"Balanchine the Movie"-- what do you think?

[bart]

Sandy McKean posted the following on our current Balanchine/Macaulay thread:

Now, would this be interesting???? How about a similar movie based on Balanchine's life. It seems to me (seriously) that Balanchine's life would make a fascinating movie. It would have it all.....escape from an oppressive regime, wild life of youth, success and failure, genius, 6 marriages (or how ever you count), beautiful sexy babes everywhere, great artistic achievement, Hollywood, Broadway, his friendship with Stravinsky, the Suzzane Farrell entanglement of unrequited love. Makes Mozart's life seem humdrum in comparison!

Sandy, you're really on to something! I'm already impatient to see this flm!

Does anyone have any ideas about:

-- casting? (Balanchine, his women, Diaghilev, Stravinsky, Kirstein, Martins etc. etc.)

-- which ballets to feature? (and who should dance them)

-- key episodes from his life?

-- choreographic colleagues and/or rivals?

-- whether to include the elephants?

-- . . . . whatever strikes your fancy?

[SandyMcKean]

-- whether to include the elephants?

Definitely.............

The key would likely be who directed the movie. Nice change of pace for Martin Scorsese.

Gary Oldman might be a good Balanchine.

[Ray]

Sandy, you're really on to something! I'm already impatient to see this flm!

Does anyone have any ideas about:

-- casting? (Balanchine, his women, Diaghilev, Stravinsky, Kirstein, Martins etc. etc.)

Kirsten: John Malkovitch or, if he can get serious enough, Jeff Goldblum (or Wilem Defoe? Jim Broadbent?)

Mr. B when young: Johnny Depp

Stravinsky: Kevin Spacey

Martins: Viggo Mortensen

The women (and some of the male dancers) are going to be hard to cast b/c of the bodies--Hilary Swank could be someone, if she stays in shape--but

of course Scarlett Johansson will play the young Una Kai!

All this said, I think I'd rather see a good film about the Ballets Russes, which would of course include B.

[papeetepatrick]

All this said, I think I'd rather see a good film about the Ballets Russes, which would of course include B.

And I'd rather see PAUL MEJIA! (a new musical), which would of course include B. Like everything else, this would need Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role (and also as B...) and Penelope Cruz as Shari Mejia and Judi Dench as Romana Kryzanowska...Rona Barret as Arlene Croce, etc....PeeWee Herman as David Daniel..have I left out anybody?

[bart]

Ray, there's always the biopic about Nijinsky to give us some ideas:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081235/.

it seems to me that Ross's film would serve as a model of what NOT to do when we make our film about Balanchine.

I lile Johnny Depp for the younger Balanchine. I'm looking at the book jacket of Richard Buckle's biography, and the young Balancine was very, very striking. I can see him attracting lots of women. How how about Ian McKellan for the older man? He is more of the cameleon than Malkovich. I'd go for a Continental European actor for Stravinsky, somebody who knows how to wear a suit and tie while changing a tire, not that Stravinsky ever changed any tires.

So, what about the women in his life?. Are all necessary? You could have them popping up from time to time as a kind of Greek chorus, I suppose. Or, Peter Martins could choreograph a dream sequence in which Depp and his dancer-double dances in turn with each of his wives and emerges emotionally devasted and much older. After this, he gathers up the pieces in order to create ... what?

It's a great job opportunity for dancers (or actresses who used to do ballet):

Danilova

Geva

Zorina

Tallchief

LeClerq

Farrell

Aroldingen

Any more? Was Mourka a female?

[SandyMcKean]

We need to cast the following:

Danilova

Geva

Zorina

Tallchief

LeClerq

Farrell

Aroldingen

Too tough.

Maybe we count our blessings if we can cast just Farrell and perhaps one other as a true character. I envision alluding to the other loves, and then somehow injecting an old film sequence of that lover's dancing. Tallchief doing Firebird; the Zorina clip out of some Hollywood movie......you get the idea.

[Quiggin]

Maybe Sokurov ("Russian Arc") could do a small film about Balanchine with unknowns, unknown at least to Western audiences. A meditative film--not "Night & Day" or "Words & Music".

