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ARCHIVE VOICE-OVER: 'Rudolf Nureyev. | 0:00:04 | 0:00:06 | |
'The critics have exhausted their fondest superlatives. | 0:00:06 | 0:00:09 | |
'The audiences have cheered until their voices have departed. | 0:00:09 | 0:00:13 | |
'Today, in our own time, | 0:00:13 | 0:00:14 | |
'the tradition of the supreme dancer flames again | 0:00:14 | 0:00:18 | |
'in the blazing intensity of this young disciple of movement.' | 0:00:18 | 0:00:21 | |
CHATTER | 0:00:32 | 0:00:34 | |
Are you going to stay? | 0:00:34 | 0:00:36 | |
It is such an incredible story that the man escape | 0:00:39 | 0:00:44 | |
at that time from the KGB, and he jumps! | 0:00:44 | 0:00:48 | |
-TRANSLATION FROM RUSSIAN: -The story hit like an atom bomb. | 0:00:51 | 0:00:54 | |
It was like a film. | 0:00:57 | 0:00:59 | |
It was incredible. | 0:01:00 | 0:01:02 | |
And this is the last time I will speak of Rudolf Nureyev! | 0:01:02 | 0:01:06 | |
Nureyev was in danger. He betrayed his country. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:14 | |
The KGB had plans to destroy him. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:17 | |
He said to me, "I won't have to hide myself behind an Iron Curtain." | 0:01:17 | 0:01:22 | |
For him, freedom was something new. | 0:01:22 | 0:01:25 | |
-TRANSLATION: -Telling the truth is not always the best thing. | 0:01:29 | 0:01:32 | |
He was a difficult partner. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:34 | |
You know, he was such a star. | 0:01:39 | 0:01:42 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:01:51 | 0:01:53 | |
He wanted to conquer the world, | 0:01:58 | 0:02:00 | |
and it was his right to conquer the world. | 0:02:00 | 0:02:03 | |
It was a miracle. | 0:02:04 | 0:02:05 | |
A miracle. | 0:02:06 | 0:02:07 | |
-TRANSLATION: -One day, | 0:02:33 | 0:02:34 | |
while I was walking along the gallery of the rehearsal studio, | 0:02:34 | 0:02:38 | |
I saw a young dancer I hadn't seen before. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:41 | |
His stature was exquisite. | 0:02:43 | 0:02:46 | |
The tension in his body... | 0:02:48 | 0:02:50 | |
..the extension he got in his arabesque... | 0:02:52 | 0:02:56 | |
he was unique. | 0:02:56 | 0:02:58 | |
He wasn't perfect. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:00 | |
But Nureyev was so exciting - he had an enormously expressive | 0:03:07 | 0:03:12 | |
technique of revolving on the very tips of his toes. | 0:03:12 | 0:03:16 | |
You could feel his expression. | 0:03:16 | 0:03:19 | |
TRANSLATION: Of course, we were looking at him with great interest. | 0:03:23 | 0:03:27 | |
Whenever he had classes, we always came to see how he trained. | 0:03:27 | 0:03:31 | |
The same classroom we are in now! | 0:03:31 | 0:03:33 | |
-TRANSLATION: -We all felt very privileged | 0:03:40 | 0:03:42 | |
that we got into this famous school. | 0:03:42 | 0:03:44 | |
It was the dream of every young dancer. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:47 | |
It was very hard to get a place. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:49 | |
And so, when Rudik climbed so quickly to dance as a soloist, | 0:03:49 | 0:03:53 | |
this was just unprecedented. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:55 | |
The person that made that happen | 0:03:55 | 0:03:57 | |
was the woman who chose him as a partner - Natalia Dudinskaya. | 0:03:57 | 0:04:01 | |
-TRANSLATION: -Dudinskaya was a prima ballerina. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:13 | |
Dancers aren't defined like that any more, | 0:04:13 | 0:04:16 | |
