WHITE NIGHTS
US, 1985, 136 minutes, Colour.
Mikhail Baryshnikov, Gregory Hines, Isabella Rossellini, Jerzy Skolimowski, Helen Mirren, Geraldine Page, John Glover.
Directed by Taylor Hackford.
White Nights is an entertaining concoction. It plays on the antagonism towards the Soviet Union by the United States under the Reagan administration. It focuses on a ballet dancer who has defected from Russia to the United States and who finds himself by accident caught once again in the Soviet Union. The film shows severe Russians, oppression of rights, international bargaining.
The dancer is Mikhail Baryshnikov - with memories of his own move to the West. By balance, dancer Gregory Hines portrays a conscientious objector who has been received by the Soviet Union. Baryshnikov is excellent in the dancing sequences which are generously displayed throughout the film. He is matched by Hines - and each tries the other's style: ballet and tap. Helen Mirren, who married director Taylor Hackford, is a dancer at the Kirov (reminiscent of the style she used as a Russian astronaut in 2010). Ingrid Bergman's daughter Isabella Rossellini is Hines's wife. Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski (Moonlighting) is the KGB authority. Geraldine Page is, Baryshnikov's manager.
The film opens with a convincing plane crash and ends with some tense escape sequences. In the middle there is a mixture of expected melodrama with breathtaking dancing. Direction is by Taylor Hackford (The Idolmaker, An Officer and a Gentleman, Against All Odds).
1. Popular entertainment? The anti-Russian attitudes?
2. The American ingredients: the American way of life, the contrast with life in the Soviet Union? Propaganda? Entertainment? Contemporary atmosphere: planes, passports, diplomacy, disappearances and imprisonment? The dance: the opening ballet, the blend of tap and jazz? The styles of Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines? Action: suspense? The songs and their inclusion (with Lionel Ritchie's Oscar-winning 'Say You, Say Me' for the final credits)?
3. The prologue and the focus on Kolya? The ballet, Baryshnikov's skill, dancing? His status? The credits and the move to character?
4. The prologue for Raymond: the performance of Porgy and Bess in Russian in the backblocks? The Russian audience? His skill at dancing? A deserter, Ideology, the situation of being in Russia, in exile? Memories of home? His marriage and his wife's support? The credibility of this character and situation?
5. Anne and her management of Kolya, pampering him, the theatre, his fans? Kolya's tape: work? The crash and the drama of the crash? The credibility of landing inside the Soviet Union? the injuries? Russia and the consequences for him? Anne and her visits to the ambassador? Scott and his comments?
6. The presentation of the KGB, their cat-and-mouse techniques, hiding Kolya, sending Anne away? Kolya's health? His criminal status? His attempts to deceive the KGB by the use of languages? His being exiled with Ray and his wife? The freedom of the house? His running through the town for the telephone? The clash with Ray? The KGB control and plans? Brainwashing?
7. The interaction of the two men? Two defectors? American and Russian? Black and white? The reasons, the longings, feeling an alien, wealth and poverty? Kolya and the accusations of his self-centredness? The criticisms of Ivanova? His coping in the West? Ray and his ideological differences? Alienation from his family? His relationship with his wife? Living in tension? Their being transferred to Leningrad and guarding Kolya? The personal clashes? The bridge, the music? Working, arguing? Ray's wife being taken because of Kolya? His attempt to escape and talk to the young ballerinas (and their accusing him)? The gradual change in Ray? Kolya's getting his wife back? The decision to go?
8. Kolya and his dancing, the Kirov and its background, training? His visit to the theatre? Pirouettes, dance movements? The music? Going to the little girls? The argument? The encounter with Ivanova? Memories of hurt? Love and persuasion? The bugging of the room and Ray and Kolya dancing? The jazz style? The attack on the KGB head and using his racist attitudes to get Ray's wife back? The plan, the execution, the danger, the heights, the car, the running, the embassy? Power over the KGB?
9. Ray and his change in attitude, the shared experience of the music and dance? His love for his wife? Hurt? Despised by the KGB? This plan, its execution? His going with the guards and helping the others to escape? The cover, the tape, his staying? The final exchange? The portrait of Ray's wife, caring, devotion, being taken, her pregnancy? The drama at the end?
10. The KGB officer and his intensity, smugness, using Ivanova, cat and mouse games, racist attitudes, his superiority and the subordinate not giving him the information? The final chase? Making everything appear well? The final exchange? The sketch of the KGB officials? The sketch of the landlady and her helping?
11. Ivanova and her place in the Kirov, past love, hurt, orders, freedom? Her going to the market, the discussion at the reception with Scott, the final clash and cover-up, giving information, her staying?
12. The atmosphere of the USSR, Siberia, security, freedoms?
13. The Russian defector and passport difficulties, language, memories, the tapes of the past? Kolya's farewell to theatre and dance in Russia?
14. The editing and the pace for the action suspense and the crash and the escape? The interweaving of the dance with the melodrama?
15. American and Russian attitudes towards each other the mid-1980s? Dreams, choices, hopes?
