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Word: nureyev (lookup in dictionary) (lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
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Usage:

...early moguls. As usual, Russell hammers one over the head with gaudy and excessive cliches of a bygone era's decor. They have a certain visual excitement, but they say more about his own feverish temperament than about the spirit of the age. The use of Rudolf Nureyev for Rudolph Valentino was canny in conception-both men display an animal magnetism that audiences have found irresistible. But Rudy I had a very different appeal from Rudy II; the Valentino swagger was manifestly a device to hide his vulnerability and naiveté. Nureyev is an athlete, a sophisticated stage performer...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Cinema: Rudy II as Rudy I in a Gaudy Bust | 10/17/1977 | See Source »

...Charleston and ballroom-dancing sequences, Nureyev shows the audience what might have been: an erotic figure far more alive than the glittery props and people who surrounded him. But the actor's incapacities are in fact enlarged, rather than disguised, by Director Russell. The major movie that might have been is swallowed by the pretensions of a director who, like his villains, murders what he claims to dissect. - Richard Schickel

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Cinema: Rudy II as Rudy I in a Gaudy Bust | 10/17/1977 | See Source »

...Nureyev's Valentino is mostly a credible performance, but he is no nascent film star. No glaring flaws scar his rendition of the silent film idol; he delivers a convincing Italian accent, and the spectacle of star-struck women clustering about this Valentino is plausible. The script wisely makes use of Nureyev's awesome talents on a dance floor at several stages, and the opportunity to watch him glide through tangos briefly takes one's mind off the film's many lesser moments. Russell did choose good raw material for the title character, but the script he co-authored with...

Author: By Joe Contreras, | Title: A Chic Sheik | 10/14/1977 | See Source »

...Nureyev's supporting cast does little to help pick up the slack. Making a comeback on the screen for the first time since the days of An American in Paris, Leslie Caron plays a middle-aged Russian star on the decline, who dreams of sharing top billing with the new sensation of Hollywood. Her performance betrays the length of her absence from movies; in a role that calls for an eccentric sort, Caron fails to discriminate between the passionate and the hammy. Her performance deteriorates into a caricature of The Beautiful People of that period. Michelle Phillips passes...

Author: By Joe Contreras, | Title: A Chic Sheik | 10/14/1977 | See Source »

...taken a downward turn is to examine which areas of the movie received most of the director's attention. When critics can only muster compliments such as "ravishing to look at" and "visually stunning," something is missing. Russell's Valentino is a case in point. The shots of Nureyev working on the California desert during the filming of The Sheik provide delights for the eye, as do the many crowd scenes. But the audience should be able to expect more from a director with Russell's experience than artsy effects with the camera. Russell never seems conscious of this obligation...

Author: By Joe Contreras, | Title: A Chic Sheik | 10/14/1977 | See Source »

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