The White Crow **** (2018, Oleg Ivenko, Ralph Fiennes, Louis Hofmann) – Movie Review

Whether emoting or dancing, Oleg Ivenko is mesmerising as Rudolf Nureyev in director Ralph Fiennes’s intense, multi-layered story of the Russian dancer’s defection to the West. How he dances! He hardly looks like Nureyev, really, but can suggest him always in his appearance and his acting.

David Hare writes an excellent screenplay, inspired by Julie Kavanagh ‘s book Rudolf Nureyev: The Life. It is literate, revealing, convincing, and, like Fiennes’s film-making, up, close and personal. It moves between several time frames, but there’s no confusion, just clarity and depth. It is all clear.

The film suggests that Nureyev was as ambitious and mercurial – and could be none too faithful or agreeable – as he was talented and charming. Ivenko moves from sweet and innocent looking to sulky, annoyed and angry in an instant flash. Nureyev emerges as real and understandable. This is an honest and true and subtle biopic, unlike, say, Bohemian Rhapsody. It is also a clear labour of love and a bit of a posh art movie, not a popularising, deliberately crowd-pleasing effort.

But it is also richly enjoyable and very entertaining – and beautifully made, with the various periods and places effortlessly conjured up. It picks up pace and urgency as it goes along, and ends up as a bit of a thriller as it shifts up a gear with the nail-biting defection climax at the Le Bourget airport, summoning up the chaos of the diplomatic crisis occasion vibrantly.

It is a film about someone, and a film about stuff. There is plenty to think about, both during and after. It is sympathetic, and non-intrusive. It comes to understand Nureyev, not assassinate him or feel sorry for him. It is very good indeed, a memorable special film. There are even a few shiver down the spine moments, though none so magical as the shadowy images of the real Nureyev dancing over the final credits.

A shaven-headed Ralph Fiennes gives himself a co-starring role, speaking in Russian, and it is no surprise that he is remarkable and magnetic, even in a downbeat, interior role as Nureyev’s dance teacher and protector Pushkin. Louis Hofmann makes an impression as Nureyev’s lover Teja Kremke, and Adèle Exarchopoulos is strong as Nureyev’s new friend in Paris, and saviour Clara Saint, and so is Raphaël Personnaz as Pierre Lacotte, another friend in need.

But really it is all Oleg Ivenko, and he triumphs here.

Serbia gave Ralph Fiennes citizenship on 7 September 2017.

 © Derek Winnert 2019 Movie Review

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