This film , it can be said , is dedicated to artists all round the world. I saw this film in Russian language as I did not have the benefit of English sub-titles but in spite of that I fell in love with the film!!All the dancers who ever feel low can see this film and gain their confidence back.The movie shows that no matter whether she was tired or in pain , Anna Pavlova always danced and never disappointed her audiences. Her dedication to dance was unparalleled and those who want to take up dance as their career must start out only after watching this film.The music was haunting too. I wish Anna Pavlova was really the heroine of this film.
6 Reviews
Very inspirational!
jurilink2 January 2013
In my childhood I watched this film in the cinema and was fascinated by the strong spirit of the legendary ballerina Anna Pavlova with her passion for complete dedication to the art of ballet.
The filming location of this film was at the Ivy House on North End Road, Golders Green, London where she lived for the rest of her life.
For a long time I had a dream to visit this place. And recently my dream came true when I visited her former home at the Ivy House to see the statue of Anna Pavlova sculpted in her honour in 2010 by Hampstead artist Tom Merrifield near the lake where she fed her swans like in the scene in this film!
The filming location of this film was at the Ivy House on North End Road, Golders Green, London where she lived for the rest of her life.
For a long time I had a dream to visit this place. And recently my dream came true when I visited her former home at the Ivy House to see the statue of Anna Pavlova sculpted in her honour in 2010 by Hampstead artist Tom Merrifield near the lake where she fed her swans like in the scene in this film!
Emotionally wonderful and thought-provoking!
Nurey25 February 1999
I am Russian and I have a great love for Ballet, both watching it and performing. I only watched this movie once, and now wish to see it again.
This documentary is, on my scale, as good as Burnt by the Sun! And that's the highest on my scale!
This documentary is, on my scale, as good as Burnt by the Sun! And that's the highest on my scale!
I wanted so much to be able to buy this movie!
soneagu14 January 2023
I have watched lots and lots of movies during the communist (oh well, there was/is no such thing as communism, it was - is in china - just pure dictatorship) era, but just a hand of them impressed me as much as this one. I went to the theatre daily while it played there, and each and every time I was out of speech. Galina Belyaeva is out of this world in the movie, the director is great, and as much as I despise russians right now because of the war in Ukraine, I simply love this movie. I love it, I love it, I love it! I cannot understand why it is not popularized more, why it is not sold as DVD or whatever else more. I love ballet, but this movie is so much more than it!
Bland Co-Production which will offend nobody but will not really satisfy anybody either.
JamesHitchcock17 January 2018
Anna Matveyevna Pavlova (1881-1931) was probably the most famous female ballet dancer of the early 20th century. She was born into poverty to an unmarried working-class mother in St Petersburg, was a sickly child, and was initially regarded as too tall and thin to become a ballerina. Despite these disadvantages, however, she rose to become a prima ballerina with the Imperial Russian Ballet and Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. She later formed her own dance company with which she toured the world.
This filmed biography of Pavlova is a rare example of an Anglo-Soviet co-production. It was rather surprisingly made during the Cold War period of early eighties, a rather frosty period in relations between the Soviet Union and the West. The famous British director Michael Powell acted as producer; Powell had a great interest in ballet and had earlier made, with his collaborator Emeric Pressburger, "The Red Shoes", one of the greatest ballet films of all time. Another Westerner involved with the project was Martin Scorsese, who tried to cast two major Hollywood stars, Robert De Niro as an American impresario and Jack Nicholson as Pavlova's husband and manager, Victor D'André. The Soviet authorities, however, objected to both men, De Niro because he had appeared in "The Deer Hunter", often seen as anti-communist, and Nicholson because of some disobliging comments he had made about the Soviet system. The role of D'André eventually went to James Fox, about the only face any Westerner might recognise.
Pavlova was perhaps not the most obvious person for the Soviets to want to make a film about. She was a Russian artist of impeccable proletarian background, but one who preferred to make her home in capitalist, imperialist Britain rather than in the workers' fatherland. Between 1912 and her death in 1931, a few days short of her fiftieth birthday, she lived in Golders Green, North London, and never returned to her native land. Perhaps this is why the script places such stress upon her supposed wish to dance at the Mariinsky Theatre for one last time; if this really was her wish it was never fulfilled.
The film is a visually attractive recreation of the world of the late 19th and early twentieth centuries, with some elegant recreations of Pavlova's dances. It is, however, slow-moving and at times dull, with little underneath its surface beauty. The events of its heroine's life are not always easy to follow; it is, for example, a long time before we realise that Victor actually is Anna's husband as well as her business manager. Anna never becomes much more than a beautiful mask; we learn what sort of dancer she was, but not what sort of woman she was. Perhaps the film illustrates the drawbacks of multi-national co-productions, particularly when made by two nations with very different political and social systems. When one is trying to satisfy the demands of two very different markets, it is all too easy to fall back on something bland which will offend nobody but on the other hand will not really satisfy anybody either. 4/10
This filmed biography of Pavlova is a rare example of an Anglo-Soviet co-production. It was rather surprisingly made during the Cold War period of early eighties, a rather frosty period in relations between the Soviet Union and the West. The famous British director Michael Powell acted as producer; Powell had a great interest in ballet and had earlier made, with his collaborator Emeric Pressburger, "The Red Shoes", one of the greatest ballet films of all time. Another Westerner involved with the project was Martin Scorsese, who tried to cast two major Hollywood stars, Robert De Niro as an American impresario and Jack Nicholson as Pavlova's husband and manager, Victor D'André. The Soviet authorities, however, objected to both men, De Niro because he had appeared in "The Deer Hunter", often seen as anti-communist, and Nicholson because of some disobliging comments he had made about the Soviet system. The role of D'André eventually went to James Fox, about the only face any Westerner might recognise.
Pavlova was perhaps not the most obvious person for the Soviets to want to make a film about. She was a Russian artist of impeccable proletarian background, but one who preferred to make her home in capitalist, imperialist Britain rather than in the workers' fatherland. Between 1912 and her death in 1931, a few days short of her fiftieth birthday, she lived in Golders Green, North London, and never returned to her native land. Perhaps this is why the script places such stress upon her supposed wish to dance at the Mariinsky Theatre for one last time; if this really was her wish it was never fulfilled.
The film is a visually attractive recreation of the world of the late 19th and early twentieth centuries, with some elegant recreations of Pavlova's dances. It is, however, slow-moving and at times dull, with little underneath its surface beauty. The events of its heroine's life are not always easy to follow; it is, for example, a long time before we realise that Victor actually is Anna's husband as well as her business manager. Anna never becomes much more than a beautiful mask; we learn what sort of dancer she was, but not what sort of woman she was. Perhaps the film illustrates the drawbacks of multi-national co-productions, particularly when made by two nations with very different political and social systems. When one is trying to satisfy the demands of two very different markets, it is all too easy to fall back on something bland which will offend nobody but on the other hand will not really satisfy anybody either. 4/10
admirable work
Kirpianuscus11 February 2017
one of the lovely films from my childhood. its beauty, its status of introduction in the art of ballet, the first steps to great biography, its sadness and magic and dramas and solitude, success and pain, the life as scene and the Russian flavor, so unique and special and seductive. fragments of scenes. and the music.and the force of profound passion for an art who becomes the axis of her entire life. a film who remains special for me. out of any explanation. because each scene covers the dreams of each viewer from public. to do, to fight, to sacrifice. everything. for to do what you must do with all senses, with entire energy. a form of poem. Russian in profound sense. because the tenderness and the love and the new show and the time who becomes insignificant in the demonstration of her art are more than fascinating or touching. they are real.
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