White Nights
Short description
Nikolai Rodchenko, a celebrated Soviet ballet dancer who defected to the West, finds himself back in the USSR when his plane is forced down on Soviet soil. The KGB sees propaganda value in him and pressures him to perform again at the Kirov in Leningrad as a returning prodigal son. Resisting, he looks for a way out and finds an unlikely ally in Raymond Greenwood, an American tap dancer who settled in the Soviet Union, and Raymond's pregnant Russian wife. Together they plan an escape toward the American embassy.
Taylor Hackford directed the film, his fourth feature after The Idolmaker, An Officer and a Gentleman and Against All Odds. James Goldman and Eric Hughes wrote the screenplay, and William S. Gilmore and Hackford produced it for Columbia Pictures and New Visions. Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines lead a cast that also includes Jerzy Skolimowski, Helen Mirren, Geraldine Page and Isabella Rossellini, with 32 credited cast members and 103 credited crew. The production is a drama with thriller elements, running 136 minutes, and it took about 42 million dollars worldwide.
On IMDb it holds 6.7 out of 10 from roughly 9,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.7 out of 10 from 153 votes. A critics' rating of 5.1 out of 10 from 13 reviews sits below those audience scores, indicating a mixed professional response alongside a more favorable viewer consensus.
What's left behind the scenes
- Helen Mirren convincingly played Galina Ivanova, which is not surprising considering her father was Russian. Her birth name is Elena Lidia Vasilievna Mironova. Her grandfather, Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov, was a military engineer and served on the Russian Government Committee in London, where he oversaw arms procurement for the Russian army. A staunch monarchist, he remained in Great Britain after the revolution (according to other sources, he fled Soviet Russia).
- Actress Helen Mirren and director Taylor Hackford met on the set of this film. They subsequently married.
- Director Taylor Hackford faced criticism and ridicule for using old photographs of Helsinki in the film, which he presented as photographs of Leningrad. In fact, Hackford used photographs of Leningrad obtained at his request from representatives of a Finnish tourist agency. Despite the criticism, he endured the mockery for a long time and remained silent about the origin of the photographs so as not to compromise his Finnish friends.
- Director Taylor Hackford encountered quite predictable difficulties when choosing locations for filming. A large part of the film's plot unfolded in the USSR, particularly in Siberia and Leningrad. Given the film's subject matter – and especially the participation of Mikhail Baryshnikov – filming there was out of the question. Siberia could not be filmed on location either, as the technical capabilities of that period did not allow for accurately recreating the typical lighting for northern latitudes. The filmmakers took several trial trips to countries bordering the Arctic Circle and eventually chose the Finnish island of Reposaari. The majority of the island's population, which by that time numbered 1071 people, adhered to communist ideals, so producer William S. Gilmore had to use maximum diplomacy to obtain permission to film. One way or another, the Finnish communists proved to be pragmatic. Filming meant investment in the island's economy and temporary work for its inhabitants (the port, chemical plant, and fish processing plant located on the island had long been in decline). In short, only three residents of the island opposed filming and turning their village into a Siberian town for two weeks.
- While preparing for filming, Helen Mirren, Gregory Hines (1946-2003), and Isabella Rossellini visited Leningrad.
- The film opens with an excerpt from the ballet “The Young Man and Death” (choreographer – Roland Petit, librettist – Jean Cocteau), which premiered in 1946 on the stage of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.
- The filmmakers needed to find a venue that could pass for the interior of the Leningrad Order of Lenin and Order of the October Revolution Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet named after S.M. Kirov. Eventually, it was decided to film in the premises of the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon. Throughout Western Europe, it most resembled the theatre in Leningrad in terms of atmosphere and the elegance of its interior, as Mikhail Baryshnikov also agreed. At that time, the theatre had been around for almost 200 years. It served as a symbol of the revival of the Portuguese capital after the terrible earthquake of 1783. The interiors of the Kirov Theatre were filmed in Portugal, and the exterior – directly in Leningrad in the then USSR. In 1992, the Kirov Theatre was renamed the State Academic Mariinsky Theatre.
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