"Margot" offers a vignette of ballerina Margot Fonteyn's life, the halcyon period of the sixties when her dancing career was revitalised by Rudolph Nureyev, his inspiration renewing her vigour and even making her look younger. This BBC film exaggerates, perhaps, the extent of that special relationship which was rumoured to have briefly gone beyond simply a dancing partnership, but this really does not matter.
The dramatic story of a famous ballet dancer married to a Panamanian revolutionary, her muse a glamorous Russian dancing defector, is great stuff for a film. And despite some slightly tedious repetitions of stylised interviews with Fonteyn as 'information fillers' the drama is convincing. I loved the combinations of dance performance with the personal story, cleverly realised so that the brilliant acting of Anne-Marie Duff could be seen in ballet scenes requiring drama rather than dance, and a body double seen from the back for the dance sequences. The dance elements were very well structured.
Margot's personal agonies, especially with her marriage to a consistently unfaithful husband who depended on her earnings to fund his revolutionary activities, are wonderfully realised through Duff's acting. And, as Margot frequently had to do in real life, she disguised the tragedies in her personal life putting on a front hiding the realities. Just when Margot is about to divorce Tito, he is shot and her feelings are tragically compromised.
I lived through this story, I saw Margot Fonteyn dance with Nureyev in the sixties and into the seventies. I KNOW how marvellous she was and how great their partnership. I remember the newspaper headlines when Tito Arias was shot. The bones of the story are dramatic enough. This film puts meat on them and Anne-Marie Duff's performance is fabulous. She is matched by Huisman as Nureyev, and Derek Jacobi produces a star turn as Frederick Ashton right down to dropping his fag ash on dancers, and his over-the-top theatricality. Lindsay Duncan is lovely as Madame - Ninette de Valois - but she could have been even more autocratic as de Valois was known for her strictures and perfectionism and ensuring her dancers observe her rules. An early scene when Margot is dismayed to find she has been made a "Guest Artiste" without her knowledge is a remarkable cameo piece.
All in all, this film is well worth watching, thoroughly absorbing, and enhanced by wonderful acting. Authentic details such as Margot's fur coats, Nureyev's woolly hats, Ashton's gestures with cigarettes, all add to the feel of the film. Buy the DVD, you won't regret it.
The dramatic story of a famous ballet dancer married to a Panamanian revolutionary, her muse a glamorous Russian dancing defector, is great stuff for a film. And despite some slightly tedious repetitions of stylised interviews with Fonteyn as 'information fillers' the drama is convincing. I loved the combinations of dance performance with the personal story, cleverly realised so that the brilliant acting of Anne-Marie Duff could be seen in ballet scenes requiring drama rather than dance, and a body double seen from the back for the dance sequences. The dance elements were very well structured.
Margot's personal agonies, especially with her marriage to a consistently unfaithful husband who depended on her earnings to fund his revolutionary activities, are wonderfully realised through Duff's acting. And, as Margot frequently had to do in real life, she disguised the tragedies in her personal life putting on a front hiding the realities. Just when Margot is about to divorce Tito, he is shot and her feelings are tragically compromised.
I lived through this story, I saw Margot Fonteyn dance with Nureyev in the sixties and into the seventies. I KNOW how marvellous she was and how great their partnership. I remember the newspaper headlines when Tito Arias was shot. The bones of the story are dramatic enough. This film puts meat on them and Anne-Marie Duff's performance is fabulous. She is matched by Huisman as Nureyev, and Derek Jacobi produces a star turn as Frederick Ashton right down to dropping his fag ash on dancers, and his over-the-top theatricality. Lindsay Duncan is lovely as Madame - Ninette de Valois - but she could have been even more autocratic as de Valois was known for her strictures and perfectionism and ensuring her dancers observe her rules. An early scene when Margot is dismayed to find she has been made a "Guest Artiste" without her knowledge is a remarkable cameo piece.
All in all, this film is well worth watching, thoroughly absorbing, and enhanced by wonderful acting. Authentic details such as Margot's fur coats, Nureyev's woolly hats, Ashton's gestures with cigarettes, all add to the feel of the film. Buy the DVD, you won't regret it.