Midnight Media Cafe - Le Jeune Homme et La Mort

[serai]

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More in the classical vein:

Le Jeune Homme et La Mort (The Young Man and Death)

From the film White Nights


My parents were both dancers, my mother ballet and my father flamenco, so I was raised around classical music and dance. My mother used to take me to the theater performances, as well as to ballet films, of which there were a lot more in the 60's and 70's than there are now. That's probably due to the presence of two spectacular ballet stars, both of whom made world headlines by defecting from Russia to the U.S. - Rudolf Nureyev in the 1960's, and Mikhail Baryshnikov in the 1970's. Each of them redefined the role of the male dancer, Nureyev by bringing him front and center in a way not seen since Nijinsky, and Baryshnikov by blowing the whole "ballet=gay" stereotype out of the water. (Not since Gene Kelly had there been a famous dancer so completely, vigorously heterosexual.)

Baryshnikov was, of course, young and cute in a puppyish way, the opposite of the older Nureyev's hotheaded, catlike sleekness. He joined the American Ballet Theater after his defection, and eventually became their artistic director. But the classical canon bored him after a while, and he moved over to the New York City Ballet, George Balanchine's company, one more prestigious but alas, also more insular. (They do not tour, so that pretty much ended Misha's days of traveling to dance.) He seemed quite happy, and immersed himself in the more modern, complicated styles of dance to be had in America. And he did a little acting now and then.

Tonight's clip is the opening sequence from the film White Nights, in which he plays...guess what? A famous dancer who defected from Russia! (Yeah, I know, you're shocked. Believe me, the rest of the film isn't much better.) The plot of this film is somewhat heavy-handed, but it has good performances from great actors (and a corker from Jerzy Skolimowsky, a Polish director).

More importantly, it has several killer dance sequences from both Baryshnikov and his co-star Gregory Hines. This scene here is the full ballet of Roland Petit's Le Jeune Homme et La Mort (The Young Man and Death), set to a score by Bach. It's a typically French story, about a young guy living in a garret, who apparently has so much artistic integrity that he cannot afford a shirt. After he rages eloquently about the woe of his life, all done in the silent language of ballet, he is visited by Death (Florence Faure), who in classic French style is a knockout babe. He flails in a tormented manner, she slaps him around, he kisses her feet, she kicks him in the head...basically an Apache dance in reverse. Eventually she demands the ultimate proof of his ardor. As I said, tres Gallique.

It's a fascinatingly strenuous dance, very athletic, and in this you can see echoes of Kelly's gymnastic style. Baryshnikov is always a pleasure to watch, and the music, Bach's Passacaglia in C Minor, rolls under the action like an uneasy sea, lifting and lowering, lifting and lowering, gliding outward towards an endless, stormy vista. The combination of styles is hallucinatory, and Petit does a number of interesting things to capture that sweaty, suicidal tone. (Check out Misha's slow motion fall at one point. The man's abs must be rocks.)

So, enjoy this slice of 18th-century music and mid-20th-century dance. And Misha, of course, who was such a hottie.

Comments

[serai1.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! I hope you get the chance to watch it.

[elycia.livejournal.com]

I've really been enjoying reading this series of yours. I especially liked yesterday's--that scene is one of my favorites in all of moviedom--and tonight's. I was fortunate enough to see Baryshnikov perform live with the White Oak Dance Project some years ago. Thankfully, I had the forethought to take binoculars, given my seat's distance from the stage. ;-) But even at that distance, with everyone looking about three inches tall, it was incredibly easy to single him out from all the other dancers; he has a distinctive way of carrying himself, an innate grace and almost peculiarly erect posture, and a balance that is so extraordinary as to be quite nearly unnatural. (One of the moves he did was the tipped-over-chair that he does here, and the control he managed as it fell to the ground seemed to defy gravity, which says a LOT about the strength of his legs.) Have you ever seen video of him dancing at around age 5 or 6 back in Russia? You can see it even then, though of course years of arduous training honed it to something just this side of magic. He is most assuredly one of a kind whose like we will not see again, and I'm glad that his heydey was in an era when video cameras had become ubiquitous. Pity ballet is so damned hard on the knees. :-(

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Lucky you, getting to see the White Oak Project! I was especially intrigued when I heard he was choreographing a piece that would use light instead of music as its soundtrack, the dancer taking his cues from the changing rhythms of the lights. Sounded really interesting.

I have seen footage of him from his childhood. He had enormous talent from the beginning. As I recounted to txvoodoo below, I got to see him dance The Nutcracker with Gelsey Kirkland in 1976. SUCH a honey. Absolutely brilliant dancer.

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

The dance sequences from White Nights were worth the price of admission. I've never seen any other dancer who could equal Baryshnikov.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Yes, they are. Both he and Hines really hit it out of the park, and had such fun doing it! I love the contrast of their different dance styles. (Watching Misha trying like hell to keep up with Gregory when they did their duet was both amusing and enlightening.)

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

You're hitting all my buttons w/ these posts lately :) I had the WONDERFUL pleasure of seeing Barishnikov live circa 79 or 80, I think, when he was with ABT. GLORIOUS.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, ME TOO. In 1976, just after he defected, a friend of mine scored two seats to the touring production of The Nutcracker, where he was dancing with Gelsey Kirkland. It was sheer heaven, as you can imagine. We were sitting way up in one of the balconies, and when that final curtain came down, we leaped to our feet and raced down the stairs full-tilt boogie to the ground floor, and ran down the middle aisle to the back of the orchestra section. We arrived just in time to see Misha emerge for his bow, only about 20 feet away. He was in his costume as the Prince, a sleek white outfit sewn with silver sequins and embroidery, and we could feel the heat from all that dancing radiating off his skin, even as far back as we were. He was, yes, GLORIOUS.

My mom still gets upset whenever I talk about it. ;)

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

The ABT show I saw was at ...oh, can't remember the name - wonderful open-air facility in Philly. It was...again, can't remember word (:D) review? Many dances...He did Le Corsaire. OMFG the leaps and barrel rolls and ALL of it! I can see it in my mind's eye, still.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Oh, the Corsaire solo! I LOVE that dance. Always wished I could have seen him do it. But at least it's on film in The Turning Point, so I can see it by proxy. *sigh*

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

I remember just holding my breath watching it. I was...about 19? 20? I WILL NEVER FORGET IT.

[fantasy-fan.livejournal.com]

That was magic! The music is stupendous all by itself, but it complemented the dance so very, very well.

[strangerian.livejournal.com]

Saw White Nights long ago, and I really didn't remember how stunning the opening sequence is, but it's absolutely amazing. I'm so glad you put that up.

I've seen Barishnikov in Swan Lake, which was a revelation about the storyline. There was emotional coherence in the dancing, in a way I hadn't seen in other performances of the ballet. As well as the technique, of course.