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The Turning Point is a 1977 drama film centered on the world of ballet in New York City, written by Arthur Laurentsand directed by Herbert Ross. The film stars Shirley MacLaine and Anne Bancroft, along with Leslie Browne, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Tom Skerritt. The film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The script is a fictionalized version of the real-life Brown family and the friendship between ballerinas Isabel Mirrow Brown andNora Kaye. Contents   [hide]  ·       1Plot ·       2Cast ·       3Background ·       4Awards ·       5Appearances in popular culture ·       6References ·       7External links Plot[edit] DeeDee (Shirley MacLaine) left the ballet company after becoming pregnant by Wayne (Tom Skerritt), another dancer in the company. They marry and later move to Oklahoma City to run a dance studio. Emma (Anne Bancroft) stays with the company and eventually becomes a prima ballerina and well-known figure in the ballet community. While the company is on tour and performs a show in Oklahoma City, DeeDee and the family go to see the show, and then have an after-party for the company at her home. The reunion stirs up old memories and things begin to unravel. At the party, DeeDee's aspiring dancer/daughter, Emilia (Leslie Browne), who is also Emma's goddaughter, is invited to take class with the company the following day. After taking class with the company, Emilia is asked to join the company but she does not immediately accept the offer as she wants to think it over before making her final decision. DeeDee and Wayne decide that DeeDee should go to New York with Emilia, who is rather shy and doesn't make friends as easily as her younger sister. Meanwhile their son, Ethan gets a scholarship to the company's summer program while Wayne and their other daughter stay in Oklahoma City. Once in New York, they rent several rooms in Carnegie Hall with Madame Dakharova, a ballet coach. Emilia soon starts a relationship with a Russian playboy in the company, Yuri (Mikhail Baryshnikov). DeeDee runs into the former conductor of the company and has an affair with him, which causes conflict between Emilia and DeeDee. Meanwhile, Emma argues with Arnold, the choreographer, about giving her a better role in his new ballet, which he refuses and leads Emma to suggest Emilia for the role instead. It's also revealed Emma has been seeing a married man, Carter. During rehearsal, Emilia has an argument with Arnold and storms out, going to a bar and getting intoxicated. She then shows up for the performance that night still intoxicated and Emma takes care of her, which angers DeeDee. Emilia suffers when she sees Yuri getting involved with another dancer, Carolyn. Emma and DeeDee eventually enter into major conflict. DeeDee resents that Emma dotes on Emilia, when she has criticized DeeDee for choosing family life over her career while Emma chose not to have children. DeeDee accuses Emma of being glad she got pregnant so Emma could play the lead in Anna Karenina, which Emma later admits is true. Eventually, misunderstandings are settled, with Emma and DeeDee working things out after a physical altercation. Emilia is announced as the star of the next season, and she and Yuri make up and agree to a professional partnership and nothing more. Deedee decides she is content with her life and the decision she made to leave professional ballet to have a family. Emma accepts that her performing days are numbered and she must embrace a different role within the company. Cast[edit] ·       Shirley Maclaine as DeeDee Rodgers - a former ballerina with the company (based on Isabel Mirrow) ·       Anne Bancroft as Emma Jacklin - an aging prima ballerina (based on Nora Kaye) ·       Tom Skerritt as Wayne Rodgers - a former dancer with the company, married to DeeDee (based on Kelly Brown) ·       Leslie Browne as Emilia Rodgers - a young ballerina beginning professional training and becoming a woman (based on herself) ·       Mikhail Baryshnikov as Yuri Kopeikine - Emilia's playboy love interest ·       Martha Scott as Miss Adelaide - a former dancer, now head of the company (based on Margaret Craske) ·       James Mitchell as Michael Cooke - the company artistic director (based onJerome Robbins) ·       Alexandra Danilova as Madame Dakharova - a ballet coach ·       Lisa Lucas as Janina Rodgers - sister of Emilia (based on Elizabeth Brown) ·       Philip Saunders as Ethan Rodgers - brother of Emilia who takes ballet himself (based on Ethan Brown) ·       Antoinette Sibley as Sevilla Haslam - a rival ballerina ·       Marshall Thompson as Carter - a married man Emma is dating ·       Starr Danias as Carolyn - a rival ballerina that Yuri leaves Emilia for ·       Anthony Zerbe as Joe "Rosie" Rosenberg - a married former conductor of the company who DeeDee has an affair with ·       Daniel Levans as Arnold Berger - a headstrong choreographer with the company A number of actresses were offered the roles of Emma and DeeDee before Maclaine and Bancroft signed on, including Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, and Doris Day.