Main Cast: Mikhail Baryshnikov, Gregory Hines, Jerzy Skolimowski, Helen Mirren, Geraldine Page
Release Year: 1985
Country: US
Run Time: 135 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
The fancy footwork and star appeal of Gregory Hines as Raymond, an exiled American, and the powerful grace of Mikhail Baryshnikov as Nikolai, a defector, combine with a great production design to carry this otherwise thinly-stretched tale of intrigue. With a stellar supporting cast (Isabella Rossellini as Raymond's wife, Helen Mirren as Nikolai's lover, and Jerzy Skolimowski, the Polish director, as a wily KGB agent), the film has a few excellent moments. Nikolai has defected from the former USSR some time in the past. While on a trip, his plane spectacularly crashes on a runway in Siberia. Trapped in the country he had escaped, he is brought to stay with Raymond, an American who defected during the Vietnam war. Nikolai desperately wants to get out of the country, but the Russians have other plans. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Isabella Rossellini - Darya Greenwood; John Glover - Wynn Scott; Stefan Gryff - Capt. Kirigin; William Hootkins - Chuck Malarek; Shane Rimmer - Ambassador Smith; Florence Faure - Ballerina - Death; Daniel Benzali - Dr. Asher; Maryam D'Abo - French Girlfriend; Hilary Drake - Stewardess; Ian Liston - Co-pilot; Michael Petrovich - Helicopter Pilot; David Savile - Pilot; Jiri Stanislav - Chaiko's Driver; Benny Young - Flight Engineer; Josephine Buchan - Caroline; Helene Denbey - Bess; Andreas Markos - Escamilla; Marc Michalsky - KGB Agent; Susannah Morley - Journalist in Opera House; Alexander Naumov - KGB #2; Edward Ochagavia - KGB Agent; Galina Pomerantzeva - Dvornik; Sergei Rousakov - KGB Agent; Megumi Shimanuki - Stewardess; Mark Sinden - Charles; Elisa Tornqvist - Journalist at Consulate House; Maria Werlander - Child Ballerina; Nancy Klopper
Credit
Richard Dawking - Art Director, Austen Spriggs - Art Director, Bill Borden - Associate Producer, Mikhail Baryshnikov - Choreography, Roland Petit - Choreography, Twyla Tharp - Choreography, Evangeline Harrison - Costume Designer, Taylor Hackford - Director, Franz Steininger - Editor, Frederic Steinkamp - Editor, William Steinkamp - Editor, Michel Colombier - Composer (Music Score), Stephen Bishop - Songwriter, Lionel Richie - Songwriter, Madeline Masters - Makeup, Neville Smallwood - Makeup, Philip Harrison - Production Designer, Malcolm Middleton - Production Designer, David Watkin - Cinematographer, Taylor Hackford - Producer, William S. Gilmore - Producer, Joan Wollard - Set Designer, Martin Gutteridge - Special Effects, Garth Inns - Special Effects, Ian Wingrove - Special Effects, Clive Winter - Sound/Sound Designer, Nancy Dowd - Screenwriter, James Goldman - Screenwriter, Eric Hughes - Screenwriter
Taylor Hackford met his future wife, Oscar Award-winning actress Helen Mirren, during the filming of White Nights. As a young woman, Mirren had vowed never to marry, but after 12 years together she and Hackford tied the knot on December 31, 1997 at Ardersier Parish Church near Inverness, Scotland.[1]
Plot
Hines plays an American tap dancer, Raymond Greenwood, who has defected to the Soviet Union. He encounters and befriends Nikolai 'Kolya' Rodchenko, a Soviet ballet dancer played by Baryshnikov, who had previously defected in the other direction. Isabella Rossellini plays Darya, Greenwood’s wife, and Helen Mirren plays Galina Ivanova, a former ballerina who never left the Soviet Union and is an old flame of Rodchenko.
Greenwood and Rodchenko perform a cinematic pas de deux after a plane carrying the latter makes a forced landing in Siberia and he is recognized. Both dancers are brought to Leningrad where the Soviets seek to exploit Rodchenko’s talent. After an initial period of racial and artistic friction, the two dancers (and defectors in opposite directions) become strong friends and Greenwood helps arrange an escape to the American consulate.
