Details
Movie Description
Shirley MacLaine and Anne Bancroft star in this musical drama and touching portrait of the world of dance in New York City. A ballet star (Anne Bancroft) is reunited with her best friend and rival (Shirley MacLaine) after years apart. Against the engrossing background of the world of ballet, their stories unfold, revealing the difficult choices and aching losses each woman has faced. The film features Mikhail Baryshnikov's fim debut, with sumptous choreography.
Synopsis
Many years before, Deedee Rogers (Shirley MacLaine) and Emma Jacklin (Anne Bancroft) were the two young ballerinas most likely to succeed in the demanding world of the American Ballet Theatre. But Deedee got pregnant and gave up her performing career for a family and a teaching job in Oklahoma, while Emma alone continued on to fame and fortune. Now Deedee's talented daughter, Emilia (Leslie Browne), has joined the ballet company, with her own dreams of becoming a renowned dancer--until the company's flirtatious and sexy star, Russian defector Yuri Kopeikine (Mikhail Baryshnikov), singles her out for special attention. Deedee and Emilia are spending the summer in New York, far away from their family life in Oklahoma; the close proximity of the company and her rival, Emma, forces Deedee to think back to her own youth and wonder if she made the right choice, all the while wondering if Emilia will become the artist that she never got the chance to be and follow in the footsteps of the lonely, yet famous, Emma. As Emilia becomes more and more saturated in the world of the company, the two old friends are forced to realize their love and loyalty toward one another despite their very different sacrifices. Herb Ross's compelling picture is a tour de force for its two stars, Anne Bancroft and Shirley MacLaine.
Film Notes
Filmed in New York City.
THE TURNING POINT marked the feature-film debut for ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Some of ballet's biggest stars performed in the film's final gala sequence. They include Lucette Aldous (of the Australian Ballet), Richard Cragun and Marcia Haydée (of the Stuttgart Ballet), Suzanne Farrell and Peter Martins (of the New York City Ballet), and Fernando Bujones, Marianna Tcherkassky, Clark Tippet, and Martine van Hamel (all of the American Ballet Theatre).
Feature film debut for ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Industry Reviews
"...MacLaine gives a realistic, low-key performance..." -- Rating: B+
Entertainment Weekly - Ty Burr (10/21/1994)
"...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."
New York Times - Vincent Canby (11/15/1977)
"...Shirley MacLaine and Anne Bancroft are so terrific in the leads that it still works in a Hollywood Golden Age-retro kind of way..."
USA Today - Mike Clark (12/17/1993)
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