but she was a prima ballerina back then, | 0:04:16 | 0:04:18 | |
the grandest of them all. | 0:04:18 | 0:04:20 | |
She was our inspiration, first of all. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:35 | |
The company treated her with great respect. | 0:04:35 | 0:04:38 | |
Natalia Dudinskaya had been a huge star from the 1930s. | 0:04:50 | 0:04:53 | |
Her husband, Konstantin Sergeyev, | 0:04:55 | 0:04:57 | |
was the artistic director of the Kirov. | 0:04:57 | 0:04:59 | |
He was a very important dancer for the company, and a noble one, | 0:04:59 | 0:05:03 | |
someone who represented the ideal Soviet dancer. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:08 | |
But Sergeyev and Nureyev had a very complicated relationship. | 0:05:08 | 0:05:12 | |
Stop! | 0:05:13 | 0:05:15 | |
Stop, stop, stop, spasibo. | 0:05:15 | 0:05:16 | |
Sergeyev clearly believed in him as a dancer, | 0:05:38 | 0:05:41 | |
he knew that he was capable of carrying the company | 0:05:41 | 0:05:44 | |
and carrying those roles with his wife. | 0:05:44 | 0:05:47 | |
On the other hand, what Nureyev was doing, | 0:05:47 | 0:05:50 | |
his behaviour within the company, was likely very upsetting, | 0:05:50 | 0:05:54 | |
because Nureyev showed no respect. | 0:05:54 | 0:05:56 | |
Rudik stormed in like a whirlwind, ripping everything apart. | 0:05:58 | 0:06:03 | |
He was very impulsive, he would always do something extraordinary, | 0:06:03 | 0:06:07 | |
unusual, and every time it was kind of a shock for everyone. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:11 | |
It was his character. | 0:06:11 | 0:06:12 | |
-TRANSLATION: -He would just snap. | 0:06:14 | 0:06:15 | |
He had a terrible temper. | 0:06:15 | 0:06:17 | |
He was so rude and insulting. | 0:06:17 | 0:06:20 | |
But he was honest, childlike, so somehow you were on his side. | 0:06:20 | 0:06:25 | |
-TRANSLATION: -Rudik had rivals in a professional sense. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:39 | |
Yuri Soloviev had a great natural talent. | 0:06:39 | 0:06:42 | |
He had what we call soft legs. | 0:06:42 | 0:06:45 | |
He could take off and achieve such fantastic height with his jump | 0:06:45 | 0:06:50 | |
that he was compared to Gagarin. | 0:06:50 | 0:06:53 | |
He was called Cosmic Yuri, | 0:06:53 | 0:06:55 | |
because he could keep himself in the air for a longer time than Nureyev. | 0:06:55 | 0:07:00 | |
But the most talented dancers | 0:07:00 | 0:07:02 | |
aren't those who rely on their natural talents, | 0:07:02 | 0:07:06 | |
but those who can overcome any shortcomings they have. | 0:07:06 | 0:07:10 | |
And that's what made Rudolf great. | 0:07:10 | 0:07:13 | |
He was a great dancer, but he had bad attitude. | 0:07:13 | 0:07:16 | |
We had traditions. | 0:07:16 | 0:07:17 | |
It was our responsibility as students | 0:07:17 | 0:07:19 | |
to wash the floor after class. | 0:07:19 | 0:07:21 | |
Rudik would never do it. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:23 | |
Rudolf. | 0:07:23 | 0:07:25 | |
He spoke like a prince to his servant. | 0:07:38 | 0:07:42 | |
To Sergeyev, if you can believe it! | 0:07:42 | 0:07:44 | |
He was not just the head of the theatre, | 0:07:44 | 0:07:48 | |
but one of Russia's best dancers of the 20th century. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:51 | |
Yuri Soloviev appeared and said to him, | 0:07:57 | 0:08:00 | |
"Water it immediately or I'll beat you up." | 0:08:00 | 0:08:04 | |
Yuri was quite a big boy. | 0:08:07 | 0:08:09 | |
He did it, but he was so angry, | 0:08:11 | 0:08:14 | |
because he was made to water the floor like the rest of us mortals. | 0:08:14 | 0:08:19 | |