Or else a small incident--small incidents make good films--such as the summer before Balanchine and Danilova and their company left Soviet Russia after one of their colleagues was drowned in a boating accident on a lake. It was an accident most likely set up by a KGB agent. Black and white in gorgeous tones and in the style of early Bergman or the neorealist Fellini of "I Vitelloni." Or Antonioni of "Among Women Only."

"Accident on the lake" brings to mind Montgomery Clift who would make an interesting Balanchine. It might not have that much to do with his life but he was a wonderful screen presence--and he has something of Balanchine's facial structure. Clift would craft out an interesting character in a way Johnny Depp couldn't.

[dirac]

The Ivanova idea is a great one, Quiggin.

Montgomery Clift is an interesting idea, but he would be too handsome. Not that Balanchine was unattractive by any means, but he does seem to have had some insecurity about his looks. He can't be an obvious heartbreaker or someeone the girls would automatically swoon over.

Depending on how long of a movie we’re talking about, room should be found for Holly Howard, Josephine Baker, Marie-Jeanne, Allegra Kent, Diana Adams, and Lucia Davidova, not to mention a few acerbic asides from Melissa Hayden, who could be the Eve Arden figure.

Balanchine’s story would make a better miniseries, I think, or a theatrical film focused on a given period in his life. There’s only so much you can squeeze into a feature film, even if it ran to two and a half or three hours. If I had to choose, I might opt for his early life, including the Ballet Russes period (“Young Balanchine”), which would make a very interesting and colorful film, or his Vera Zorina period. The Farrell years present casting issues and I’m not sure how appealing a movie centered around a sexagenarian with erotic designs on a teenager would turn out to be.

Any more? Was Mourka a female?

Nope.

Gary Oldman might be a good Balanchine.

Good idea, although he’s a little long in the tooth to play the younger Balanchine.

Fun topic, bart.

[SandyMcKean]

Balanchine’s story would make a better miniseries

You've hit on the solution.

I'm calling HBO in the morning!

[papeetepatrick]

Montgomery Clift is an interesting idea, but he would be too handsome. Not that Balanchine was unattractive by any means, but he does seem to have had some insecurity about his looks. He can't be an obvious heartbreaker or someeone the girls would automatically swoon over.

Now that's an interesting observation, I wonder if it's widely held. I've always thought Balanchine was GORGEOUS, far more so than Montgomery Clift.

[SandyMcKean]

I'm with dirac on this one.

There is that photo of Mr B in his early twenties standing at the rail of a boat in Venice I believe. He looks "gorgeous" in that photo, but that's the only time I can think of that he looked more handsome than exotic.

I'll leave it for the woman on the board to say definitively, but it would seem to me that Balanchine should be cast with a more "intriguing" look than a "handsome" look.

[dirac]

Quiggin does have a good point about facial structure, though - cheekbones, profile are indeed somewhat similar. But I'd still say Clift is too conventionally attractive.

[Quiggin]

If I had to choose, I might opt for his early life, including the Ballet Russes period

Yes, the meticulous setting of Apollo and the Prodigal Son would make the subject of a good film (director between Truffaut of Day for Night and Bresson of a Condemned Man Escaped).

Actually Diaghilev would not be that much of a presence--he was a little aloof during that period, maybe because of Igor Markevich ("half Igor"). Kochno was doing much of the work. The Apollo of the mid-twenties would be a shock to us, with the unaltered-for-Suzanne Farrell tempos and accents, the less than noble Lifar with his melty nose, the scene where the muses toss Apollo about on the tips of their feet.

Lord and Lady Keynes (Lydia Lopokova) would have to be characters of course. After dinner she and Balanchine once demonstrated to (the now fashionable again) Maynard Keynes how Firebird was danced. This was in 1947. Keynes noticed how shabby the sets for Ballet Imperial were and thought that if Balanchine's company toured in England, he could have the British stagehands remake them for much smaller sum of money. He was always the economist, according to his biographer, Skidelsky.

And the Zorina period would be a good focus. (She became Peter Lieberson the composer's mom.)

Yes any movie with an Eve Arden / Melissa Hayden character is a plus.

[bart]

It's still open to anyone and to all ideas: art film or biopick; documentary or invention; ballet-centered or romance/sex-centered. Please join in.

