Nijinsky

Choreographer-turned-director Herbert Ross helmed this handsome but stolid 1980 biographical drama about the life of legendary ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, a controversial man who left an influential legacy. George De La Pena, a talented dancer but limited actor, plays Nijinsky, the star attraction of the Ballets Russes, while Alan Bates takes top billing here as Sergei Diaghilev, the company manager and Nijinsky's lover. Nijinsky's screenplay is more soap opera than portrait of the artist, turning on the complicated relationships between the increasingly obsessive Nijinsky; idealistic young ballerina and aristocrat Romola de Pulsky (Leslie Browne), who married him; and vindictive spurned older paramour Diaghilev. Ross re-creates the famous ballets—notably The Afternoon of a Faun and Nijinsky's collaborations with composer Igor Stravinsky (Ronald Pickup)—but most are simply brief excerpts that do not convey specific appreciation of the innovative aesthetics that Nijinsky brought to dance. Making matters worse, the film reduces the complexity of the characters and the creative process to simplistic psychological clichés. While very tasteful and attractive, Nijinsky offers little insight into the artist himself or his huge impact on ballet. Bowing on DVD and Blu-ray, this stately biographical drama is an optional purchase, at best. (S. Axmaker)