Nijinsky (film)

{{Infobox film

| name = Nijinsky

| image = NijinskyPoster.JPG

| caption = Theater poster

| director = Herbert Ross

| producer = Nora Kaye
Stanley O'Toole
Harry Saltzman

| writer = Hugh Wheeler
Romola Nijinsky
Vaslav Nijinsky

| narrator =

| starring = Alan Bates
Leslie Browne
George de la Peña
Alan Badel
Colin Blakely
Carla Fracci

| music =

| cinematography = Douglas Slocombe

| editing = William Reynolds

| studio = Hera Productions

| distributor = Paramount Pictures

| released = {{Film date|1980|03|20}}

| runtime = 129 min.

| country = United States

| language = English

| budget =

| gross = $1,047,454{{cite web|url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=nijinsky80.htm|title=Nijinsky (1980) - Box Office Mojo|website=www.boxofficemojo.com}}

}}

Nijinsky is a 1980 American biographical film directed by Herbert Ross. Hugh Wheeler wrote a screenplay that explores the later life and career of Vaslav Nijinsky; it was based largely on the premier danseur's personal diaries (a bowdlerized 1936 version was edited and published by his wife, Romola de Pulszky), and her 1934 biography of Nijinsky, largely ghostwritten by Lincoln Kirstein, who later co-founded the New York City Ballet.

Plot

The film suggests Nijinsky was driven into madness by both his consuming ambition and self-enforced heterosexuality. He became involved with Romola de Pulszky, a society girl who joined impresario Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes specifically to seduce Nijinsky. After a series of misunderstandings with Diaghilev, who is both his domineering mentor and possessive lover, Nijinsky succumbs to Romola's charms and marries her. After this, his gradual decline from artistic moodiness to a diagnosis of schizophrenia begins.

Principal cast

Alan Bates ..... Sergei Diaghilev
George de la Peña ..... Vaslav Nijinsky
Leslie Browne ..... Romola de Pulsky
Carla Fracci ..... Tamara Karsavina
Ronald Pickup ..... Igor Stravinsky
Vernon Dobtcheff ..... Sergei Grigoriev
Frederick Jaeger ..... Gabriel Astruc
Janet Suzman ..... Emilia Marcus
Siân Phillips ..... Lady Ripon
Alan Badel ..... Baron de Gunzburg
Colin Blakely ..... Vassili
Ronald Lacey ..... Léon Bakst
Jeremy Irons ..... Mikhail Fokine
Anton Dolin ..... Maestro Cecchetti
Hetty Baynes ..... Magda

==Principal production credits==

Producers ..... Harry Saltzman, Nora Kaye
Musical Conductor ..... John Lanchbery
Cinematography ..... Douglas Slocombe
Production Design ..... John Blezard
Art Direction ..... George Richardson
Costume Design ..... Alan Barrett
Ballet mistress ..... Irina Baronova

==Soundtrack==

"Invitation to the Dance" from Le Spectre de la Rose by Carl Maria von Weber
Scheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Prelude à l'Après-midi d'un faune by Claude Debussy
Jeux by Claude Debussy
Carnaval by Robert Schumann
The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky
Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin
Petrushka by Igor Stravinsky

Production notes

Harry Saltzman purchased the rights in 1969 from film director Charles Vidor's widow.{{cite journal|title=American Film|volume=5|issue=1–10|year=1979|page=19}} Saltzman had originally promised to let Ken Russell direct the film, but due to a falling out, Saltzman hired Tony Richardson to direct. The film was canceled during pre-production. After the success of Herbert Ross's ballet film The Turning Point, Saltzman approached Ross to direct; Ross was initially unenthusiastic.
This was Herbert Ross' second film to focus on the world of ballet. In his 1977 film he had worked with Mikhail Baryshnikov and other members of the American Ballet Theatre. Baryshnikov turned down the role of Vaslav Nijinsky as the American Ballet Theatre had promoted him to the role of Artistic Director.
Nijinsky was the film debut of Jeremy Irons. It was the second to last film produced by Harry Saltzman.
The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Festival Ballet were featured in the dance sequences. David Hersey of the National Film Theatre in London designed the theatrical lighting in these scenes.

Critical reception

Reception to Nijinsky is mixed. {{Rotten Tomatoes prose|50|4.5|8}}{{Cite Rotten Tomatoes |id=nijinsky |type=movie |title=Nijinsky |access-date=December 27, 2022}}

In his review in Time, Richard Schickel opined, "Some people will be titillated by the openness with which homosexual love is portrayed in the film. But this is mostly a slow, cautious biography, elegantly attentive to Edwardian decor and dress. It slights Nijinsky's melodramatic story and, finally, offends with its relentless reductionism. There are times when excesses of good taste become a kind of bad taste, a falsification of a subject's spirit and milieu. This is never more true than when the troubles of a genius are presented in boring and conventional terms."{{cite magazine|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,921903,00.html?promoid=googlep|title=Cinema: Blunted Point|first=Richard|last=Schickel|magazine=Time |date=24 March 1980|via=content.time.com}}

Time Out London calls it "the best gay weepie since Death in Venice … the first major studio film to centre on a male homosexual relationship (albeit a doomed one) without being moralistic … director Ross and writer Hugh Wheeler … do right by their male characters (Alan Bates, in particular, is a plausibly adult Diaghilev), their grasp of the historical reconstructions seems more than competent, and their dialogue and exposition are unusually adroit. Best of all, they never show ballet for its own sake, and have the courage to keep emotional dynamics in the forefront throughout."{{cite web|url=http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/63411/nijinsky.html|title=Nijinsky, directed by Herbert Ross - Film review}}

Channel 4 says, "What could have been a powerful period drama quickly descends into soap opera territory … but it's always watchable, and director Ross … laces the action with some well-choregraphed dance."[http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=nijinsky29&date=20020829 Channel 4 review], Seattle Times

Director Tony Richardson, who had intended to direct the planned 1970 film on Nijinsky, considered this 1980 film a "travesty".{{cite book|last=Richardson|first=Tony|author-link=Tony Richardson|title=The Long-Distance Runner: An Autobiography|publisher=William Morrow and Company|year=1993|isbn=9780688121013|page=[https://archive.org/details/longdistancerunn00rich/page/273 273]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/longdistancerunn00rich/page/273}}