[2] Bancroft had no previous dance experience, while Maclaine had started her career as a dancer on Broadway performing in the musicals Me and Juliet and The Pajama Game. The title "The Turning Point" is a double entendre, meaning a big change in a person's life and being on pointe. The film shares many similarities with Black Swan; there is even a ballet performed in The Turning Point titled Black Swan. Choreography for the film was done by Alvin Ailey and George Balanchine, among others. Background[edit] Isabel Mirrow Brown and Nora Kaye were childhood friends. Their parents had immigrated from Russia around the same time and they lived in the same New York City brownstone building. Kaye was a few years older than Mirrow and encouraged her to train. Nora Kaye was in a relationship with Jerome Robbins in the early 1950s, but they never married, focusing on their careers instead. Robbins was also a known bisexual.[3] Isabel Mirrow danced with the American Ballet Theatre from 1947 until 1953.[4] Nora was with the company from its inception in 1939 until 1951, and later returned in a leadership role. Unlike the film, Isabel did not get pregnant while she was with the company; however, during this time Isabel married fellow dancer Kelly Brown, who was widely sought after. Margaret Craske was the head of the company when Isabel and Nora were there.[5] Kaye continued to dance in New York with other companies and became a more prominent figure in the ballet world, while Isabel had stopped performing to marry and have children. Their first child, Leslie Browne, born in 1957, was Nora Kaye's goddaughter. Kaye went on to marry director Herbert Ross in 1959. The two couples were close friends, along with Arthur Laurents. Kelly Brown, Ross, Kaye, and Laurents all worked together in the Broadway musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale in 1962.[6] In his autobiography, Laurents wrote that in the 1940s he had a sexual relationship with Nora Kaye.[7] In 1965, an opportunity to run a dance studio opened up, and Kelly Brown decided to move his family to Phoenix, Arizona (changed to Oklahoma City in the film). By this time he and his wife had aged out of performing. Isabel Mirrow Brown was not thrilled to leave her native New York for Arizona, and the move caused strain in their marriage. When their daughter Leslie auditioned and was accepted to train back in New York in the School of American Ballet (SAB), Isabel moved back to New York to watch over Leslie, who was still a teenager. The film depicts Isabel's experience entering back into the dance world after living in Phoenix and having four children (three in the film). In real life she eventually divorced Kelly Brown, who died in 1981 at age 52.[8] While in Arizona the Browns had kept in touch with their friends Nora and Herbert. Later in the mid 1970s, a script based on the Brown family was developed by Arthur Laurents. Ross directed the film and co-produced with his wife. Ross, Laurents, and Kaye never had children and took a special interest in Leslie Browne as she grew older. The script was a fictionalized version of the Browns' life and the long friendship between Isabel and Nora. The fictional parts primarily concern the character Yuri, who was created as a love interest for Emilia. Originally, the ballerina Gelsey Kirkland, who was at the height of her fame at the time and dating Mikhail Baryshnikov (Yuri), was offered the role of Emilia.[9] She rejected the role as she was dealing with substance abuse issues at the time and she "wanted no part of Hollywood". Ross then decided that Leslie Browne, who was nineteen at the time, would be able to portray a fictionalized version of herself in the film. In real life, Leslie had just joined ABTin 1976 and was experiencing the same things she portrayed on screen. Leslie had added an "e" to her last name as her stage name to sound more feminine after being mistaken as a man in a playbill. The script changed the family name from Brown to Rodgers, and all the first names except for their son Ethan Brown. The real-life Ethan Brown later became a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, retiring from performing in 2004; he now teaches.