The Nutcracker 1993, directed by Emile de Ardolino

 Since we couldn't go to The Nutcracker this year we watched, on DVD, the film version by Emile de Ardolino, "starring" Macaulay Culkin and danced by The New York City Ballet.  I would have preferred seeing the NYC Ballet version that was taped last year but that was only shown online and our TV is not a "smart" TV that can connect with the internet; for my comments on the four times we have seen the City Ballet version please see my posts of Dec.24 2015. Dec. 27 2017, Dec. 28 2018, Dec.26 2019 (we have the DVD because our daughter was ill in 2016).

de Ardolino's direction and Culkin's star turn are the worst things in the production, made to be seen in movie theatres.  de Ardolino's experience with recorded ballet was limited to TV, where he directed dances with small casts.  In the DVD he cuts too much, inserting numerous disorienting close-ups and overhead shots, causing confusion and disorientation.  Culkin apparently had some dance experience but doesn't show it here; apparently he was cast in the hope of getting some viewers who aren't as interested in seeing ballet dancing.  The first act is particularly confusing, not helped by a narrator who doesn't narrate much but does lessen the mysteries somewhat, interfering with our own understanding.  And the first act is truncated, not showing all of the beautiful dancing of the adults and the children and interrupting what there is of it with annoying close-ups. 

The second act is an improvement, especially when there are only one or two performers and the movie limits (not enough) the cutting, though when we see the youngest students in the angels segment de Ardolino has to show all the faces in close-up, subtracting from the gliding movement of the choreography.  The best dancing in the film is the pas de deux of the Sugarplum Fairy and her Cavalier (Darci Kistler and Damian Woetzel), beautiful Balanchine choreography beautifully danced. 

This DVD of The Nutcracker is, I suppose, better than nothing this year; it does make one even more eager to see it live in 2021.