Le tournant de la vie

The Turning Point is a landmark film in the dance movie genre. It follow two former friends and ballerinas, one-Shirley MacLaine-who chose to have a family instead of a career, and the other-Anne Bancroft-who chose the career and is weighing the consequences of what she gave up. MacLaine's daughter is also a ballerina, and as she pursues her dancing, she idolizes Bancroft rather than her own mother.

There's nothing wrong with the two leading ladies' acting, and the famous "catfight" scene makes the entire movie worth it, but as a dance movie, it's not very convincing. MacLaine was a very good dancer in her heyday and actually knows ballet, but the movie never showcases her skills. To anyone who doesn't know her background, her stature doesn't make her training immediately apparent. If you know what you're looking for, you can spot a ballerina out of a hundred strangers walking on the street. Bancroft's willowy frame is showcased in the film, and she has the stature that would make her dance training stand out in a crowd, but in the dance world, a ballerina approaches retirement at thirty. Internally, Bancroft nails her character, but externally, a forty-five-year-old woman wouldn't still be a prima ballerina.

The upside: Mikhail Baryshnikov. What a cutie pie! And while they are the minor leads of the movie, there are some beautiful dance scenes with Baryshnikov and Leslie Browne, real-life dancers. Plus, Tom Skerritt, who plays MacLaine's husband, is two tons of handsome. Lots of eye candy in this one, and lots of dancing, so if that appeals to you, rent it during your next girls' weekend! And don't mind my criticism too much. I love dance movies, and very frequently they have flaws. Just have fun with it and enjoy the movie!

Loved this film. If you love all things dance (in particular ballet) this is a must see. I am too embarrassed to tell you how many times I have actually seen this film. It's Baryshinikov!

1977 was a banner year for Herbert Ross, two pictures he directed are among Oscar's five BEST PICTURE nominees, one is THE GOODBYE GIRL (1977), with 5 nominations and 1 win for Richard Dreyfuss and another is this one, the balletic drama, THE TURNING POINT, received a whopping 11 nominations but went home empty-handed (a record later shared with Steven Spielberg's THE COLOR PURPLE 1985), and in hindsight, becomes the most overachiever apropos of Oscar nominations.

DeeDee (MacLaine) and Emma (Bancroft) go way back when they are ballerinas-and-best-friends, the former jilted her budding career and got married with dancer Wayne (Skerritt) after she was preggy just when she and Emma were both up for the cardinal role in Anna Karenina. Due to DeeDee's dropout, Emma procured the role and has remained as a prima ballerina for the company ever since, meantime DeeDee and Wayne moved to Oklahoma City and run a dance studio, raising their three kids.

Years later, when DeeDee's firstborn Emilia (Browne) is old enough to be picked up by the same dance company, do DeeDee and Emma's separated life orbits begin to converge, Emma has been devoted herself entirely to her career, unmarried and childless, what she has achieved is quite something in this feeding-frenzy and extremely ageism line-of-business, but over-the-hill is a word she cannot temporize any longer at that turning point, she confides to DeeDee that her body has compromised even though her spirit is still high on dancing. As for DeeDee, all these years she has been mulling over whether her decision of quitting is the right choice, and one particularly pestering thought that Emma might have intentionally advised her to get married when she was pregnant with Emilia, so that Emma could snatch that role which paved the way of her subsequent ascendance to the top tier, and pathologically wonders whether she was good enough to be picked over Emma if she had stayed.

Life doesn't offer us regret pills, and there is no what-ifs in reality, the film at its heart is a benevolent melodrama carrying an earnest women-skewing agenda: the family-or-career option, one can only choose one and fantasize the other, as most things in our lives, either option has its rewards and disappointment, if you get too possessed with the other option you didn't choose, there will only be torment and frustration, that is what differentiates DeeDee and Emma and grants the latter a more laudable characteristic arc, unlike DeeDee's self-inflicted doubt of her unfulfilled dream (which leads her to make several wrong choices in life too), Emma is decisive and not lingers on the past, she exemplifies a liberated woman who is unbridled by conventionality, she knows crystal clear what she wants, and is not incapable of live down the gnawing dissatisfaction, this mirrored dichotomy - both live the life the other has forsaken, is superbly deployed as a conceit to draw out stellar performances from Ms. Bancroft and Ms. MacLaine, who can ginger up mediocre fodder into entrancing emotional powerhouse, culminating in their unapologetically campy cat- fight, it is those moments remind us why we are so hopelessly in love with melodramas, because watching thespians go gung-ho like that induces endogenous thrill and pleasure in spite of what drives them are usually tales of woes. Both ladies are Oscar-nominated, but it is Bancroft who gets the upper hand with a more interesting character and she radiates with undivided warmth and empathy (also, she knows how to fake hiccups.), but she has her feet of clay, notwithstanding that she is strikingly emaciated, her comportment and posture is not convincing as a real seasoned dancer. (The film cunningly bypasses any real terpsichorean arrangement for her aside from several default exercise scenes.)

On the downside, the subplot surrounding Emilia's ill-fated romance with the dancer-cum-playboy Yuri (Baryshnikov) lacks any traction apart from the fact that both are excellent dancing pros, a feat so magnificently beguiling that it spawned two coattail Oscar nominations for both first-timers, a stark case indicates that Oscar is often less perspicacious than we think it is, another horrendous one is Jennifer Hudson in Bill Condon's DREAMGIRLS (2006), a terrific singer but very broad-stroke acting bent through and through, and she won! Both Tom Skerritt and Martha Scott (as the money- seeking head of the company) bring out meatier presences and are far worthier picks if the Academy was really bent on giving some subservient nominations.

For my personal taste, THE TURNING POINT can be easily ensconced in my guilty pleasure list, but deemed with a more critical eye, it still can be worshiped as an eloquent character drama unsparingly allows its players to shine over the unostentatious cinematic techniques, and a synesthetic feast for ballet aficionados.

A wonderful look inside the world of ballet, even if it is probably all highly refined balonium. A young and rising ballerina learns that great artists are not always great men; a mother would could have been a great ballerina finally has the hair-pulling match with the ballerina who wishes she'd been a mother that's she's wanted to have for years; catty remarks fly in all directions; and everyone is bound together, for good or ill, by their love of one particular form of art. You could bath for years in the suds of the soapy movie, but sometimes there's nothing quite so satisfying as a good soak. See it if you wish "The Ice Storm" had been any good.

Winner Best Picture and Director Golden Globe and 11 Academy Award nominations is a tip. From a real-life story of primary star Leslie Browne (longtime of the ABT) the film follows Emilia's adoption into the company of ballet stars from a family of dancers who retired to have her. Shirley Maclaine's Best movie. Anne Bancroft is unbelievable as a ballet dancer not ready to give up the limelight but ready to steal her friend's thunder as the enabler of a great ballet career for Emilia. This a great movie. Watch for some great choreography by all the big names, plus the great plus Alvin Ailey, and a shop window of ballet greats. Baryshnikov in his prime, Martins and Merrill on the side, Great editing, cinematography, the whole shebang.