[10] In real life, the Browns had another son, Kelly Brown II, who danced as a child but did not train professionally like his siblings and later became a film producer. Their other daughter, Elizabeth Brown (born 1959), was also a dancer, unlike in the film, and was accepted into SAB a year after Leslie. Nora Kaye died of cancer in 1987 at age 67. After the film, Leslie Browne went on to become principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre in New York City from 1986 until 1993 and now teaches ballet. Her mother Isabel continued to be associated with New York Ballet and she died in August 2014 at the age of 86.[11][12][13] Herbert Ross later directed two more dance-themed films, Nijinsky (1980) and Dancers (1987), both of which also feature Leslie Browne. Arthur Laurents claimed an important subplot of Wayne's homosexuality in the original script was cut from the film by Herbert Ross and his wife. This was the reason why the plots of Wayne's being a gay undeveloped till the end of the film.[14] Awards[edit] The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards:[15][16] Best Actress in a Leading Role (Anne Bancroft), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Shirley MacLaine), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Mikhail Baryshnikov), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Leslie Browne), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Albert Brenner, Marvin March), Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Picture, Best Sound (Theodore Soderberg, Paul Wells, Douglas O. Williams and Jerry Jost) andBest Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Despite these 11 nominations, the film won no Oscars. Thus, along with The Color Purple, it shares the record of receiving the most Oscar nominations without a single win. The film did win a Golden Globe for Best Drama Film and for Best Director, among its nominations. Screenwriter Arthur Laurents won the Writers Guild Award for Best Screenplay Written Directly For The Screen. Appearances in popular culture[edit] ·       In an episode of The Nanny, Fran references the film by saying: "This is like that movie The Turning Point, only they were dancers and one was the mother and they were old friends... [looks confused] I should really rent that again." ·       In the Judy Blume book Summer Sisters this film sparked a great discussion with the two main characters of the story, Vix and Caitlin, which showed how different the girls' priorities were. ·       In the episode of That '70s Show entitled "Fez Dates Donna", Eric, much to his delight, could not take Donna out to see the movie since Donna was pretending to be dating Fez. ·       In an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 ("Pass/Not Pass"), Brenda (Shannen Doherty) and Andrea (Gabrielle Carteris) perform a scene from the film for their theater class. ·       In the opening episode of Bunheads, Sutton Foster responds to hearing her mother-in-law's life story by saying "How very Turning Point." ·       MOVIE REVIEW ·       'Turning Point' Limns Ballet Life ·       By VINCENT CANBY ·       Published: November 15, 1977 ·       The story to date: 20 years ago Deedee abandoned her ambitions to become a star of the American Ballet Theater and, instead, moved to Oklahoma City with her husband, Wayne, with whom she opened a fabulously successful ballet school, raised three fabulously sweet children, moved into a splitlevel house and acquired a fabulously long station wagon. Deedee chose love—unlike her best friend, Emma, who chose success and became Ballet Theater's prima ballerina. ·       As our movie, which is called "The Turning Point." opens, Deedee and Emma are reunited when Ballet Theater comes to Oklahoma City. Old hopes are rekindled for, as all of us know, an old hope never dies in fiction of this sort, no matter how many tears are pumped on it. Emma, who gets 19 curtain calls and has "everything" envies Deedee, while Deedee, the one who got pregnant, still dreams of stardom. Wil Ithey ever find peace and fulfillment—these two women who now recall their—how shall I put it?