| Rudolf Nureyev (1972) |
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| Rudolf Nureyev — onstage—is both magnificent beast and great classicist. It is this animal quality held in check by superb discipline that makes hs performances so exciting. No other ballet dancer has this tension of leashed power straining against schooled excellence. Yet this is not the Nureyev you will see in "I Am a Dancer," a firm that attempts to show his versatility in four types of ballets, but perversely ignores the base upon which his reputation rests. For ultimately Nureyev will be remembered not only for the high technical standard of male dancing he brought to the West from Russia in 1961, but as a great clascial dancer in the 19th century ballet classics. Something of the excitement Nureyev can bring to these old ballets flickers through the last minute of this film. He is seen leaping around the stage in a performance of the Royal Ballet's "Sleeping Beauty." All the splendor and brilliance of the classical ballet tradition is there and Nureyev is part of it. This is what Pierre Jourdan, the French director of this French-British production, fails to demonstrate, perhaps because he does not really understand the one full ballet and three excerpts in which he presents Nureyev so uncharacteristically. The first sequence is from "La Sylphide," an 1836 Romantic ballet by the Danish choreographer Auguste Bournonville, in which Nureyev and Carla Fracci, one of today's best Sylphides, establish no rapport whatsoever. "La Sylphide" has only recently entered Nureyev's repertory, and it was perhaps unwise to record him in a Bournonville ballet. This is a delicate work that depends on image more than on virtuosity, and the camera wrongly stresses footwork over atmosphere. A more tedious ballet, paradoxically, provides the film with moments of great interest. Nureyev, now quite anxious to move into the modern-dance field, is seen rehearsing a duet with Deanne Bergama from "Field Figures," by the contemporary American choreographer Glen Tetley, and he brings to it an overwhelming physicality. Of course, all this huffing and puffing is unnecessary, but his refusal to spare himself or his body is absolutely fascinating. There is a hint of what makes Nureyev Nureyev in the complete filmed version of Sir Frederick Ashton's "Marguerite and Armand." Yet Ashton is too good a choreographer to be judged by this schmaltzy reworking or "Camille," and Nureyev and Dame Margot Fonteyn, acting and dancing their hearts out, have more to offer in ballet than hand-wringing and cape-flinging. Having chosen a literary ballet, the film underscores its weakness by providing it with narration. In the fourth sequence, Lynn Seymour and Nureyev appear to be greeted with canned applause in dancing the grand pas de deux of "Sleeping Beauty" on an empty stage ordinarily filled with other dancers. This was Mr. Jourdan's chance to show Nureyev at his best. But the resplendence of a famous ballet showpiece is destroyed through a shabby and dark setting. The dance sequences are linked by offstage glimpses of Nureyev, replete with the nonsense non-Russians say about Russians (for instance, the idea that Nureyev's international bookings can be traced to the nomadic instinct of his Tartar ancestry). Nothing is to be gleaned about Nureyev's personal life here, but he does seem to be a regular fellow in Fonteyn's and Ashton's presence. There is one wonderful flash of spontaeity as he clears a way among his fans by swatting them with a long-stemmed rose. Nureyev is one of those people who make the world more interesting than it often is. Even a bad film about him can't all that bad. "I Am a Dancer" opened yesterday at the Ziegfeld Theater. The Program I AM A DANCER, directed by Pierre Jourdan; narration written by John Percival; produced by Evdoros Demetriou; presented by Sam Lang and J. Arthur Elliot in association with EMI Film Productions Limited; released by Cinevision Films, Ltd. Running time: 93 minutes. At the Ziegfeld Theater. Avenue of the Americas and 54th Street. With Rudolf Nureyev, Margot Fonteyn, Carla Fracci, Lynn Seymour, Deanne Bergsma. |
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