TRANSLATION: Their characters were very different. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:28 | |
Nureyev's temperament meant he pushed and pushed the whole time. | 0:08:28 | 0:08:33 | |
Yuri was less driven to get the good parts. | 0:08:33 | 0:08:36 | |
He had patience. Rudolf was impatient. | 0:08:36 | 0:08:39 | |
-TRANSLATION: -Of course, he was a part of the Kirov theatre company, | 0:08:54 | 0:08:57 | |
but he was always an outsider, he had no friends there. | 0:08:57 | 0:09:01 | |
A part of the collective, but a very individual part. | 0:09:01 | 0:09:05 | |
I became his confidante. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:10 | |
I wasn't a dancer, so there was no jealousy - | 0:09:10 | 0:09:13 | |
I was just happy to share in his success. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:16 | |
He loved being photographed. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:21 | |
When he looked at my photos, he said, | 0:09:21 | 0:09:23 | |
"Look at this real narcissist!" | 0:09:23 | 0:09:26 | |
He loved it that something would remain of these moments. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:29 | |
Going to Paris meant a lot to him. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:45 | |
He really wanted to go on that tour. | 0:09:45 | 0:09:49 | |
I remember how obsessed he was with the idea of Paris. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:52 | |
Nureyev had great expectations, because in 1961 | 0:09:55 | 0:09:59 | |
it was the very first time the company toured in the West. | 0:09:59 | 0:10:05 | |
The company was founded in 1730, | 0:10:05 | 0:10:10 | |
and no-one in any way... They never came to the West. | 0:10:10 | 0:10:15 | |
By the time the Kirov was deciding on the final roster for the tour, | 0:10:24 | 0:10:29 | |
Nureyev knew that he was on his final warning, | 0:10:29 | 0:10:33 | |
and a meeting was held to reprimand him for his behaviour. | 0:10:33 | 0:10:37 | |
The title of the meeting was | 0:10:39 | 0:10:41 | |
"The conduct of party member Nureyev." | 0:10:41 | 0:10:43 | |
And I said to Rudik, "This is your last chance. | 0:10:43 | 0:10:46 | |
"I beg you, please don't say anything to make them mad." | 0:10:46 | 0:10:50 | |
But Rudik always created tension with the KGB, | 0:10:52 | 0:10:56 | |
the controlling organisations, as we say. | 0:10:56 | 0:10:59 | |
How would he behave? | 0:11:01 | 0:11:03 | |
But then again, he was unique in our theatre. | 0:11:03 | 0:11:07 | |
Like him or loathe him, there was nobody like him. | 0:11:07 | 0:11:11 | |
On stage, he would be the centre of attention. | 0:11:11 | 0:11:14 | |
He told me that in the meeting, he was only given a verbal reprimand, | 0:12:22 | 0:12:26 | |
so that meant he would be able to go abroad on the tour. | 0:12:26 | 0:12:29 | |
Nothing was written down in his file. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:32 | |
And I said, | 0:12:33 | 0:12:34 | |
"Rudik, don't you realise you've really insulted Yuri Soloviev?" | 0:12:34 | 0:12:38 | |
Yuri was stung by that insult, and it stayed with him. | 0:12:38 | 0:12:42 | |
Rudolf hadn't been chosen. | 0:12:50 | 0:12:52 | |
DOORS SLAM | 0:12:55 | 0:12:57 | |
Everyone knows, if you're going to take anyone, take Rudolf. | 0:12:59 | 0:13:02 | |
We tried to calm him down and control his emotions. | 0:13:10 | 0:13:13 | |
This was a despair for him. | 0:13:18 | 0:13:21 | |
There was another reason. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:25 | |
Nureyev had the same repertoire as Sergeyev, | 0:13:29 | 0:13:33 | |
and Sergeyev wanted to dance again. | 0:13:33 | 0:13:37 | |
