Nijinsky (film)

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.

Quick Facts Directed by, Written by ...

Nijinsky
Theater poster
Directed by	Herbert Ross
Written by	Hugh Wheeler Romola Nijinsky Vaslav Nijinsky
Produced by	Nora Kaye Stanley O'Toole Harry Saltzman
Starring	Alan Bates Leslie Browne George de la Peña Alan Badel Colin Blakely Carla Fracci
Cinematography	Douglas Slocombe
Edited by	William Reynolds
Production company	Hera Productions
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	March 20, 1980 (1980-03-20)
Running time	129 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$1,047,454[1]

Close

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.

• Harry Saltzman purchased the rights in 1969 from film director Charles Vidor's widow.^[2] 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.^[2]
• 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.

Reception to Nijinsky is mixed. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 50% of 8 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.5/10.^[3]

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."^[4]

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."^[5]

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."^[6]

Director Tony Richardson, who had intended to direct the planned 1970 film on Nijinsky, considered this 1980 film a "travesty".^[7]