—turning points? ·       To ask that question is to know the worst about this entertaining new movie, an old-fashioned backstage musical transplanted to the world of ballet by three people who not only know it but also love it, sentimental clichés and all. ·       "The Turning Point," which opened last night at special performances at the Coronet and Baronet Theaters, begins its regular commercial engagement at the Coronet today. It's the work of Herbert Ross, the director; Arthur Laurents, the screenwriter, and Nora Kaye (Mrs. Ross), the former ballerina who is its executive producer. Their curious, collective achievement is in having found so much vitality in the sort of movie that demands that its audiences weep with sympathy for characters who have all they ever wanted but simply don't realize it yet. ·       Among the film's principal assets are Shirley MacLaine, looking very pretty and almost matronly, but not quite, as the sharp-tongued, intelligent, deep-down furious homemaker, Deedee; and Anne Bancroft as the driven ballerina, Emma, a woman of ravaged beauty and whose frail frame could possibly lift a freight car if she willed it. ·       The intensity of their lifelong friendship, and rivalry, is carefully and sometimes hilariously detailed as "The Turning Point" follows Deedee's daughter, Emilia, charmingly played by Leslie Browne, her mother and her little brother to New York, where Emilia joins Ballet Theater's school. It's not giving away too much to report that the girl's almost instantaneous success means that one day in the not too distant future she will be replacing her beloved godmother, Emma, as the A.B.T.'s major attraction. ·       These are more or less the bones of the film, which are hardly bare, what with Emma's having to face the reality of time's passage, and Deedee's having to come to terms with her missed opportunities. Could she have danced the lead in "Anna Karenina" 20 years ago? Probably not, though from what we see of Emma in the role, it's mostly walking through steam. ·       There are also the emotional crises faced in New York by Emilia, who has an unhappy affair with a young Soviet dancer named Yuri, a role played with cheerful ease by Mikhail Baryshnikov, the young Soviet dancer who chose success in the West several years ago. ·       As Emilia learns that the love of a young Soviet ballet dancer is not forever—which is just as well when one has her eye on the top of the bill—and as Emma and Deedee are wrestling, once physically in a very funny and moving scene, with their doubts, "The Turning Point" gives us excerpts from more than a dozen ballets that feature, in addition to Mr. Baryshnikov and Miss Browne, the stars and the corps de ballet of Ballet Theater. ·       The manner in which Mr. Ross handles these sequences defines the choice that he made when planning "The Turning Point." That is, he chose to create a backstage film about the ballet rather than a ballet film. The excerpts are lovely but often so brief that not even an obnoxious child would have time to become bored. Because this is a film about people and not dance, the film spends as much time showing us the dancers' faces and reaction shots of people in the audience as it does showing us the complete figures of the dancers in motion. The method is that of show-biz, not art. ·       Show-biz is also apparent in the tone of Mr. Laurents's screenplay, which delights not only in backstage sentiment but also backstage bitchiness with, I'm told, all sorts of references to people living and dead. Though "The Turning Point" does show us that ballet is an extremely difficult, physically demanding art, the film's concentration on its female characters tends, if only by accident, to confirm the oldest ballet cliché of them all—that ballet is, in this country anyway, women's work. ·       All of the men in the film exist as little more than dance partners or as props for the drama. This is partly the result of the focus of the movie in which Miss MacLaine and Miss Bancroft give such powerhouse performances and only Mr. Baryshnikov is allowed to be a man of any substance. ·       The others, including Tom Skerritt, who plays Miss MacLaine's blandly decent husband, are background figures. Such a comment, I realize, could also be made about any number of Bette Davis. Joan Crawford or Greer Garson movies of long ago. ·       "The Turning Point" is entertaining, not for discovering new material, but for treating old material with style and romantic feeling that, in this day and age, seem remarkably unafraid. ·       "The Turning Point," which has been rated PG ("Parental Guidance Suggested"), contains some mildly vulgar language and one nude love scene that is so tastefully and genteelty done, perhaps because it is actually the last scene in a ballet. ·       THE TURNING POINT, directed by Herbert Ross; screenplay by Arthur Laurents; produced by Mr. Ross and Mr. Laurents; executive producer, Nora Kaye; music adapted conducted by John Lanchbery; director of photograpy, Robert Surtees; editor, William Reynolds; distributed by 20th Century-Fox. Running time: 118 minutes. At the Coronet Theater, Third Avenue and 59th Street. This film has been rated PG.  