THE WHITE CROW The screenplay for The White Crow is written by David Hare, and based on (UK/France/Serbia 2018) Running time 127 minutes – some subtitles a book by Julie Kavanagh, a journalist who also trained as a dancer and who researched the dancer’s life for over a decade, prising open USSR Directed by Ralph Fiennes records and interviewing dozens of those who were close to him. Screenplay by David Hare, based on the book Rudolf Nureyev: The Life David Hare is our foremost political dramatist, and his 40-some plays by Julie Kavanagh address contemporary issues, including Stuff Happens about the lead-up to Starring Oleg Ivenko, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Chulpan Khamatova, Ralph the Iraq war, and Pravda about a Murdoch-like media moghul. Fiennes, Alexey Morozov Music Ilan Eshkeri/ Cinematography Mike Eley The music is by Ilan Eshkeri, the composer Fiennes used for his two previous films. It was a collaborative process from the start. They began by Rudolf Nureyev was a Russian ballet dancer who captured the imagination discussing the character of Nureyev. ‘We were just walking down the of the British. His prodigious leaps on stage seemed to echo the leap he street to go and have dinner and having this really passionate conversation had made when he defected from his country of birth. In the early 1960s, about who was Nureyev and what was he going through, and how do we with the Cold War at its height, the freedom he sought as a dancer seemed begin to emotionally express that with music,’ said Fiennes. to reflect the political difference between East and West. Eshkeri wrote the music as individual classical pieces: one Russian-inspired The White Crow is Ralph Fiennes’ third film as a director. As Fiennes said, ‘I piece exploring where Nureyev came from (Leningrad, now Saint was drawn to the story of Nureyev by the spirit of this young man, with Petersburg), and one about where he was going (Paris), a contemporary this burning, ferocious, determined desire to realise himself as a ballet piano and violin-led composition. Its contrasting sections highlight dancer and performance artist. His hunger to absorb art of all kinds and Nureyev’s multi-faceted character. Eshkeri said, ‘He’s this very sweet and make himself into a great dancer I find moving, and it had a cinematic empathetic deep-thinking person, but he’s also this explosive bastard.’ climax in the defection scene.’ Fiennes has always been averse to film music that’s too descriptive. ‘I think Fiennes also plays a part in the film, as Alexander Pushkin, Nureyev’s ballet music should support the drama. I think it can add to atmosphere, it can master, speaking Russian and learning ballet for the role. He started his help describe character, but I don’t think it can be a kind of emotional career as a classical actor, first at the National Theatre and then at the RSC. manipulator. That’s what I hate.’ Alongside his film roles, he continues to play the great roles on stage. He London-born Eshkeri has written the music for many TV programmes won a Tony for his performance as Hamlet in New York, and has recently (including David Attenborough’s) and for a growing number of films. appeared at the National in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Nureyev is played by the Ukrainian ballet star and first-time actor Oleg His film roles are many and varied, but those that brought him greatest Ivenko. Another Ukrainian ballet dancer, Sergei Polunin, who became the fame were probably the title role in The English Patient in 1996 and Lord Royal Ballet’s youngest-ever principal dancer, plays opposite him. The Voldemort in the Harry Potter films. Russian actress Chulpan Khamatova plays Pushkin’s wife, and the French Fiennes’ first film as director was Coriolanus, in which he also played the actress Adèle Exarchopoulos plays Nureyev’s friend Claire Saint. title character. It was hailed as a strong directorial debut. He took a leading Filmed in France, Russia, Croatia and Serbia, and produced by BBC Films role (as Charles Dickens) in The Invisible Woman, the second film he and Gabrielle Tana. Harland Walshaw directed, and he plays the lead in our later film, The Constant Gardener.
This month’s short films The White Crow White Awake
(UK 2015) Running time 15 minutes
This short is written and directed by Alex Kerouac and tells the story of a successful man who, with his therapist, unravels the troubles of the present by awakening the memories of his past.
We will also see the first of a series of shorts entitled ‘Good Living’ – in this episode, dressmaking.
Brian Mather
Coming next month…
Friday 11 October 2019 PROGRAMME
The Dish Friday 13 September 2019
th With the 50 anniversary of the first moon landing, this quietly funny ‘gem’ plays out on a remote Australian sheep farm, with its satellite dish at the heart of the lunar action. Starring Sam Neill (2000).