Quiggan, your smaller art film is beautiful. Would it be possible to open it up a bit, perhaps moving back and forth between the young Balanchine starting his romantic and creative life and daring to flee from the Soviet Union and the older, established Balanchine, now established in New York City, during the days of his pain about Farrell? This would make the film longer but would have the virtue of letting us know something of what happened to the young man.

I would prefer an art film myself, but ... if we go with a miniseries ... should it be like The Six Wives of Henry VIII, with each episode involving a different wife (plus Farrell -- though apparently NOT Morkha )?

Would a 9 Muses theme work? Each woman would be placed in a particular setting important to B's biography. We could show him working with each on a ballet from that period. . I don't know enough about figures like Marie-Jeanne, Davidova, etc., to place them. Aroldingen was important to him, but that's not much of a story.

Dirac, I'd certainly add Hayden/Eve Arden figure starting with the LeClerq episode. Perhaps she and Danilova could observe and comment over a cup of coffee after class. They'd be skeptical and acerbic-- but deep down they really love the guy.

I can think of 7 women at least who tie to the important periods in GB's life and who can be attached -- accurately or not -- to an important ballet of the period.

Danilova (Russia) -- show them learning something familiar to the audience like -- something everyone knows is "old" and "formal" -- but experimenting with more modern work late at night in a garret somewhere in Petrograd.

Geva (Diaghilev Ballet -- Apollon Musagete, which introduces Stravinsky. You'd have to stretch the truth and pretend that Geva danced Terpsichore.),

Zorina (Hollywood and Broadway -- On Your Toes),

Tallchief (starting the New York City Ballet. Firebird),

LeClerq (tragedy and betrayal. La Valse)

Kent (Can we invent for her a central role in a "Return to Russia" episode? And have them do Seven Deadly Sins? I admit this is a stretch. For the purists, have them do Sonnambula.)

Farrell (l'affaire Farrell. Don Quixote. Followed, after her return from exile, by Diamonds.)

If we cast dancers, who, I wonder, would be best for each of the women?

[Quiggin]

Would a 9 Muses theme work?

Bart: The director then would have to be Max Ophuls (Letter from an Unknown Woman and La Ronde) to balance all the stories and keep the elusiveness-of-eros theme rolling along.

[Mel Johnson]

Or we could just telescope the time and make it into one uproarious bedroom farce. Have lots of doors in the set.

[Ray]

And I'd rather see PAUL MEJIA! (a new musical), which would of course include B. Like everything else, this would need Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role (and also as B...) and Penelope Cruz as Shari Mejia and Judi Dench as Romana Kryzanowska...Rona Barret as Arlene Croce, etc....PeeWee Herman as David Daniel..have I left out anybody?

Hey I'm still stuck on MEJIA: THE MUSICAL! Don't forget Minnie Driver as Maria Teresia Mejia (nee Balough), PM's current wife whom he met while co-director of Tallchief's Chicago co. in the early eighties--and still married to Farrell. Other casting would include:

Tallchief--Faye Dunaway?

Farrrell

The young and swarthy Pascal Benichou, important for a memorable duet with PM where Benichou sings to PM, "You're not George Balanchine"-- in the vein of Robin Williams to Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting: "It's not your fault."

Bejart

Some of the late sixties NYCB figures, like Vilella (as a mentor figure, of course) and John Clifford (who had to have been competing w/PM for choreographic attention, if I have my chronology right; or, if I don't, we'll just make it all up!).

How tall is Daniel Day-Lewis? Remember that Mejia is on the short side--George De La Pena could work for the current-day Mejia. Maybe "Freddie" from Six Feet Under as the younger PM?

OK...back to work!

[bart]

Hey I'm still stuck on MEJIA: THE MUSICAL!

There's a place on the screen for everything, I suppose. As our Balanchine is to Hamlet, this "Mejia" might be to ... what? ... Rosenkranz and Guildenstern are Dead?

I do think there'd be a real benefit to a serious film about Balanchine and his Work as well as his Women. I hear casual ballet attenders saying again and again, "I don't like Balanchine" even though they've seen very little of his work.

