Valentino is a 1977 American biographical film co-written and directed by Ken Russell and starring Rudolf Nureyev, Leslie Caron, Michelle Phillips, and Carol Kane.
Russell later described his decision to make the film instead of The Rose with Bette Midler as the biggest mistake of his career.
[4] In 1926, thousands of fans mob the wake of recently deceased film star Rudolph Valentino in New York City.
Each remembers him via flashbacks: The first of these women, Bianca de Saulles, knew Valentino when he was a taxi dancer and gigolo in New York City, working under a woman named Billie Streeter.
Specifically, Bianca reminisces of a day when she witnessed Valentino romantically dancing with male ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, teaching him how to do the tango.
Mathis recalls seeing him in a bit part in a movie and, based on that alone, recommending him for a larger role in her next project, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Because Jesse Lasky refuses to pay bail for Valentino, he has to spend the night in jail, where the guards deny him bathroom privileges and, with the other prisoners, taunt him about his lack of masculinity.
Two stage hands, wondering if 'Rambova calls the shots in bed, too', toss a pink powder puff onto Valentino's lap.
Valentino finishes the picture, but Rambova insists he refuse future work at Paramount until Lasky meets certain demands.
A man named George Melford approaches them, offering to help them book personal appearances for Mineralava, a beauty product company.
Film historian Gene D. Phillips notes that the grand set pieces and events exhibited in Valentino, including the dramatic prison sequence, the lavish Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse film set, and the climactic boxing match, all fit neatly within the narrative framework as they are rooted in some historical basis.
[5] Alexander Bland, who wrote The Nureyev Valentino: Portrait of a Film (1977) which chronicles the making of the film, states that "only in isolated sequences—Lasky communicating with an ape, a powder-puff cabaret, couples fox-trotting round the boxing ring—has Russell let his fancy of the lead... Russell has taken liberties, but he has not strayed into license.
"[6] Summarizing Russell's handling of the film's historical accuracy, Bland further elaborated: His problem was to enclose a many-layered, multi-faceted story within a simple framework.
[7]Some scholars have noted the film's interpolation of certain events and characters, particularly the film's presentation of Alla Nazimova as she dramatically enters the funeral home to mourn Valentino: (in reality Neither Alla Nazimova nor Natacha Rambova attended Valentino's funeral) Film scholar Joseph Lanza suggests that Russell "folds the personages" of Nazimova and actress Pola Negri—another woman who had a close relationship with Valentino, but who does not appear as a character in the film—together.
[8] Lanza cites the fact that, per contemporaneous press accounts, Negri famously fainted several times during her visit to Valentino's wake, while there is no evidence suggesting the same of Nazimova.
[12] "What excited us was the idea of Valentino as the first personality created by the mass media instrument in its infancy, and the inconsistency between his own life and his screen persona", Chartoff said.
[12] Winkler and Chartoff commissioned writer Mardik Martin to begin researching Valentino's life and develop a screenplay.
[12] Russell helped write the screenplay along with Martin, which went through several drafts, making sure to "zoom in on a few incidents and expand them to produce the maximum effect.
"[18] Michelle Phillips, a former vocalist in The Mamas and the Papas who had made her major feature film debut in Dillinger (1973), was cast as Natacha Rambova, Valentino's lover and eventual wife.
[19] Russell had been impressed by Phillips's performance in the aforementioned film, and felt she embodied both the sexuality and toughness that he envisioned for his version of Rambova.
"[21] She also read Valentino's own autobiography, My Private Diary, in order to glean an understanding of Rambova from his point of view.
[21] Nureyev, who esteemed the discipline required of dance, felt that Phillips's "relaxed and free-wheeling approach" to acting was too unrestrained.
[1] Janet Maslin of The New York Times praised the performance of Caron, but felt that Nureyev "has trouble delivering snappy patter with much conviction", and that Phillips, though " suitably steely-eyed", lacked authenticity.
[39] However, The Village Voice called the film "so embarrassingly and extensively bad that it achieves a kind of excruciating consistency with the rest of his [Russell's] career."
[40] Although Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave a three-star rating to the film, sensing that it was a critique of the Hollywood studio machine, he noted that it suffered from what he felt was Russell's apparent dislike and disregard for Valentino.
"[39] Richard Schickel of Time alternately excoriated the film for its "relentless anti-Americanism, implying that the unfortunate inhabitants of these shores are the only citizens of the world capable of materialism or vulgarity.
"[43] Russell himself responded to the criticisms suggesting the film had an anti-American or anti-Hollywood tone: "I don't hate Hollywood.
"[46] Thomas felt the film's greatest strength, however, was its "implicit attack on the primitive, destructive concept of all-American manhood...
[47] Valentino is available on VHS and DVD in many territories, and was also released on Blu-ray in the US (Kino Lorber), UK (British Film Institute) and France (Bel Air Classiques).