MARGOT

UK, 2009, 85 minutes, Colour.
Anne- Marie Duff, Michiel Huisman, Derek Jacobi, Lindsay Duncan, Penelope Wilton.
Directed by Otto Bathurst.

Margot is a portrait of Dame Margot Fonteyn. It was made by the BBC as part of a series on significant women in the arts: Enid, Enid Blyton with Helena Bonham Carter, Gracie, Gracie Fields, with Jane Horrocks.

This film was directed by award-winning television director, Otto Bathurst. The screenplay was written by Amanda Coe (The Mary Whitehouse Story).

The film offers a portrait of Margot Fonteyn, indicating her ordinary background, the dominance of her mother, her successful career. The film opens in 1959 when she was forty. She has to make decisions about her future, travels the world, is interested in Rudolf Nureyev who demands as part of his defection that he dance with her. When they meet, she is sceptical but he soon wins her over with his skills.

Margot Fonteyn was married to the Panamanian businessman, Tito Arias. They had been students together, he had married and had a family but then pursued her. He was involved in all kinds of business dealings and possible coups in Panama. There was speculation about her relationship with Nureyev, especially since he was homosexual. The tensions in the marriage are highlighted but Margot Fonteyn made the option to stay with her husband and after retirement went to live with him in Panama. In the meantime, she and Nureyev became very popular as a dancing pair, Sir Frederick Ashton (Derek Jacobi) writing ballets for them including Armand and Marguerite.

Anne- Marie Duff (Nowhere Boy, The Last Station, The Magdalene Sisters) is very good as Margot Fonteyn and the Dutch actor Michiel Huisman (Unmade Beds) is Nureyev. Lindsay Duncan portrays Madam, the director of the Royal Ballet. Penelope Wilton is Margot Fonteyn’s mother.

There are several dance excerpts to illustrate the talents of Margot Fonteyn as well as the abilities and skills of Nureyev. Margot Fonteyn died in the early 90s at the age of seventy-two, Nureyev soon after at the age of fifty-four.

1.Margot Fonteyn and her reputation? A ballet film? Her skills as a ballet star?

2.The 1950s to the 1980s? England, Panama, the world, the world stage?

3.The London settings, Margot Fonteyn’s home, the theatre, the rehearsal room? The openness of Panama? The glimpses of the world? The glimpses of the tour and the US?

4.The musical score, the music for the various ballets?

5.The presentation of ballet, the classical style, Margot Fonteyn and her partners? Nureyev and his style? Sir Frederick Ashton, the training? Armand and Marguerite?

6.The interview format with Margot Fonteyn, her manner, appearance, speech, her public persona, her private self? Questions about her husband and his affairs? Nureyev and the relationship? Insight into her character? Self-revelation or not?

7.The back-story, her life, changing her name, the presence of her mother? Success? In her forties, the stage in her life with the Royal Ballet? Tino and her relationship with him? Their studying together, his pursuit of her, his marriage, family, his erratic behaviour, the political involvement, the deals, smuggling, arms, the coups, prisoner?

8.Tino as a person, in Panama, his family, his relationship with Margot, the visits to England, watching her on stage, his love for her, at home? Politics? Margot’s mother not liking him? Discussions with Ashton? The issue of divorce? Her not divorcing him? Staying with him?

9.Margot’s mother, concern about her career, warnings? Her continued presence?

10.Madam and the ballet, her life, training the performers, the Royal Ballet, contracts, travel? The role of Sir Frederick Ashton?

11.Ashton, as a person, manner, camp, talk, relationships? Training Margot? Composing? His advice about the divorce? Watching Armand and Marguerite with Tino?

12.Nureyev, his background, in France, defecting from the Soviet Union? His reputation, wanting to dance with Margot? Her reaction, negative?

13.Her watching him dance, the performances changing her mind, their working together, the details of the rehearsals, his temperament, even with her? Her comment that she was learning from him? The success, the intercutting of rehearsal and performance?

14.Nureyev, his age, twenty years younger than Margot? His experience? Sexuality, the encounter with Margot, his homosexuality, the relationship with Eric, bringing the boy home, his choices? Tino’s reaction to him?

15.Fonteyn and Nureyev as the two successful dancers of the 20th century? 20th century classics, success? The aftermath of their careers?

16.An introduction to the world of the ballet, its demands? Its achievement? Its art?