MAO’S LAST DANCER

Australia, 2009, 117 minutes, Colour.
Chi Cao, Chengwu Guo, Bruce Greenwood, Kyle Mac Lachlan, Amanda Schull, Joan Chen, Aden Young, Steven Heathcote, Penne Hackforth- Jones, Jack Thompson.
Directed by Bruce Beresford.

A fine, entertaining film, exhilarating at times.

Bruce Beresford has been making films for almost forty years. He made some of the Australian classics of the 1970s and 1980s, including Don's Party and Breaker Morant. His first Hollywood film won Robert Duvall an Oscar for Tender Mercies. Driving Miss Daisy won the Best Film Oscar (with Oscar-winning actress, Jessica Tandy, remarking on his not being nominated as Best Director that the academy must have thought the film directed itself). He also made the humane/social films The Fringe Dwellers, Black Robe and Paradise Road. He is always a strong craftsman.

The screenplay by Jan Sardi (Shine), based on the autobiography of Chinese dancer Li Cunxin, must have enthused him because this is one of his most energetic and creative films.

Li's Chinese background is shown (filmed in China), the small and remote village of the 1970s, post Cultural Revolution but steeped in Mao's ideology and cult. At school, inspectors visit to choose talented children for further training. The eager Li is supported by a teacher and he finds himself, still very young, taken away to board at an academy and, despite his fragile build, to train and exercise to be a dancer. Life in this commune is also portrayed in some detail as well as the sometimes superhuman efforts Li makes to achieve strength and balance for ballet. One teacher scorns him, another, devoted to classical ballet and made to suffer for it, instructs and inspires him.

When he is chosen to go for three months to Houston, he is coached in caution about American ways. And, at first he is bewildered by the freedoms, the open political talk, the styles of dance at clubs. He is under the wing of Ben Stevenson of the Houston Ballet (Bruce Greenwood is a different role as the career director with a slightly camp style). Li is a success when he has to step in for a performance of Don Quixote and enraptures the audience.

There are quite a number of ballet sequences throughout the film which will excite fans and will be of interest (and some amazement at dance poise and agility) for those who do not know ballet well. They range from Swan Lake to a final performance of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.

The two actors who play the part of teenage and adult Li Cunxin excel as dancers. As they act and dance, the audience takes it for granted that they are Li Cunxin and has to remind itself that he was a great dancer but so are Chi Cao (adult) and chengwu Guo (teenage) in their own right. The choregraphy is by Graeme Murphy.

While there are exteriors of Houston, most of the American scenes were shot in Sydney. A number of Australians appear in the cast including Penne Hackforth-Jones? as Stevenson's associate, Steven Heathcote (a former celebrated dancer) as the leading dancer and Jack Thompson repeating his southern drawl (from Original Sin, Last Dance, Broken Arrow) as a US Judge.

Information at the end indicates that Li Cunxin and his wife, a former partner in ballet in Houston and world tours, live in Melbourne where he is an accountant and stockbroker.

1.The autobiography of Li Cunxin? Adaptation, drama, visual beauty, international flavour?

2.The international tone, China in the 1970s and 80s, the US in the 1980s? The postscript about Li Cunxin’s life in Australia?

3.A dance film, a ballet film?

4.The title, Li, in Mao’s China, the selection of children to study for the arts, ballet, the episode of Mao’s death and people’s response? The change of structure in Chinese government, ideology?

5.The structure of the film: the focus on Li, the teenager, going to the United States, the possibilities? His adjusting to the United States? The insertion of the flashbacks, the child Li and his family, school and the choice, the education and training? Life in the United States, change, falling in love, the hard decisions? The consequences, his career, marriage, the relationship with his parents? His future?

6.The re-creation of China in the 1970s, the isolated village, rural life, work, the home, the large family? The school, the teacher, the choices of the students to go to the academy? The academy, the young students, training, exercise, learning? The transition from the 70s to the 80s? The background of the cultural revolution, Chairman Mao and his ideology, Madam Mao? (And the later condemnation of Madam Mao in the trial?)

7.Houston, the city and its environment, the apartments, theatre, rehearsals, performance? The Chinese Consulate, the interiors?

8.The range of the ballet excerpts? Their placement during the film? The musical scores, the classic ballet scores?

9.Li as a child, his older brothers, his relationship with his mother and father, their simple life? Going to school? The inspector, the teacher indicating Li's eagerness and the choice? The response of the village, the authorities? The family? At the academy, Li very thin, stretching his limbs, the exercises? Li and the years passing, as a teenager? His continuing the exercises, making himself strong? His ability and inability at dance – practising the splits, his lack of balance? The instructor and his negative comments? The Master, his love for classical ballet, his stories, the fable to indicate perseverance to get strength? The board meetings? The classical ballet, the authorities not favourable? The proletarian ballet and the inspector’s delight? The previously negative teacher and his recommendation that Li go to the United States?

10.Ben, his reputation, his career, his position with the Houston Ballet? The range of staff and advisers? Principal dancers? Their loyalty to the ballet? The visit to China? The dancing, the discussions with the authorities, the exchange program? Ben welcoming Li to the United States, his house, training Li?

11.Li, an eighteen-year-old, in the United States, the completely different culture? Settling into Ben’s house? Discussions with the dancers? Going to the disco? His shock at people’s open speech about politics? Not accustomed to such freedoms? The clothes, his suit, changing into T-shirt? His manner? Vocabulary? The insertion of the flashbacks about his childhood in these early episodes in the United States? As the concerns increased, his fears – and the nightmare of his parents being taken out to execution?

12.The encounter with Liz, her injury, wanting to dance? The attraction for Li, their going out on dates, his not telling Ben? The relationship leading to the marriage? Ben and the others’ reactions?

13.Rehearsals, Li and his skill, as a dancer, taking the place of the injured lead in Don Quixote? Ben’s idea, the preparation, his going on, freezing, success, the audience applause, the skill of his dancing?

14.The legal issues, Charles Foster and his legal practice? Discussions with Ben? The group going to the consulate, supporting Li though disapproving? Cynthia and her role in the ballet, her hesitation about Li, congratulating him on his success, wanting to avoid issues and for Li to go back to China? The dancers and their going to support Li? The past advice to Li from the consul, the Chinese ideology? Separating Li, the interviews, the questions? Their waiting in the consulate? Issues of law, the public gathering, the television and media coverage, the reaction of the Chinese, his final decision and staying?

15.Li's life as a dancer, with Liz, her own ambitions? The plan to go to Florida, not going? Liz leaving, doing other auditions, becoming a dancer?

16.The five years passing, the partnership with the Australian ballerina? The preparation for The Rite of Spring, Stravinsky’s music, the dance? Their waiting for the VIPs to arrive? Audience response to the parents arriving, their watching the performance, going on stage, the acclaim?

17.Li's return to China, his being acclaimed in the village?

18.The postscript with information about what happened to the central characters?