Emma . . . . . Anne Bancroft  Deedee . . . . . Shirley MacLaine  Yuri . . . . . Mikhail Baryshnikov  Emilia . . . . . Leslie Towne  Wayne . . . . . Tom Skerritt  Agelaide . . . . . Martha Scott  Sevilla . . . . . Antoinette Sibley  Dahkarova . . . . . Alexandra Danilova  Carolyn . . . . . Starr Danias  Carter . . . . . Marshall Thompson  Michael . . . . . James Mitchell  Freddie . . . . . Scott Douglas  Arnold . . . . . Daniel Levans  Peter . . . . . Jurgen schneider  Rosie . . . . . Anthony Zerbe  Ethan . . . . . Phillip Saunders  Janina . . . . . Lisa Lucas  Florence . . . . . Saax Bradbury  Sandra . . . . . Hilda Morales  Barney . . . . . Donald Petrie  Billy, Joe . . . . . James Crittenden  Also quest appearances by Lucette Aldous, Fernando Bujones, Richard Cragun, Suzanne Farrell, Marcia Haydee, Peter Martins, Clark Tippet, Marianna Tcherkassky, Martine Van Hamel and Charles Ward.     Anne Bancroft in The Turning Point Anne Bancroft received her fourth Best Actress nomination for playing Emma Jacklin, an aging ballerina in Herbert Ross' movie, The Turning Point. Although Anne Bancroft was the one who received awards and nominations for this role, I think she received less votes than Shirley, simply because Anne was a previous winner and she wasn't an extremely big star. She was the fascinating, respected, 100% actress who gave excellent performances in movies, on stage and TV.   I've already mentioned a lot of things about The Turning Point in my review about Shirley, so I won't say much else here. It's an enjoyable, entertaining and a bit boring and slow. Other than that, I liked it very much now.   Anne Bancroft was such a huge talent that I admire so much. She was truly one of the most gifted actresses on this planet andher death's a huge loss for all of the movie lovers. Anne's roles covered such a huge rane: she could play the almost blind teacher of Helen Keller, the broken down wife in The Pumpkin Eater, the original, sexy and bitter cougar in The Graduate. She had this deep, beautiful voice that had such a huge power. It gives me chills whenever I hear it. And she uses it so well. Could you imagine somebody else saying "Hello Benjamin!" or "Do you want me to seduce you?" Anne's performances are so manipulative but in the best possible way. You always see the character and if she says seduction, you're seduced at once.   Even if you read the synopsis of The Turning Point, you'll instantly see which part is the better one. Naturally it's Emma, the aging ballerina, full of pain and loneliness. She's not a very sad person, there are no huge tears of loneliness there, she actually acts quite casually and kindly with everyone and yet we feel some bitterness in her. Bancroft brilliantly added a touch of this bitterness to this role, which is instantly captivating. Audrey Hepburn admitted wanting this role badly but I really have to try to imagine her in the role. I'm sure that she would have been brilliant as always but that Emma would be so different. Anne totally inhabited this character and made it her own right away.   Emma is a very interesting, multi-layered and Anne did not fail in showing all of her emotions. Emma is someone very old-fashioned, soft and fragile on the outside, but inside she's not afraid of hard word and competition. There's a scene where she talks to that elderly Russian lady in French. Anne is just fantastic there. I got to know so much about her character there and I was utterly fascinated by Anne. I so love these nuances in performances. I'm sure that 90% of the people who saw this movie did not think it was that great but I was crazy about it.   Although she doesn't have much screentime (in fact, this might be one of the shortest nominated leading performances ever), she's still the leading force in this film. Very much like Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs, I was always so impressed by her that I did not notice that she did not have that much time to work with. However, the main difference is that the 80% of Anne's performance is in the first half and therefore she disappears for some time and unfortunately that time is enough to ruin her effect a bit. Everything becomes a bit weaker and I was a bit disappointed in the end. If I was observing it as a supporting performance, that wouldn't be a big problem but here it bothers me a bit. She's great anyhow but the whole thing wasn't as powerful as it could have been.   However, Anne easily outacts Shirley (though I don't see the effort in Anne to do so). In their scene at the bar, there's so much force in Anne which Shirley really lacks. And whenever they had a scene together, Anne stole the spotlight. I just couldn't NOT look at Anne as she was so interesting and Shirley wasn't much of interest for me unfortunately. I must tell, though, that although the catfight scene works for Shirley, it somehow doesn't fit Anne's performance. Anne was so gracious and dignified (just like Emma), then she plays Joan Collins. It was a bit disappointing.   