The White Swan

[PeggyR]

I found this article in the on-line edition of the British newspaper, The Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml...bfpowell130.xml

Can't believe I've never heard about it before, although I'm sure someone here has: a film about Pavlova by Michael Powell (of "The Red Shoes" fame). According to the article, the original was meant to be a five hour television mini-series, was edited down to a two hour 10 minute film, but now has been restored to its original length. And I must say, it's too bad Jack Nicholson and Robert de Niro didn't make it into the movie as originally intended!

IMDb lists this as being titled 'Anna Pavlova', released in 1983 (the Telegraph article says 1985). I found a photo on the internet of Balyayeva and Kinnear, but the film is called 'Divine Anna': http://visualrian.com/images/item/10046.

Hope this turns up on PBS soon.

Peggy

[Lidewij]

I have seen a movie on youtube, quite some time ago (it has been deleted, I think), with the title "Pavlova", and the description said it was from 1983; although it was in black and white, and dubbed in English (the original was in Russian, I believe)..

So I don't think that would be the movie you mean..

[bart]

Thank you, PeggyR, for posting that article. Although the original release was cut and stitched together in a way that made it "an artistic disaster," it's wonderful that there's enough material (5 hours!!!) -- along with some reshooting of ballet sequences -- to give this project a second chance.

NHK in Japan, Arte in France and PBS in the USA are jostling to buy broadcasting rights. Is it too much to hope that The White Swan will also be seen on British television?

This is truly exciting news. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for PBS to acquire rights for the US.

Has anyone else seen the original version? Any thoughts about Galina Belyayeva? Playing an icon like Pavlova must have been a daunting assignment.