Sergeyev and Dudinskaya were hoping that those performances | 0:13:37 | 0:13:40 | |
would be a swansong that would allow them to have a final triumph | 0:13:40 | 0:13:45 | |
in the West as dancers of the Kirov. | 0:13:45 | 0:13:48 | |
But the chance came with a young French lady called Janine Ringuet, | 0:13:51 | 0:13:57 | |
and Janine Ringuet was sent to Leningrad to see the company | 0:13:57 | 0:14:01 | |
and to organise the tour, and to organise also the cast. | 0:14:01 | 0:14:05 | |
And Konstantin Sergeyev told her, | 0:14:06 | 0:14:08 | |
"OK, you've seen all the ballets that should come to Paris." | 0:14:08 | 0:14:13 | |
And in the evening, | 0:14:13 | 0:14:14 | |
she saw that Don Quixote had to be performed. | 0:14:14 | 0:14:18 | |
She said, "Well, there's Don Quixote, | 0:14:18 | 0:14:20 | |
"I would like to see it, maybe it's interesting." | 0:14:20 | 0:14:24 | |
And Sergeyev told her, | 0:14:24 | 0:14:25 | |
"No, it's a very old production, | 0:14:25 | 0:14:28 | |
"you will probably not appreciate it, | 0:14:28 | 0:14:32 | |
don't go, it's really no interest." | 0:14:32 | 0:14:36 | |
She had to see it. | 0:14:36 | 0:14:37 | |
And Janine understood that she'd just found her star. | 0:14:39 | 0:14:44 | |
And she sent a telegram to her boss saying, | 0:14:46 | 0:14:51 | |
"I have found the best dancer of the world." | 0:14:51 | 0:14:55 | |
And her producer answered her, | 0:14:55 | 0:14:58 | |
"Janine, you are a little too young to say that." | 0:14:58 | 0:15:02 | |
But she was right. | 0:15:02 | 0:15:03 | |
Whoo! | 0:15:08 | 0:15:09 | |
I remember it like it was yesterday. | 0:15:13 | 0:15:16 | |
He's running towards me. | 0:15:17 | 0:15:19 | |
"I will be dancing in Paris!" he said. | 0:15:19 | 0:15:21 | |
"2-0, we win! | 0:15:21 | 0:15:23 | |
"Sergeyev gave me Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty." | 0:15:23 | 0:15:26 | |
So this is already...poor Nureyev, he just wanted to dance, | 0:15:34 | 0:15:39 | |
he was refused, and suddenly he became a political problem. | 0:15:39 | 0:15:43 | |
And, politically, it was a very difficult time. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:46 | |
The Kirov would arrive at the top of the Cold War. | 0:15:46 | 0:15:51 | |
Well, '61 was an extraordinary year. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:57 | |
I mean, this is the year of the Cuban Revolution, | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
this is the period of the building of the Berlin wall. | 0:16:00 | 0:16:04 | |
It's also the year when the Soviet Union put Yuri Gagarin, | 0:16:04 | 0:16:09 | |
the first man up in space. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:11 | |
And this showed that the Soviet Union was scientifically | 0:16:12 | 0:16:15 | |
and technologically ahead of the Americans. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:18 | |
They were winning the Cold War. | 0:16:18 | 0:16:20 | |
With the Kirov, "We will take this culture out to the West | 0:16:20 | 0:16:23 | |
"to show to you that the Soviet Union is not only technologically superior, | 0:16:23 | 0:16:27 | |
"we have a superior culture." | 0:16:27 | 0:16:29 | |
So the Kirov coming as it did in 1961 | 0:16:29 | 0:16:33 | |
was an extraordinary step forward for the Soviet Union, | 0:16:33 | 0:16:37 | |
and of course an extraordinary moment in the history of the Cold War. | 0:16:37 | 0:16:41 | |
-TRANSLATION: -This was going to be a crucial tour, | 0:16:59 | 0:17:02 | |
an important mission for the KGB. | 0:17:02 | 0:17:06 | |
A huge company travelling, | 0:17:06 | 0:17:09 | |
performing in major Western capitals, Paris and London, | 0:17:09 | 0:17:13 | |
