Bye Bye Blackbird!

This period drama set in the early years of the 20th century features a bravura performance by James Thiérrée (grandson of the late great Charlie Chaplin) who choreographed the thrilling aerial sequences and shares with his legendary forebear a prodigious gift for physical business. Thiérrée plays Josef, a former construction worker who delighted in dancing on girders high above the city but who now sweeps up at the circus. Once the big top's owner spots the young roustabout defying gravity on the trapeze, however, he endeavors to pair Josef with his aerialist daughter Alice in a perilous sky-high pas de deux. First-time feature director Robinson Savary deftly offers a romantic view of big top life, with a poetic sensibility that speaks to the heart. Enhanced by cinematographer Christophe Beaucarne's incandescent compositions, the graceful young actor is mesmerizing and heartbreaking, the very picture of a moth-eaten angel in his feathered, tattered costume.