I personally love the tongue-in-cheek approach to this. Mel's suggestion of multiple stage doors in the style of the Marx Brothers or Noises Off! is brilliant. When your dealing with the average movie-goer, however, is it possible to communicate satire about people they don't know or don't care about? I'm not sure.

In the 30s and 40s Hollywood studios were constantly turning out films about famous creative geniuses: their suffering, their troubled love lives, AND their work (however simplified). To an extent, the Nijinsky and Tchaikovsky biopics of the 80s tried to do this as well. Is there an audience for such works -- whether about Balanchine or anyone else in classical arts -- in the current cultural marketplace?

[papeetepatrick]

The young and swarthy Pascal Benichou, important for a memorable duet with PM where Benichou sings to PM, "You're not George Balanchine"-- in the vein of Robin Williams to Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting: "It's not your fault."

THAT is hilarious...as is Faye Dunaway as Tallchief.

My take on Mel's would be more like a Marivaux play.

[Helene]

I don't think there's an actress in her teens, 20's, or 30's that could compete with the young Maria Tallchief's beauty (ETA), but Faye Dunaway is a stroke of genius.

My cast, ignoring that they'd never all be the right age (or alive) at the right time, and the accents would be all over the place:

Allegra Kent: Ludivine Sagnier, the young actress from "Swimming Pool"

Conrad Ludlow: Leslie Howard

Vera Zorina: Lena Olin

Suzanne Farrell: Juliette Binoche

Edward Villella: Al Pacino

Jacques d'Amboise: Bill Nye (The Science Guy)

Lincoln Kirstein: Orson Welles

For Balanchine, maybe Charlie Chaplin.

[Ray]

I don't think there's an actress in her teens, 20's, or 30's that could compete with the young Maria Tallchief's beauty (ETA), but Faye Dunaway is a stroke of genius.

My cast, ignoring that they'd never all be the right age (or alive) at the right time, and the accents would be all over the place:

Allegra Kent: Ludivine Sagnier, the young actress from "Swimming Pool"

Conrad Ludlow: Leslie Howard

Vera Zorina: Lena Olin

Suzanne Farrell: Juliette Binoche

Edward Villella: Al Pacino

Jacques d'Amboise: Bill Nye (The Science Guy)

Lincoln Kirstein: Orson Welles

For Balanchine, maybe Charlie Chaplin.

Inspired choices! I LOVED Swimming Pool, btw!

There is an actress out there now in film who looks like the young Tallcheif, btw--darned if I can remember her name.

Other Kirstein choices: Bill Irwin (he's tall--wait, maybe he could play d'Amboise) Harvey Fierstein (for the voice?!?)

Conrad Ludlow: Another Bill: Pullman

[papeetepatrick]

Better than a miniseries (because everything is going to fall short, no matter what) is an 80s-style nighttime soap called BALANCHINE ! after 'Dallas', 'Dynasty' and 'Falcon Crest'.

I can't wait for the opening credits which zoom in on the KOCH THEATRE, with rousing music by MIKE POST. I want the closing credits to be a MEDLEY OF FRANZ WAXMAN MOVIE MUSIC, including 'The Theme from Peyton Place'.

Lee Radziwill as Barbara Horgan...hasn't had a part since 'Laura'...Robin McNeil as Himself and Lesley Stahl as Herself...Rin Tin Tin and/or Lassie as one of the Famous Dogs of Ballerinas...

[dirac]

Yes, the meticulous setting of Apollo and the Prodigal Son would make the subject of a good film (director between Truffaut of Day for Night and Bresson of a Condemned Man Escaped).

I thought of Truffaut too, Quiggin. Bresson wouldn't have occurred to me but I think you're on to something. (On the other hand he might cast Léaud as Balanchine.)

Alan Rudolph isn’t a director on that level but he’s taken an interest in the period and he can handle a crowded canvas.

[Quiggin]

Lincoln Kirstein: Orson Welles

For Balanchine, maybe Charlie Chaplin.

Welles would create his own solipsistic world for Kirstein, and Chaplin would be nicely enigmatic for Balanchine. The place to use Johnny Depp might be for Conrad Ludlow--or even for Leslie Howard.

[dirac]

I just realized my post reads as if I'm suggesting Bresson would cast Leaud. Didn't mean that, obviously.

Welles is a great idea for Kirstein.