“Bolshoi” on Amazon Prime

[Deflope]

I stumbled upon this when looking for some commute viewing. The movie is about some girl from the wrong side of the tracks who is trying to become a star at the Bolshoi and stars real life dancers. The protagonist was played by Margarita Simonova of the Polish National Ballet, her frenemy is played by Anna Isaeva, who danced for Gordeev and the Kremlin. Nicolas Le Riche plays an international superstar on the verge of retirement. There are also current Bolshoi artists in the background like Artur Mkrtchyan  

As far as tone goes, it can be summed up by the speech at the end, to paraphrase , “you dance Odette/Odile tonight, tomorrow you go back to the corps. You have to work hard just like at the academy”. So neither Center Stage nor Flesh and Bone in the way it looks at ballet. 

All in all, it wasn’t bad The film is confusing in the way it jumps from time periods. One minute it’s the present day where she is having a press conference, the next, it’s back 15 years in time.  And many of the subplots aren’t developed, like Le Riche’s character’s romantic history. Or, if the Isaeva character forgot how she came to dance the lead in the graduation performance, why has she been supporting the Simonova character’s career. However, the characters are interesting and likeable and it moves quickly. Not a bad movie for a daily commute

[nanushka]

Thanks for the heads-up about this, @Deflope! Is there much good dancing in it? (Guessing there's at least some, given the cast.)

Edited January 19, 2019 by nanushka

[Deflope]

There werent a lot of on stage scenes but the class and rehearsal scenes in the latter part of the film are very good.  Isaeva is quite lovely, especially when rehearsing with Le Riche. 

I also forgot to mention Alexander Domogarov is in this film as a once promising dancer now drunk strip club manager/patron. I didn’t recognize him at all. I used to have a huge crush on him when he did Banditsky Peterburg 

Edited January 21, 2019 by Deflope