which meant security and surveillance was paramount. | 0:17:13 | 0:17:17 | |
The operative agent in charge was specially chosen. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:23 | |
He was Vitaly Strizhevsky. | 0:17:23 | 0:17:26 | |
I think he was sent from Moscow. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:28 | |
TRANSLATION: Strizhevsky's main task | 0:17:31 | 0:17:34 | |
was to prevent Nureyev from being involved in any kind of scandal. | 0:17:34 | 0:17:38 | |
And the KGB had to ensure this person stayed within the bounds | 0:17:39 | 0:17:42 | |
of socialist realism, as we used to say. | 0:17:42 | 0:17:45 | |
He was an interesting-looking man, | 0:17:48 | 0:17:50 | |
but I have to say these accompanying guys, as we called them, | 0:17:50 | 0:17:55 | |
these agents, they were a special breed. | 0:17:55 | 0:17:58 | |
You could tell from their walk. | 0:17:58 | 0:18:01 | |
He isn't a dancer, he isn't a director or a coach - | 0:18:01 | 0:18:05 | |
he's the accompanying guy. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:08 | |
This word "accompanying," | 0:18:08 | 0:18:10 | |
it suited him, the one who follows your behaviour abroad. | 0:18:10 | 0:18:15 | |
He knew that Nureyev was considered rude, ambitious, vain. | 0:18:30 | 0:18:36 | |
He was just a complete anarchist! | 0:18:36 | 0:18:38 | |
I came with them to the airport, and a rumour went round | 0:18:50 | 0:18:53 | |
that somebody was going to be prevented from going. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:56 | |
When Rudik heard this, he went pale. | 0:18:56 | 0:18:59 | |
I said, "Rudik, relax - nobody can take your place." | 0:18:59 | 0:19:04 | |
"That's not true," he said. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:06 | |
In fact, it was a member of the corps de ballet who was sent back. | 0:19:13 | 0:19:18 | |
Nothing to do with Rudolf. | 0:19:18 | 0:19:20 | |
But in the heat of the moment, he was sure it was him, | 0:19:20 | 0:19:24 | |
for all his sins. | 0:19:24 | 0:19:25 | |
Paris was a fairytale, it was a dream. | 0:19:42 | 0:19:46 | |
It was charged with this sense of freedom. | 0:19:46 | 0:19:50 | |
Paris is a moveable feast, as Hemingway said. | 0:19:50 | 0:19:54 | |
It filled me with joy. | 0:19:54 | 0:19:56 | |
I felt so comfortable there. | 0:19:59 | 0:20:01 | |
See, I'm shivering just thinking about it! | 0:20:01 | 0:20:04 | |
It made feel that I could be liked. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:07 | |
I can be loved and achieve success. | 0:20:07 | 0:20:09 | |
I could break out of the way I'd been taught to think about myself. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:16 | |
Once they got there, | 0:20:40 | 0:20:41 | |
who on earth could bear to share a room with Rudik? | 0:20:41 | 0:20:44 | |
It seemed to be that he was always tense and on edge. | 0:20:53 | 0:20:57 | |
I could never have done it - | 0:20:57 | 0:20:58 | |
I never felt any personal connection with Rudolf. | 0:20:58 | 0:21:02 | |
The two great individualists of the company ended up in the same room. | 0:21:14 | 0:21:17 | |
That was a surprise! | 0:21:17 | 0:21:19 | |
One with an enormous jump, the other with an enormous attitude. | 0:21:19 | 0:21:23 | |
THEY CHANT AND LAUGH | 0:21:27 | 0:21:32 | |
They make a big reception in Paris Opera, | 0:21:49 | 0:21:51 | |
you know, to introduce dancers for the press. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:55 | |
This reception was in the Foyer De La Danse, | 0:21:55 | 0:21:58 | |
just behind the stage in Paris Opera. | 0:21:58 | 0:22:01 | |
