DIRECTOR HERBERT ROSS
Director Herbert Ross is back again, showing us the power dynamics inside the Ballet Russes and the tragic story of the great ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. He is played by American ballet dancer George de la Pena, who is not quite up to the task, even if the ballet sequences are sometimes breathtaking. Alan Bates is shortchanged as his mentor Sergei Diaghilev, who was a genius, but in Hugh Wheeler’s script, he is pigeonholed into the role of a jealous lover.
Why does a great artist go crazy? Not a simple question to answer. Ross and Wheeler, however, take a reductive approach and blame everything on the woman, Rolola de Pulsky (Leslie Browne from “The Turning Point”), who steals him from Diaghilev. With Jeremy Irons, making his movie debut as the great ballet teacher and choreographer, Mikhail Fokine.
The movie was co-produced by Ross’s wife, the ballerina Nora Kaye.
Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe.
PARAMOUNT PICTURES