All things considered, Anne still gives the best performance of her movie, adding real depth to the character of Emma. Although she doesn't have much screentime and that catfight scene was just not for her, I still appreciated this performance and I was certainly very impressed by the immense talent and presence of Anne Bancroft. A strong 4. I know that this was a bit fast but I thought it was best to write both reviews when the experience is fresh.   What do you think?     Film / The Turning Point ·       Film  ·       YMMV  ·       Create New  The Turning Point revitalized the fad for ballet and dance films. Released in 1977, the same year as Annie Hall and Star Wars, it also inaugurated Mikhail Baryshnikov's pop culture career as a film star. The film's ballet credentials are impeccable: it was directed by former dancer and choreographer Herb Ross; was produced by Ross' wife, legendary ballerina Nora Kaye; and featured several established or up-and-coming ballet stars in the cast. The plot covers two generations of dancers. In the older generation, a touring stop by the ballet company reignites the rivalry between Emma (Anne Bancroft) and DeeDee (Shirley MacLaine). DeeDee's career ended shortly after she became pregnant and married another dancer, Wayne (Tom Skerrit). Emma, however, became a star in then up-and-coming choreographer Michael's adaptation of Anna Karenina, a part that DeeDee had also wanted. In the younger generation, DeeDee's daughter Emilia (Leslie Browne) receives a fellowship for a special program at the company ballet school, where she catches the eye of philandering star Yuri (Baryshnikov). Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, but lost all of them, setting a record since tied by The Color Purple. Now often accused of being Soap Operaen pointe. This Movie Contains Examples of: ·       Agony of the Feet: Emma grumbles about what ballet does to dancers' feet. Later, we see Emilia nearly sobbing in pain just from DeeDee trying to bandage her battered toes. ·       All There in the Manual: Screenwriter Arthur Laurents' novelization includes considerable Word of Gay, making it clear that Wayne is a gay man who married to save face, and that Michael, despite being Emma's former lover, is now partnered with the company's male ballet master. ·       Ballet ·       Brutal Honesty: When Emma abandons her role in Arnold's ballet, she turns to Michael for sympathy. His idea of sympathy is telling her that she will no longer dance the title role in Giselle, then hinting strongly that it's time for her to quit. ·       The Cameo: Notably, famed ballerinas Antoinette Sibley and Alexandra Danilova. A number of then-current ABT performers and backstage personnel also make brief appearances, including Alexander Minz (best known as Drosselmeier in Baryshnikov's The Nutcracker) and Enrique Martinez. ·       Camp Gay: Arnold. ·       Camp Straight: Freddie. ·       Color-Coded for Your Convenience: A glaring example during Emilia's audition, when all the other dancers are wearing various shades of dark colors, but Emilia is outfitted in white. ·       Drowning My Sorrows: A miserable Emilia gets drunk. Then, she somehow has to perform with the other members of the corps. This goes very badly. ·       Enforced Method Acting: In-universe, Arnold belatedly explains to Emilia that his bad behavior to her was all part of getting her to stop emoting. ·       Family Versus Career: DeeDee stops performing after her first child; Emma achieves stardom, but has no family. ·       Glory Days: One of the film's major themes. o   Emma is at the very end of her career, and is being pushed out in favor of younger dancers. o   DeeDee is still obsessed with what she gave up. o   Michael no longer choreographs. o   Freddie is suffering the same fate as Emma. ·       Hard Work Hardly Works: Averted. The film makes clear that even the most talented dancers need to spend hours in class, and DeeDee warns her son that he needs to focus his attention either on baseball or on ballet. o   The novelization suggests that Wayne, while potentially brilliant, just isn't ambitious or interested enough to put in the real effort a ballet career requires. ·       I Coulda Been a Contender: DeeDee is still obsessed with Anna Karenina, and finally asks Michael if he would have given her the leading role instead of Emma. He doesn't remember. ·       Informed Ability: Anne Bancroft is carefully blocked to make it appear that she knows how to dance, but does very little in the way of movement. ·       The Ingenue: