Submitted by
Nicky Smith
The Thunderer,
Thursday, March 7th, 1985
Clutural detente that ended in discord
Moscow
It would be difficult to imagine a more colourful and splendid subject
for a major Anglo-Soviet film venture than the Russian ballerina Anna
Pavlova. It is a feast of music and dance spanning her life from her
origins in St Petersburg to her triumphs in the West.
But only days before the British royal premiére on Sunday, the film's
Soviet director, Emil Lotianou (Loteanu) has denounced the western
version as a travesty and appealed to British film-goers to have the
original restored.
Anna Pavlova, five years in the making, was financed by the Anglo-Cypriot
producer Frixos Constantine of Poseidon films and supervised by the
British director Michael Powell. Bruce Forsyth and Roy Kinnear are
among those with cameo roles. The star, Galina Belyaeva (Belyayeva)
is Russian.
The 49-year-old Lotianou, best known for his 1976 film Tabor, is a
poet as well as a film-maker. He is angry because he feels the very
term "western version" violates the Anglo-Soviet agreement, which
"specifically and authoritatively states that the film is to be made in
one single version for all world sales".
Lotianou will not be at the London premiére at the Dominion, Tottenham
Court Road. He told me he had devoted five years to Anna Pavlova -
in fact a quarter of a century from the moment, at the beginning of his
film career, when he was given a book abut her and first thought
she would make marvellous material for a film.
There were always tensions behind the scenes at Mosfilm, where the final
version of Pavlova was edited - tensions over length, and ultimately
over differing concepts. Lotianou's version is nearly three hours long
and emotional in the Russian manner. The Powell-Constantine version in
English is much shorter. "They have not destroyed my film completely."
Lotianou said. "But it is bitter to see the ruins of one's own creation."
He complains that the contract specifically obliged the British side to
give him a say in the English version, yet the Pavlova to be shown on
Sunday was made "without my agreement or participation," and its
integrity and style had suffered. "Had I known at the outset that the
contract would be broken, I would not have made the film at all."
Lotianou said he has warm feelings for James Fox who plays Anna's
husband and manager, Viktor d'André, and the other British participants,
both cast and crew. "They put up with my intolerable character very
well." But, he went on, British film-goers would be misled. The interference
with his work, he said, went far beyond the limits of professional
ethics and civilized relations". The English version had been cut with
"insensitive scissors. The result contrasted badly with the Pavlova
which had had eight million Soviet viewers in ecstasy.
"I remember watching the final version at Mosfilm with Martin Scorsese
and Robert de Niro. There is - or was - an episode in which Pavlova's
train stops in the desert sands. I meant that as a symbol of the crisis
every true artist faces. Anna, this small and fragile woman, siezes her
suitcase and declares herself ready to cross the desert. Scorsese said
this was the best scene, and I agree - but British viewers will not
see it. It has vanished, along with much of the music. The music was
the film's nerve centre, its explosive emotionality.
"Both sides should have observed the contract and ethical obligations.
As it is, the film will be shown in a distorted version. I hope that
on Sunday all those who remember and love Pavlova will lay flowers at
her grave (She died in Holland in January 1931 and was cremated at
Golder's Green.) I hope also that my fellow film-makers and British
filmgoers will work for the original film to appear on western screens.
Replying to Lotianou yesterday, Constantine said that every change made
in the film had been with the agreement of the Soviet authorities,
who had sent representatives to supervise the English editing. That
editing had been essential, he added, because "Western audiences are
not used to slow, long films, as Russian audiences are; they would not
sit through a three-hour version".
Richard Owen
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