The Turning Point (1977 film)

The Turning Point
Directed by	Herbert Ross
Produced by	Arthur Laurents Herbert Ross Nora Kaye
Written by	Arthur Laurents
Starring	Shirley MacLaine Anne Bancroft Tom Skerritt Mikhail Baryshnikov Leslie Browne
Cinematography	Robert Surtees
Editing by	William H. Reynolds
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	November 14, 1977 (1977-11-14)
Running time	119 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

The Turning Point is a 1977 film written by Arthur Laurents and directed by Herbert Ross. In starring roles were Shirley MacLaine, Anne Bancroft, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Leslie Browne, Tom Skerritt, Martha Scott, Anthony Zerbe, Marshall Thompson and James Mitchell.

Plot

This film tells the story of friends and former competitors in the world of ballet.

DeeDee (Shirley MacLaine) left the ballet school after becoming pregnant with the child of another ballet dancer, Wayne (Tom Skerritt). The two settled down to raise a family and co-run a ballet studio in the suburbs of Oklahoma City. Emma (Anne Bancroft) stayed and eventually became a prima ballerina with the American Ballet Company. When the company finally comes back to town, the two reunite. The reunion stirs up old memories and affects the present.

DeeDee's daughter, Emilia (Leslie Browne), is invited to join the company at Emma's request. Emilia starts an affair with a big-name Russian ballet defector and ladies' man, Yuri (Mikhail Baryshnikov). Emilia's brother Ethan is offered two ballet scholarships, but is unsure to pursue a career between ballet and baseball. Also, an old male friend of DeeDee's is getting to know her all over again. Meanwhile, it looks as if Emma's day in the sun is coming to an end.

Old friends and DeeDee eventually enter into major conflict, as DeeDee resents it that Emma acts as a foster mother to Emilia even though she had abandoned the idea of family life by pursing a career in ballet, while Emma feels that DeeDee is jealous of the success that Emma has had as a dancer. Emilia also suffers when she sees how Yuri carries on relationships with other girls.

Eventually, misunderstandings are settled, with Emma and DeeDee settling their differences and Emilia and Yuri becoming a stable couple with Emilia deciding to pursue a career in ballet.

Awards

The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Mikhail Baryshnikov), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Anne Bancroft), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Shirley MacLaine), 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) and Best 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.

Details

Leslie Browne, a young professional dancer with the American Ballet, received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in this film. She had joined the American Ballet Theatre just a year prior, in 1976, as a soloist, then became principal in 1986. She retired from the company in 1993. In 1997, she was awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award by the New York City Dance Alliance.

Ms. Browne was also the goddaughter of Herbert Ross, the director, and appeared in several films after The Turning Point, including: Nijinsky (1980) and Dancers (1987), each directed by Herbert Ross.

This film was also an introductory acting film for famous Russian ballet dancer, Mikhail Baryshnikov. Though his by-now famous stage presence and soaring jumps had been made famous by PBS's airing of In Performance Live from Wolf Trap (his American television dancing debut in 1976), Baryshnikov's performance of Yuri Kopeikine in The Turning Point was his first film role; one for which he received an Oscar nomination. He subsequently played in several other films following The Turning Point including: White Nights (1985), with Gregory Hines and Isabella Rossellini (choreographed by Twyla Tharp), and Dancers (1987).

Appearances in popular culture

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 theatre class.

References

• Lawrence, Greg. Dance with Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins. New York: Putnam, 2001. ISBN 0-399-14652-0.
• Russo, Vito. The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies. New York: Harper, 1987. ISBN 0-06-096132-5.

External links

• The Turning Point at the Internet Movie Database
• The Turning Point at AllRovi