Biopic of Soviet Union era dancer Rudolf Nureyev who was one of the first major defections across the Iron Curtain in Paris, 1961.
Directed by Ralph Fiennes, more accustomed to seeing him as an actor, although he has directed 3 major films before I have learned.
The film has writing credits by playwright David Hare and Fiennes also has a producer credit as well as having an actor role as dance instructor Pushkin.
The title, The White Crow? What is its meaning? Well we are told at the beginning of the film it is a Russian term for someone who is unusual or a black sheep as such.
Nureyev certainly fits into that role as we learn as the film develops.
The film has three timelines which can be confusing as Fiennes switches between them. The timelines are flashbacks to Nureyev's childhood. His birth on the Trans Siberian train, his poor upbringing in a poor Soviet provincial city and his mother giving him up to the Soviet authorities.
Another timeline shows Nureyev training in Soviet Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in a bleak city several years before a trip to Paris by his Soviet dance troupe under KGB observation of course.
I prefer a single timeline narrative to avoid such confusion especially when other issues such as sexuality and the political defection thriller more akin to a John le Carré thriller develops in the final act.
An interesting oddity that I liked about the film is the characters speak in fluent Russian when in Russia (with subtitles of course!) and broken English in Paris.
Other films have embarrassed themselves with supposedly Russian characters speaking in questionable English complete with broad accents.
1961 Nureyev is played by Oleg Ivenko a Ukrainian ballet dancer with some decent acting ability rather than the use of body doubles for the 'punishing' for want of a better word dance scenes!
As I have briefly mentioned the final act, the defection itself in a tense scene in a Paris airport is riveting and a reminder of how things were in the Cold War era.
A film worthy of a watch, with merits but not perfect.
Directed by Ralph Fiennes, more accustomed to seeing him as an actor, although he has directed 3 major films before I have learned.
The film has writing credits by playwright David Hare and Fiennes also has a producer credit as well as having an actor role as dance instructor Pushkin.
The title, The White Crow? What is its meaning? Well we are told at the beginning of the film it is a Russian term for someone who is unusual or a black sheep as such.
Nureyev certainly fits into that role as we learn as the film develops.
The film has three timelines which can be confusing as Fiennes switches between them. The timelines are flashbacks to Nureyev's childhood. His birth on the Trans Siberian train, his poor upbringing in a poor Soviet provincial city and his mother giving him up to the Soviet authorities.
Another timeline shows Nureyev training in Soviet Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in a bleak city several years before a trip to Paris by his Soviet dance troupe under KGB observation of course.
I prefer a single timeline narrative to avoid such confusion especially when other issues such as sexuality and the political defection thriller more akin to a John le Carré thriller develops in the final act.
An interesting oddity that I liked about the film is the characters speak in fluent Russian when in Russia (with subtitles of course!) and broken English in Paris.
Other films have embarrassed themselves with supposedly Russian characters speaking in questionable English complete with broad accents.
1961 Nureyev is played by Oleg Ivenko a Ukrainian ballet dancer with some decent acting ability rather than the use of body doubles for the 'punishing' for want of a better word dance scenes!
As I have briefly mentioned the final act, the defection itself in a tense scene in a Paris airport is riveting and a reminder of how things were in the Cold War era.
A film worthy of a watch, with merits but not perfect.