Word: nureyev
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...into obscurity. It was not until Margot Fonteyn and the Sadler's Wells company brought the work back in 1949 in a performance of pristine elegance that Tchaikovsky's Beauty emerged as the belle of the ballet. Now, fitted out with new staging and choreography by Rudolf Nureyev, and preening in an elaborate wardrobe of costumes and sets, the National Ballet of Canada's new Sleeping Beauty is on display at the Metropolitan Opera. It is a stunning production...
...audience), and the camera is placed so close to the dancers that any illusion of reality is lost. As a result, in La Sylphide about a Scottish lord who falls in love with a wood nymph), as the camera glides coyly behind a plastic bush and peers out at Nureyev in white lipstick and kilt, nostrils flaring, the effect is more like a parody of Brigadoon than serious, classical ballet. In The Sleeping Beauty, it is grossly unfair to Lynn Seymour that the camera is close enough todistract the audience's attention from her accomplished performance tothe fact that...
...enough that the audience is practically sitting in the performers' laps, the unified effect of dancing bodies is constantly being interrupted by close-ups of bits of anatomy--a thigh or a wrist, even a set of armpits. And, for a touch of glamor, there are artistic effects, like Nureyev divided into six images, all kicking each other in the head. This kind of overbearing camerawork is an insult tothe efforts of the performers and to the intelligence of the audience...
...FILM records some great dancing despite itself, which is hardly surprising since the cameras are focused on some of the best dancers now active. It is wonderful to watch Nureyev exercising: the control in his legs and his amazing, back-breaking discipline. The Field Figures segment is fairly successful, partly because modern ballet, like modern dance, depends more on physical relationships than on theatrical effects and can therefore stand the closeness of the camera, and also because Bergsma is a fascinating dancer. She has legs which rival Nureyev's, in their own special way. And, of course, he and Fonteyn...
There are some great moments--watching Nureyev is always rewarding--and for those who are willing to eat bread when they should be getting cake the film is worth seeing. But one of the great potentials of film is that it can record performances in the other arts, relaying the talents of an artist to those unable to attend live performances, and preserving them for posterity. It is hardly too much to ask that a film about Rudolf Nureyev preserve the dignity of his talents and some semblance of the authentic experience of ballet...