inside a narrative. There is almost no dialogue. The narrative runs entirely on image and music. What the narrative is interested in is not story but transition: its idea is that moving from one show to the next is itself the narrative, and that no reason need be sought in between. It was shot for three dimensions. The camera is inside the stage rather than in a seat; that is a different position from watching the show in the hall. The choice is contested. A close-up shows the acrobat's face but loses the whole of the act. The acts use no doubles and no effects. The production keeps that deliberately. The water section is technically the hardest; the stage is a pool and the camera works in the water. The narrative reaches no ending. The two meet and the film stops. James Cameron is among the producers and the three-dimensional technology comes from his team. Erica Linz, Igor Zaripov and Cirque du Soleil performers are in the cast. Andrew Adamson directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes stage spectacle and acrobatics. Who it is not for: anyone expecting narrative; the story is only a thread and the characters have no depth at all.