Bolshoi Babylon

The major effect that Nick Read and Mark Franchetti's documentary, Bolshoi Babylon, had on me was to make me happy that we do not have politicians running ballet and opera companies in this country.  Before I ever went to the ballet I would hear that the Russians had the best dancers and ballet companies because of the money the government was pouring into them.  Now, having seen the Bolshoi and the more artistically interesting Mariinsky it is clear that the Russian companies have never really moved out of the Stalin era, either politically or artistically, and it not surprising that some of the  best Russian dancers -- Baryshnikov, Nureyev, Marakova, et al.-- defected.  Unfortunately this documentary does not go into any detail about the ballets the Bolshoi performs or their choreographers, though we do get glimpses of Swan Lake and Giselle none of the excerpts is identified.  Read and Franchetti also make the common mistake of showing much of the dancing -- though they don't show very much -- in slow motion, which does little to capture the beauty of ballet and much to obscure it.

Read and Franchetti are mainly interested in the juicy scandal of dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko throwing acid in the face of artistic director Sergei Filin.  In this country a dancer who did not like the people in charge would simply find a job at another company, or perhaps turn to teaching, but this freedom does not exist in Russia.  Pavel was apparently miffed at the lack of roles for himself and his girlfriend.  The film moves quickly, the dancers have a great deal to complain about and the tiny subtitles cannot keep up with the rapid Russian spoken by all the participants.  The few moments of real beauty come when the filmmakers are recording Bolshoi classes, with hard-working students and intense instructors.