Inside The Labyrinth
(The Making of the film Labyrinth)
Louise Gold appeared
as one of the Ballroom-Dancers in the film Labyrinth
Cast (those featured speaking to camera)
David Bowie
Jennifer Connelly
Brian Froud
George Gibbs
Brian Henson
Jim Henson
Terry Jones
Cheryl McFadden
Production Team
?
For the rest
of the Cast and Crew of Labyrinth, many of whom may be spotted somewhere in
this documentary, see Labyrith.
Quite a number
of the cast and crew, including of course Jim Henson, Brian Froud,
and, Terry Jones had previously worked on the film The Dark Crystal.
Jim Henson has of course featured on other behind-the-scenes documentaries,
include Of Muppets And Men.
Brian Henson went on to feature in the documentaries The Wonderful World Of Puppets,
and, I
Love The Muppets.
Brian Froud went on to appear as a panellist at the Labyrinth 25th Anniversary
Screening.
Summary / Review
by Emma Shane, April 2005
This is one of those ‘making of’ documentaries that it is well worth getting the DVD of the film (rather than a video) for. The film is a moment in film history and film-puppetry history. If Dark Crystal was the culmination of the cable-control puppet era, then Labyrinth marked the dawning of the hydraulic & computer era. I particularly noticed the description of The Firey’s, and, Humongous. Of course really neither film could be completely classed as belonging in any particular era, but both were made at a very exciting time when great leaps were being made with special effects and animatronics, on film; developing methods of animatronics which are still in use in the film industry today (for example in such features as the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy).
But besides being a moment in history, this documentary is also fun. Several of the personnel involved, come across nice people. For example Jennifer Connelly in particular comes across as someone who never particularly intended to be an actress, it just sort of happened. There are many lovely moments like that in this documentary: For those of us who liked Star Trek Next Gen, there’s also an opportunity to see the actress who played Dr Crusher in a very different context, talking to camera about her job as this film’s choreographer, in the behind-the-scenes footage we also see a bit of her in action on the set. Designer Brian Froud has a wonderful comment on creative coincidences. He sketched a baby for the film, six months before his son Toby was conceived, who eventually turned out to look uncannily like the baby his father had sketched. However, one of my favourite segments in the documentary involves Jim Henson, with two delightful comments to camera. First of all he says “People say you should never work with puppets, animals, or babies. And of course we work with puppets all the time. I’ve worked with animals a bit, but this is the first time I’ve worked with the baby; and now I know why people say that.” and then, after showing a bit of footage of this, in a voice that sounds uncannily like Kermit The Frog, he trumps himself with a gem of a statement, “Working with a baby had its problems, then I tried directing chickens”.
Best of all (at least as far as this webpage is concerned), is that if you watch carefully, in the segment on The Ballroom scene, you can actually spot British actress (and sometimes - though-not-in-this-film - puppeteer) Louise Gold. Watching the ballroom rehearsal footage closely. Two of the girls are wearing black leggings and white tops. Louise is the one whose top doesn’t have a collar (so its more a t-shirt or sweatshirt than top). In addition her chestnut hair looks pretty tousled. In the first scene of the rehearsal footage, she is holding a large feather-type fan. And just at the end of that first clip (before it cuts away) she gives a very distinctive little look/movement, that is typically her. A little later there's a moment on the documentary where Jennifer Connelly doing a voice-over to a clip of the ballroom rehearsal, saying "I'm awful at ballroom dancing", just before it cuts to Jennifer herself, You can spot Louise and whichever guy she was partnering in that bit of the scene move down to the bottom left-hand corner of the screen and then just out of shot as it cuts away. Once the dancers are in costume it gets much harder, even before they put their masks on. There is one glimpse of quite a tall-looking lady in an off-white dress and leaves in her hair, which I think might be Louise, judging by the face, though I am not certain. Still it’s very nice to at least be able to spot her in the rehearsal scene.
Links about Inside The Labyrinth
Think
Labyrinth The Movie, a fascinating Labyrinth Fansite, contains some quite
hard to find info, that you probably won’t find anywhere else on the web: http://www.astrolog.org/labyrnth.htm
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