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Saturday, April 29, 2023

THE WHITE CROW (2018)

The title refers to a person who is ‘unusual, extraordinary, not like others, an outsider.’  Exactly what Ralph Fiennes’ film ain’t.  Not that it’s bad, just ordinary.  Some of it quite well done, but always exactly what you expect.  Call it YOUNG RUDI, as in ballet legend Rudolf Nureyev, in this triangulated telling of Youthful Struggles; Student Days; and his International Breakthru in Paris where his wildly acclaimed dancing on stage, and free-spirited ways off, spooked his Russian handlers into ordering his return to Moscow, triggering a spur-of-the-moment airport defection heard ‘round the world.  Ralph Fiennes, speaking Russian, is mentor/protector, occasionally striking dance position introducing Rudi to ballet discipline while wife, also striking position, introducing Rudi to heterosexuality.  Ballet dancer Oleg Ivenko, given the hopeless task of playing Nureyev, can certainly dance the part (when Fiennes defers to let us see him whole), but without Nureyev’s unconventional Tartar bone-structure, he’s like a K-Pop singer playing Mick Jagger.  (See the actor playing Nureyev’s Dad to get the idea.)  Worse, David Hare’s screenplay never gets Nureyev past petulant on the way to culturally/politically/socially dangerous.  The story (and it’s a great story) feels inconsequential.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID/LINK:  French company member Pierre Lacotte (played here by Raphaël Personnaz), Nureyev’s first new friend in Paris, died last week.  Here’s his NYTimes Obit. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/13/arts/dance/pierre-lacotte-dead.html

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Ballet pics, particularly ballet bio-pics, are notoriously hard to pull off.  Facing similar problems, Herbert Ross’s poorly received NIJINSKY/’80 comes off better than most.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/03/nijinsky-1980.html

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