From popular Italian director Ettore Scola, the founder of "dance storytelling", Le Bal conveys a strong sense of passing time and history, intertwining the "small" personal lives of regular visitors to a typical Parisian suburban dance hall into the course of a "bigger" history. The film is shot entirely without dialogue, but rather speaks through music, dance, pantomime, masks, and costumes. In several episodes spanning almost fifty years (1936-1983), it highlights significant moments from French and European history, enhanced by characteristic melodies of the time, from Edith Piaf's chansons to songs by the Beatles.