Balanchine in the movies

[sandik]

As for Suzanne Farrell, let's face it, nobody could play her, not the person and certainly not the dancer! She should be portrayed by a stream of light that morphs unpredictably, sometimes appearing in the form of a radiant votive candle, sometimes like a fiery thunderbolt out of the blue.

Oh dear -- when Richard Attenborough was preparing to make "Gandhi" there were still many people around who had known him, and had very specific opinions about what should and shouldn't go into a film about him. One woman apparently felt that his spiritual power was much more important than his corporeal presence, and told Attenborough that Gandhi could only be portrayed as a beam of light. The director replied (paraphrase) that he wasn't making a movie about a bloody Tinkerbell.

[dirac]

Thanks, sandik, for reminding me of that quote from Attenborough.