The Rite of Spring have mastered the work's difficulties. Even the Ballets Russes's sceptical stage director, Serge Grigoriev, was full of praise for the originality and dynamism of Nijinsky's choreography. The conductor Pierre Monteux had worked with Diaghilev since 1911 and had been in charge of the orchestra at the premiere of "Petrushka". Monteux's first reaction to "The Rite", after hearing Stravinsky play a piano version, was to leave the room and find a quiet corner. He drew Diaghilev aside and said he would never conduct music like that; Diaghilev managed to change his mind. Although he would perform his duties with conscientious professionalism,
Rite of Spring (film) also remembered for "a furious apocalyptic montage that links Christ's death to the violence and lunacy of the Vietnam era". Rite of Spring (film) Rite of Spring (Portuguese: Acto da Primavera) is a 1963 Portuguese film directed by Manoel de Oliveira, his second feature. The poet and director António Reis was the film's assistant director, and his influence can be felt deeply throughout it. (The film was included in the film program "The School of Reis" in 2012.) The inhabitants of Curalha, a small village in western Portugal, perform the Passion of Jesus every year according to text from about