Nureyev (2018)

[Friend!Food! Oleson]

I haven't watched all of it yet but I think he deserves his own thread.
The various unseen narrators (sometimes impersonating one of the people mentioned in the documentary) is a little bit confusing and that also makes it harder to absorb all the information. And there's so much.

And to see all of that in one film makes me realise I've always underappreciated the power and glamour and enormity of ballet in both art and pop culture. I mean, I knew it and understood it, but I don't think I've ever felt it.
Ruldof Nureyev is of course the enigmatic centre in this tale of ballet history and there's footage of him as a young man and new talent in Paris.
Events are also staged by performers but only physically. I feel I don't always need it but things may look less lively without it.
I'll watch the rest of it tomorrow, I'm sure the ending isn't going to be lots of fun.

 

[Friend!Food! Oleson]

I ve watched the second part and most of it is about his career and the political shenanigans in Russia. I'm sure there was much more to tell but at least we got this.
It sure made me think of the distinction between popular artists and the worshipping of the superhumans.
Nureyev wasn't the only one, of course, there are extraordinarily talented people in every kind of art - but that talent seems to be magnified by the physical performance of dance. The documentary comes with several sub-titles and one of them is "an orgy of one", and I think that perfectly describes the Narcissus quality of ballet.

Then there's Rudolf as Rudolph (Valentino) which is about both Rudolfs rather than an ambitious biopic.

He did a lot of interviews (I'm sure there's some of it on youtube) and it kinda looks as if everyone involved (including Nureyev himself) wanted to maintain the novelty of the Russian "rockstar".

 

[Witchard Changeling]

On what platform is this streaming?

 

[Friend!Food! Oleson]

I watched it on Prime but it's not a prime exclusive and it wasn't free. I have to pay for most of the things I watch, but that also means that those choices are very deliberate. Not every choice is a winner but at least I'm not wasting my time on "content".