Emilia. ·       Maybe Ever After: Emilia and Yuri. ·       No Celebrities Were Harmed: Michael is based on Jerome Robbins. o   Adelaide is ABT co-founder Lucia Chase. ·       Prima Donna Director: Arnold. ·       Really Gets Around: Yuri. ·       Roman à Clef: DeeDee's and Emma's rivalry owes a lot to Nora Kaye and Isabel Brown, while Emma's failed love affair with Michael was inspired by the collapse of Kaye's engagement to Jerome Robbins. ·       Technician vs. Performer: For Emma, a dancer in her forties, even a double pirouette is a potential nightmare; she succeeds on the strength of her acting. As a result, she can't handle an abstract modern ballet, which demands much stronger technique. ·       What Could Have Been: Gelsey Kirkland, these days mentioned in almost the same breath as Pavlova and Fonteyn, was originally cast as Emilia. ·       White-Dwarf Starlet: DeeDee. ·       Your Cheating Heart: Everybody, pretty much: o   Emma is the other woman in a longtime affair. o   DeeDee has a brief fling with the company's old music director. o   Emilia catches Yuri in the act of seducing another dancer.     A Dance Movie for Valentine’s Day February 14, 2016 - Alex Happy Valentine’s Day! I’m celebrating with my one true #chickflick love – the dance movie. Today, it’s Anne Bancroft, Shirley MacLaine, and Mikhail Baryshnikov in The Turning Point. The Turning Point (1977) I don’t believe in being sorry. We are what we are. I hadn’t ever seen The Turning Point, so when it popped up on my Netflix recommendations, I was thrilled. If there is one “guilty pleasure” in my life (and I really don’t feel at all guilty about it), it’s a good dance movie – specifically, ballet. Something about the bodies, moving more gracefully than I’ll ever hope to, combined with the music, and the layers of leg warmers on tights. Ballet has all of the beauty of femininity, and also all of the strength. It is a pleasure. Baryshnikov’s not so bad to look at either. The best part of The Turning Point is surely Anne Bancroft. And Shirley MacLaine in close second. These are two actresses at the height of their careers, and it shows. The relationship between Bancroft’s Emma and MacLaine’s DeeDee is both complicated and romantic. There is plenty of talk about men (both gay and straight), children, and dancing (dance movie, duh) – but the real romance is between these two women. One a former dancer, left to become a mother. The other a dancer just past her prime, wondering what it might have been like to have had a child of her own. Both focused on the other, more than anyone else in their lives. Neither’s life is better than the other’s. But both would like to live in the other’s shoes. There is jealousy. There is appreciation. There is love. And there is overwhelming sadness. It is an emotional film, if there ever was one. It’s a dance movie, and it’s beautiful. The dancing is particularly well shot, and that alone is enough to satisfy your need (my need) for gorgeousness on-screen. A romance between Baryshnikov and DeeDee’s daughter Emilia is plenty to scratch that itch for sex (it’s pretty, demure, dancer sex). Wayne and DeeDee have a painfully functional marriage and it’ll make you think it’s easy. But ease and beauty are merely a backdrop. A picturesque backdrop to a life full of difficult choices. If The Turning Point suggests anything about women, it is that their most important struggles are with each other. That their best bonds, are also, with each other. And that hard choices – that is the great burden of the “fairer” sex. Best Shot/Scene: The end. Arm in arm, Bancroft and MacLaine wonder, “If only she knew what we knew now.” And of course realizing that “it wouldn’t matter worth a damn.” Their friendship is such that they may be two halves of one woman – watching their mutual child choose the same fate they did, wondering which fork she’ll decide on when it inevitably turns up. And of course, the fight. Watching Bancroft and MacLaine physically fight it out only to end in a laughing fit feels incredibly authentic. It’s a dance movie, but it’s not above the physicality of a knock-down, drag out fight. Other Things to Notice:  This is Mikhail Baryshnikov’s filmic debut. If you’re not familiar with the most handsome male ballet dancer of all time (to me), you may recognize him from his stint on Sex & The City’s final season (where he is also handsome AF). This was a big Oscar contender, with 11 nominations. If you’re thinking, man, this movie really is the quintessential women’s picture/ dramatic #chickflick/ dance movie, you’d be on to something. Director Herbert Ross is responsible for Footloose, Steel Magnolias, and The Goodbye Girl, among so many others.   ebay3498