I'm not half as enamored with this film as when I first saw it back in 1977.
First of all, there's too much ballet in it. I know that sounds dumb since it's a story within the world of ballet, but what's really key here is the character development. Too much ballet was almost distracting.
Second, Mikhail Baryshnikov was pretty much irrelevant to the story other than as a human prop. The would have been better to hire an actor and faked the dancing with a double...pretty much as they did with Anne Bancroft. I know Baryshnikov was all the rage at the time (and rightfully so), but let's face it, film was not his forte.
This film was key to Shirley MacLaine's "era of sophistication". MacLaine was pretty versatile, and I often enjoyed her breadth of acting. Not sure she was the best actress for this role, but she is believable as a mother, if not as a former ballerina.
Anne Bancroft is fine here...again, as an actress, but she did no real ballet dancing. Good acting performance, however.
Tom Skerritt is very believable as the father. I was particularly pleased to see Martha Scott here,,,a terribly underrated actress.
The story itself is a bit obtuse. Who is the real focus of the story? The young ballerina? Not really...again, she is a prop. It's about jealousy between a prima ballerina (Bancroft) and a could have been ballerina (MacLaine). Each has given up what the other has. And thereby exists the problem here -- the story is really about the old broads, but it focuses for most of the film on the young ballerina. Of course the highlight of the film -- and one of the main reasons it got so much attention when it was released, is the fight between MacLaine and Bancroft.
First of all, there's too much ballet in it. I know that sounds dumb since it's a story within the world of ballet, but what's really key here is the character development. Too much ballet was almost distracting.
Second, Mikhail Baryshnikov was pretty much irrelevant to the story other than as a human prop. The would have been better to hire an actor and faked the dancing with a double...pretty much as they did with Anne Bancroft. I know Baryshnikov was all the rage at the time (and rightfully so), but let's face it, film was not his forte.
This film was key to Shirley MacLaine's "era of sophistication". MacLaine was pretty versatile, and I often enjoyed her breadth of acting. Not sure she was the best actress for this role, but she is believable as a mother, if not as a former ballerina.
Anne Bancroft is fine here...again, as an actress, but she did no real ballet dancing. Good acting performance, however.
Tom Skerritt is very believable as the father. I was particularly pleased to see Martha Scott here,,,a terribly underrated actress.
The story itself is a bit obtuse. Who is the real focus of the story? The young ballerina? Not really...again, she is a prop. It's about jealousy between a prima ballerina (Bancroft) and a could have been ballerina (MacLaine). Each has given up what the other has. And thereby exists the problem here -- the story is really about the old broads, but it focuses for most of the film on the young ballerina. Of course the highlight of the film -- and one of the main reasons it got so much attention when it was released, is the fight between MacLaine and Bancroft.