Tony Palmer's Film About Margot Fonteyn
by Tony Palmer
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Frederick Ashton, Lynn Seymour, Robert Helpmann, Roland Petit, Rudolf NureyevDirector: Tony Palmer
Brand: Kultur
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 163 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-06-27
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Kultur Video
Movie Reviews of Tony Palmer's Film About Margot Fonteyn
Movie Review: Thorough, insightful documentary about the great ballerina
Summary: 5 Stars
Last year, Meredith Daneman published an exhaustive biography of Margot Fonteyn. Around the same time, Tony Palmer made a rather long documentary about the great ballerina. The two projects are nice compliments for each other. Palmer's film often vitalizes the stories from the Daneman biography.
Despite being Prima Ballerina Assoluta of the Royal Ballet, and the most famous ballerina of her generation, Margot Fonteyn's life was not a bouquet of roses. At a young age, she fell in love with the alcoholic composer/conductor Constant Lambert, who stood her up at their courthouse wedding. Margot was so heartbroken she ripped out all the pages of the books Lambert had given her. Fonteyn then married the Panamanian "ambassador," Tito Arias, who was a chronic philanderer and freeloader. Just as she was set to divorce him, he was shot, leaving him a quadrapalegic for the rest of his life. Still he was faithless and kept a mistress, who poisoned herself the day he died. Tito's son (Margot's stepson) was even more of a freeloader than his father. Tito's medical bills were enormous; she danced in excruciating pain to support him, and lived in a ramshackle farm without electricity when she retired. She had no pension, practically no salary, and when she dying of cancer her partner Rudolf Nureyev had to pay the bills. The Royal Ballet organized a "gala" event for her near the end of her life which embarrassed her more than anything else. She died penniless, and was buried in a pauper's grave.
Tony Palmer's documentary starts out somewhat melodramatically, but settles into a generally tasteful, sympathetic look at Fonteyn. She was not without flaws -- she was politically naive, giggling at the thought of Tito being a "revolutionary" in Panama. Her dominance at the Royal Ballet was so complete that many dancers felt jealous or slighted. Yet nearly everyone who is interviewed in the film seems to have loved and admired this delicate-looking yet incredibly strong woman, even her dancing "rivals." Among the people interviewed: Rudolf Nureyev, Frederick Ashton, Keith Money (who produced the film), Ninette di Valois, Beryl Grey, Moira Shearer, Antoinette Sibley, Lynn Seymour, Tito Arias' children, Fonteyn's assistant Colette Clark, Fonteyn;s sister-in-law Phoebe Fonteyn, Robert Gottlieb, who editted Fonteyn's autobiographies.
Many of the stories don't mesh -- Fonteyn's stepchildren describe a loving marriage, when everyone else around her talks about Tito's faithlessness. There is the controversy about the Romeo and Juliet premiere, which was intended for Lynn Seymour, but given of course to Fonteyn and Nureyev. Seymour still seems bitter, but Money insists that Fonteyn sincerely did not wish to dance in the premiere, and was only strong-armed into it, and had nothing but respect for Seymour. Not all the stories agree, but everyone has something interesting to say. Keith Money tells some surprising stories -- one is that Fonteyn often saw a group of stoned teenagers hanging outside her house, and she'd run inside and make them meals, to fulfill their munchies. Fonteyn's self-deprecating sense of humor is revealed when she recalls eating lunch with Nureyev one day, and being accosted by a Russian fan, who gushed and gushed at Nureyev before turning to Fonteyn. "Who's she? Your mother?" And of course there are hints of how brutally demanding ballet is: near the end of her career, Fonteyn needed large injections of painkillers into her arthritic foot to get through a performance.
Along with the interviews are some truly incredible dancing clips. Some of the clips have been commercially released, but many have not -- Fonteyn dancing the Nutcracker pas de deux, a 1937 film of Fonteyn dancing Giselle (when she was just 18!). Rehearsal footage (including one where Ashton attempts to show Fonteyn how to arabesque, with Nureyev giggling in the background). Home videos of Fonteyn sunbathing, or her curtain calls. Incredibly beautiful photos.
Some people will not like this documentary. While not sensationalistic, it does delve into some very personal matters (Fonteyn's two abortions and miscarriage, her getting arrested for gun-running, her rather wacky political ambitions). The only area where I thought the documentary actually dipped into tastelessness was when Roland Petit swaggeringly recalls their torrid fling. Personally, I always like to know the person behind the persona. This documentary humanized Fonteyn -- she was not simply Giselle and Odette. She was PBA, but never requested special treatment. She also lived through hardship and heartbreak. The Daneman biography is predictably more thorough, but the Palmer documentary, with its wonderful mix of footage, interviews, and photos, sort of reminds me of the axiom, "A picture is worth 1,000 words." To use one example, one reads about the 30 curtain calls during the first performance of Giselle with Fonteyn and Nureyev. It's another thing entirely to see their Giselle pas de deux -- breathtakingly beautiful and tender.
Highly recommended for fans of this amazing dancer, and amazing woman.
Summary of Tony Palmer's Film About Margot Fonteyn
Margot Fonteyn was the greatest dancer England has ever produced. In her life she transcended the world of dance and became a tabloid darling second to none, a true celebrity. And when, already in her forties, Fonteyn teamed up with Rudolf Nureyev, their astonishing union created one of the most brilliant and magical partnerships in all of ballet history. Their artistic and sexual chemistry electrified all those who were lucky enough to watch them perform.But her remarkable talent and façade of fastidious primness masked a dark torrent within. Fonteyn?s life was the stuff of unimaginable fiction: taken as an underage mistress; married to a Panamanian Ambassador; involved in an attempted coup; the lover of innumerable, often homosexual, public figures; a cultural icon of the swinging sixties; betrayed by her husband?s family, and, above all, a dancer of extraordinary physical eloquence and purity ? all culminating in this fragile beauty dying a penniless, lonely recluse.
This gripping film uncovers a mountain of archive footage, including memorable performances with Nureyev, and meetings with those who danced with her, knew her, and loved her.
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