Celebrating the Weird Film Career of Rudolf Nureyev

It is always a thrill to have a non-actor of great performing ability appear in a film. Martha Graham was briefly in a Gloria Swanson potboiler in 1919 called Male and Female. Baryshnikov (Nureyev's rival for most glamorous male of the 70's) made a splash and recieved an Oscar nomination for The Turning Point in 1977. Sam Shepard, at the time a counter culture playwright, made a strong impression in Days of Heaven in 1978. Baryshnikov and Shepard have each had a number of film roles (Shepard, ironically enough came close to being a film star and he has mostly given up writing to star in many junky Hollywood productions such as Swordfish and The Notebook.)

Consider then Nureyev whose film career is noteworthy for Valentino and Exposed. The former film garnered a fair amount of press at the time and the latter got less press and is much less know to film afficianados. Nureyev's performance in Valentino is an interesting one as there is constant tension between his physically graceful performing (he is even a convincing boxer in some of the early scenes) and his fairly stilted acting. His performance in Exposed is equally baroque. Both films are not available in official versions on DVD and it is likely that Valentino will get rolled out at some point in the near future.

The strangeness of Nureyev's prescence is what makes him electrifying. Indeed, he has the power of an unskilled actor in his few film performances (he is even charming in his performances on the Muppet Show!). Nureyev's intense and magical powers as a dancer were on display in the recent PBS production on his early life as a Ballet Star in Russia. It is hoped that PBS will follow this production up with a second act of Nureyev's Life.