+ Best Biopic of the Year + Best Dance Movie of the Year + Best Paris Movie of the Year + Best Political Movie of the Year
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| Star Oleg Ivenko's arms, head and torso stretch out as if in a classical painting on this magnificent poster for Ralph Fienes' The White Crow |
Rudolf Nureyev was a precocious outsider from childhood, when he discovered the marvel of ballet. As a young man, he evolved into a master dancer with huge self-confidence but little knack for submitting to the restrictive realities of life in the USSR.
The White Crow is written by David Hare (The Hours (2002)), based on the book Rudolf Nureyev: The Life (2007) by Julie Kavanagh, and directed by Ralph Fiennes (Coriolanus (2011)).
The film skips back and forth in chronology, and the resulting impression isn't so much disjointed as just not parallel to the elegance of the exquisite dancing we witness. The story comes across, anyhow.
And the story of The White Crow, (which is a Russian nickname that Nureyev gets attached to himself from boyhood due to his qualities as sticking out and being 'different'), is one of the need and thirst for freedom, which again proves a compelling conflict here. Nureyev needs freedom to dance and spread his talent to the foreign lands that want to book him and the Soviet company he dances with, but he also thirsts for freedom simply because he is a wild soul, who does not and doesn't want to conform to the dictates of the grey, despicable figures of the Communist regime.
Ballet-lovers should find plenty to like in The White Crow, which stars acting newcomer Oleg Ivenko, a Ukrainian-born, celebrated dancer based in Tatarstan, Russia, who has trained ballet since the age of 5. Fiennes and Hare also stick with plenty of Russian dialog (as well as French and English when it makes sense story-wise), and Ivenko impresses especially in his dancing scenes, in which he is superb. Nureyev is a head-strong character, not always sympathetically so, and I believed in Ivenko in his portrayal.
Nureyev was also likely bisexual, though The White Crow is content to let the matter fly: SPOILER Nureyev sleeps with his possibly impotent teacher (Fiennes also gives a solid performance, speaking convincing Russian) and a beautiful male German ballet student (Louis Hofmann (Land of Mine/Under Sandet (2015))). The film adores the male physique unapologetically throughout, which is only right.
Adèle Exarchopoulos (Pieces of Me/Des Morceaux de Moi (2012)) gives another strong and sensual performance as another friend of Nureyev's, who due to her connection to the French minister of culture is able to help the dancer with his highly-charged defecting to the West: This short but pivotal hour or two in the artist's life is brought to vivid life, as Nureyev realizes that the weary company manager of the KGB has gotten orders to restrain him back to the Soviet Union and possibly end his career; and a high-stakes defection drama plays out in the Paris airport. The life-altering tension is very palpable, and the malign realities of the USSR regime are laid bare on film again.
Related posts:
Ralph Fiennes: 2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - A very very good dream (starring actor)
Wrath of the Titans (2012) or, Trash of the Titans (co-star)
Skyfall (2012) - Mendes elevates a slickly produced modern Bond to thrilling heights (co-star)
The Reader (2008) or, Guilt, Words and Love (starring actor)
The Constant Gardner (2005) - Meirelles' first-rate third world thriller (starring actor)
Spider (2002) - Cronenberg takes us to the tormented (and slightly dull) mind of a schizophrenic (starring actor)
The English Patient (1996) - Minghella's oppulent, beautifully produced and shot, but nevertheless boring classic (starring actor)
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: Unknown
Box office: 7. 2 mil. $ and counting
= Uncertain - but likely a big flop
[The White Crow premiered 31 August (Telluride Film Festival, Colorado) and runs 127 minutes. Hayden Christensen was first choice to star in the film, but an ankle injury made this impossible. Fiennes did not want to co-star in the film but was pressured to do so to secure financing. Shooting took place in France, Belgrade, Serbia, St. Petersburg, Russia and in Croatia, completed in October 2017. The film opened #29 to a 78k $ first weekend in 5 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #19 and in 365 theaters, grossing 1.8 mil. $ (25 % of the gross to date). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets so far are main production country the UK with 1.5 mil. $ (20.8 %) and France with 1.1 mil. $ (15.3 %). The film has one announced market left to open in: Germany on 26 September. If made on a low budget of 5 mil. $, the film still ranks as a big flop. Fiennes does not have his next directing job announced yet. Ivenko also does not have another film lined up and has returned to the stage for now. The White Crow is fresh at 66 % with a 6.37/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of The White Crow?
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