And it was very strange, because all the Russian was in one side, | 0:22:01 | 0:22:06 | |
and the French was to the right side, | 0:22:06 | 0:22:09 | |
and in the middle was the photographers and press. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:14 | |
In front of us, we could watch the Russians, | 0:22:14 | 0:22:16 | |
and they looked very strange, you know, very old-fashioned. | 0:22:16 | 0:22:19 | |
Only one boy was different from the other ones, | 0:22:19 | 0:22:22 | |
and we just noticed him immediately - | 0:22:22 | 0:22:24 | |
said, "Look, this one is different." | 0:22:24 | 0:22:26 | |
Little by little he moved behind all the other ones, | 0:22:26 | 0:22:29 | |
crossed behind the photograph and the press, | 0:22:29 | 0:22:32 | |
and came to us and started to speak. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:34 | |
Oh, merci! | 0:22:35 | 0:22:37 | |
I'm Rudolf Nureyev. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:38 | |
I don't speak French, but I speak English very good. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:41 | |
'We start to talk, and he was talking in English already, | 0:22:41 | 0:22:45 | |
'and he asked questions, and we said,' | 0:22:45 | 0:22:48 | |
"Why don't we go to dinner with him if he's interesting?" | 0:22:48 | 0:22:50 | |
And we ask him. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:51 | |
"Oh, yes, I would like very much to go with you and talk to you, | 0:22:51 | 0:22:55 | |
"ask you a lot of questions, but I need permission." | 0:22:55 | 0:22:58 | |
'We went to talk to Sergeyev.' | 0:23:08 | 0:23:10 | |
..to show Rudolf Paris? I think it's a very good idea! | 0:23:11 | 0:23:14 | |
-Paris for Rudolf? -Yes. -No, it's not so good idea. | 0:23:14 | 0:23:17 | |
And he looks so embarrassed, and he said, | 0:23:17 | 0:23:19 | |
"No, no, you know, you need... | 0:23:19 | 0:23:21 | |
"It's difficult, and the company, they are tired, | 0:23:21 | 0:23:24 | |
"they need to go to bed very early..." | 0:23:24 | 0:23:26 | |
..and Rudolf is tired, too. | 0:23:26 | 0:23:29 | |
I'm not tired. | 0:23:29 | 0:23:30 | |
"Yes, but, you know, we need another person - he could not go alone." | 0:23:34 | 0:23:37 | |
I said, "Well, give us another dancer, it doesn't matter." | 0:23:37 | 0:23:40 | |
So finally they gave us Soloviev. | 0:23:40 | 0:23:43 | |
How many theatres are in Paris? | 0:23:48 | 0:23:50 | |
There are a lot of theatres. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:53 | |
How many people are in your company? | 0:23:55 | 0:23:58 | |
'Rudolf was talking all the time.' | 0:23:58 | 0:24:00 | |
Who is your tailor? | 0:24:00 | 0:24:01 | |
'The other dancer, he was very shy, not talking very much, you know?' | 0:24:02 | 0:24:07 | |
He was very shy and Rudolf was an extrovert. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:11 | |
Have you been in Russia? | 0:24:11 | 0:24:12 | |
Kirov, the best. | 0:24:15 | 0:24:17 | |
You will see. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:18 | |
What roles do you dance? | 0:24:20 | 0:24:22 | |
'He was very, very curious about everything,' | 0:24:22 | 0:24:24 | |
and he asked questions about ballet, the tradition, the French tradition, | 0:24:24 | 0:24:28 | |
the French school, and we start to talk a lot. | 0:24:28 | 0:24:31 | |
And so then, we said, "Now you have to come back to your hotel | 0:24:31 | 0:24:34 | |
"because you need to sleep." "OK, OK, OK." | 0:24:34 | 0:24:36 | |
So we went to the... He was living in the Place de la Republique, | 0:24:36 | 0:24:41 | |
and we bring the both of them to the hotel. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:45 | |
