Main Cast: Alan Bates, George de la Pena, Leslie Browne, Alan Badel, Carla Fracci, Janet Suzman
Release Year: 1980
Country: UK
Run Time: 125 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
The deeper, broader issues behind the rise and fall of one of the world's greatest ballet dancers and choreographers, Vaslav Nijinksy (1888-1950), is not at the fulcrum of this two-hour British biographical drama. Director Herbert Ross and screenwriter Hugh Wheeler base the film on Nijinsky's diaries and his wife's book Nijinsky but what they portray are the years between 1912-1913 and Nijinsky's affair with Sergei Diaghliev, his mentor and the impresario and founder of Ballets Russes. With the life of the great man (played by dancer George de la Pena) explained via the dominant, impossible personality of Diaghliev and the love of his wife (Leslie Browne), there is no room for larger questions. The business and politics and especially the homosexuality that are involved with the art of ballet are also given primary focus. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Review
Although Nijinsky as a whole is not satisfying, portions of it are exceptional. Not surprisingly, these portions include the sequences in which dancing is a primary focus. With the wonderful George de la Pena holding forth in these sequences, supported by a very fine corps, the dances are stunning and exciting. de lan Pena deserves a great deal of credit for their success, as his technique and interpretations are simply marvelous to behold; but he must share credit with director Herbert Ross, who demonstrates once again that he is a master at filming ballet, a feat that is far more complicated than it may at first seem. The physical production is also quite lovely, with fine work from all departments. If de la Pena is perhaps not as fine a dramatic actor as he is a dancing actor, he still acquits himself well in the dialogue scenes and has a sure handle on his character. Even better is Alan Bates as his lover Diaghilev, adding a combination of power and nuance to his scenes that is quite effective. Leslie Browne is not ideal casting as Nijinsky's wife; her dance background serves her very well, but she doesn't have the correct temperament that the drama requires. Nijinsky runs into problems in general when it is away from the ballet stage; although it deserves points for portraying an honest homosexual relationship in 1980, it does so in a rather coy, indirect manner. In addition, the script eventually indulges in melodrama that undercuts its overall effectiveness. Still, Nijinsky is worth watching, if only for the graceful power of de la Pena in flight. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Colin Blakely - Vassili; Ronald Pickup - Igor Stravinksy; Ronald Lacey - Leon Bakst; Sian Phillips - Lady Ripon; Henrietta Baynes - Magda; June Brown - Maria Stepanova; Vernon Dobtcheff - Sergei Grigoriev; Geoffrey Hughes - Gavrilov; Jeremy Irons - Mikhail Fokine; Frederick Jaeger - Gabriel Astruc; Charles Kay - Argentinian Ambassador; Olga Lowe - Signora Cerchetti; Tomas Milian; Mart Crowley - Baron Adolphe De Meyer; Anton Dolin - Maestro Cecchetti; Stephen Chase - Adolph Bolm
Credit
George Richardson - Art Director, Tony Roman - Art Director, Howard Jeffrey - Associate Producer, John Lanchbery - Conductor, Alan Barrett - Costume Designer, Herbert Ross - Director, William H. Reynolds - Editor, Harry Saltzman - Executive Producer, John Lanchbery - Composer (Music Score), Pier Luigi Basile - Production Designer, John Blezard - Production Designer, Douglas Slocombe - Cinematographer, Nora Kaye - Producer, Stanley O'Toole - Producer, Harry Saltzman - Producer, Hugh Wheeler - Screenwriter, Claude Debussy - Featured Music, Romola Nijinsky - Book Author, Vaslav Nijinsky - Book Author
The film suggests Nijinsky was driven into madness by both his consuming ambition and self-enforced heterosexuality, the latter prompted by his romantic involvement with Romola de Pulszky, a society girl who joins impresarioSergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes specifically to seduce Nijinsky. After a series of misunderstandings with Diaghilev, who is both his domineering mentor and possessive lover, Nijinsky succumbs to Romola's charms and marries her, after which his gradual decline from artistic moodiness to complete lunacy begins.
This was Herbert Ross' second film to focus on the world of ballet, following The Turning Point in 1977 where he had worked Mikhail Baryshnikov. Baryshnikov turned down the role of Vaslav Nijinsky and returned to the American Ballet Theatre and was promoted to the role of Artistic Director.
Nijinsky was Jeremy Irons' film debut and the second last film produced by the famed Harry Saltzman (after he gave up his share of the James Bond rights).
The film grossed only $1,047,454 in the United States [1]
Critical reception
In his review in Time, Richard Schickel opined, "Some people will be titillated by the openness with which homosexual love is portrayed in the film. But this is mostly a slow, cautious biography, elegantly attentive to Edwardian decor and dress. It slights Nijinsky's melodramatic story and, finally, offends with its relentless reductionism. There are times when excesses of good taste become a kind of bad taste, a falsification of a subject's spirit and milieu. This is never more true than when the troubles of a genius are presented in boring and conventional terms."[2]
Time Out London calls it "the best gay weepie since Death in Venice … the first major studio film to centre on a male homosexual relationship (albeit a doomed one) without being moralistic … director Ross and writer Hugh Wheeler … do right by their male characters (Alan Bates, in particular, is a plausibly adult Diaghilev), their grasp of the historical reconstructions seems more than competent, and their dialogue and exposition are unusually adroit. Best of all, they never show ballet for its own sake, and have the courage to keep emotional dynamics in the forefront throughout."[3]
Channel 4 says, "What could have been a powerful period drama quickly descends into soap opera territory … but it's always watchable, and director Ross … laces the action with some well-choregraphed dance."[4]
