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Nijinsky
- Director: Herbert Ross
- Writer: Hugh Wheeler; Romola Nijinsky
- Producer: Nora Kaye; Stanley O'Toole
CGiii Comment
Ken Russell was, supposedly, approached first to direct Nijinsky - sadly, he refused.
Russell would have certainly have brought to the fore whether Nijinsky was a visionary or just a complete lunatic that could dance - Ross, obviously, does not want to go too deep.
The same could apply to Stravinsky and the debilitating Rite of Spring...those who like this piece of music are duping themselves - it is cacophonous.
Ross, an ex-ballet dancer himself, fails to bring the essence of Nijinsky's genius and torment to the screen - here, he is a petulant, over-indulged, camp brat.
Wheeler's script is vague and empty - there is neither depth nor passion - attributes you would immediately pin on a dancer - Ross' biggest mistake for not identifying such an important flaw. It doesn't say much about his own dancing career.
It is incomprehensible how an ex-dancer could make a film about one of the greatest dancers of all time - and totally bore the tights off of everyone who watches it.
Trailer...
Nijinsky 1980 from Nomdepume on Vimeo.
The(ir) Blurb...
Set in the early 1910s at a time of passionate artistic experimentalism, and based on biographical fact, this is the story of Vaslav Nijinsky, the young and brilliant but headstrong premier danseur and aspiring choreographer of the Ballets Russes. The company is managed by the famous Sergei Diaghilev, himself a controlling and fiercely possessive impresario. The increasing tension between these powerful egos, exacerbated by homosexual desire and jealousy, becomes triangular when the young ballerina Romola de Pulsky determinedly attempts to draw the increasingly mentally unstable Nijinsky away from Diaghilev.
Cast & Characters
Alan Bates as Sergei Diaghilev;
George De La Pena as Vaslav Nijinsky;
Leslie Browne as Romola de Pulsky;
Alan Badel as Baron de Gunzburg;
Carla Fracci as Tamara Karsavina;
Colin Blakely as Vassili;
Ronald Pickup as Igor Stravinsky;
Ronald Lacey as Leon Bakst;
Vernon Dobtcheff as Sergei Grigoriev;
Jeremy Irons as Mikhail Fokine;
Frederick Jaeger as Gabriel Astruc;
Anton Dolin as Maestro Cecchetti;
Janet Suzman as Emilia Marcus;
Stephan Chase as Adolph Bolm;
Hetty Baynes as Magda