Soloviev go immediately to the hotel, but not Rudolf. | 0:24:45 | 0:24:50 | |
He stand in front of the car and he look at... | 0:25:08 | 0:25:11 | |
You know it was very strange, he was fixed on us. | 0:25:11 | 0:25:15 | |
And I say, "What happened?" | 0:25:15 | 0:25:16 | |
And so I go outside. | 0:25:16 | 0:25:18 | |
And he said to me, | 0:25:23 | 0:25:24 | |
"You know, it's been such a wonderful evening, | 0:25:24 | 0:25:26 | |
"I stay outside because I'm sure we don't see each other any more." | 0:25:26 | 0:25:29 | |
I say, "Why?" "Oh, because, you know, | 0:25:29 | 0:25:32 | |
"they give me one permission but maybe not two permission." | 0:25:32 | 0:25:35 | |
I said, "Don't be silly." | 0:25:35 | 0:25:36 | |
Of course we will! | 0:25:36 | 0:25:38 | |
No more permission. | 0:25:39 | 0:25:40 | |
Rudolf... | 0:25:40 | 0:25:41 | |
And there is a box of chocolate, and we said, "Take the box." | 0:25:42 | 0:25:46 | |
"No, no, no!" | 0:25:46 | 0:25:47 | |
-I take one. -Good! | 0:25:47 | 0:25:49 | |
"But if we see each other, I will take two more after, | 0:25:50 | 0:25:53 | |
"then two more, and so on." | 0:25:53 | 0:25:54 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:25:54 | 0:25:57 | |
'From the start, Nureyev was kept under constant surveillance.' | 0:26:04 | 0:26:07 | |
Thank you for the evening. | 0:26:07 | 0:26:08 | |
'Clearly, this wasn't going to be easy.' | 0:26:08 | 0:26:11 | |
Strizhevsky needed to use everything in his power | 0:26:13 | 0:26:16 | |
to succeed in his mission. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:18 | |
Nureyev was not planned for the first night, for the first evening, | 0:26:26 | 0:26:32 | |
which was certainly a way for Sergeyev to say, | 0:26:32 | 0:26:36 | |
"OK, you are on the tour, but you are not on the first evening." | 0:26:36 | 0:26:42 | |
But he danced at the rehearsal. | 0:26:43 | 0:26:45 | |
And what the Soviets did not know | 0:26:45 | 0:26:49 | |
is that there was someone like Rene Sirvin, who saw Nureyev rehearsing. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:55 | |
-TRANSLATION: -Nureyev danced the dress rehearsal | 0:26:59 | 0:27:02 | |
the day before the opening night and that's where I first saw him. | 0:27:02 | 0:27:06 | |
Immediately, I fell under the spell of this extraordinary young dancer. | 0:27:07 | 0:27:12 | |
And he immediately tells to everybody in Paris, | 0:27:14 | 0:27:20 | |
"There is a star at the Paris Opera." | 0:27:20 | 0:27:22 | |
So when Nureyev's stage debut finally came, I could hardly wait. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:27 | |
The corps de ballet entered in the middle. | 0:27:35 | 0:27:39 | |
They went down the ramp, they turned sideways, | 0:27:39 | 0:27:42 | |
and you could see one coming down, then two, then three, then four, | 0:27:42 | 0:27:48 | |
up to 12. | 0:27:48 | 0:27:49 | |
And people started clapping, thinking that was all, | 0:27:49 | 0:27:52 | |
but then there were 12 more, and then there were more. | 0:27:52 | 0:27:56 | |
Another 10! | 0:27:56 | 0:27:58 | |
There were 32 in total. | 0:27:58 | 0:28:01 | |
It was just extraordinary. | 0:28:01 | 0:28:03 | |
We had never seen anything like it ever. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:07 | |
We saw the shades of Bayadere, and then I really saw - | 0:28:12 | 0:28:16 | |
I'm not exaggerating - a bomb come on stage. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:19 | |
With his white feather, his blue tunic, | 0:28:45 | 0:28:48 | |
this man ran on stage to do his variation, I couldn't believe it. | 0:28:48 | 0:28:53 | |
I thought it was like a kamikaze! | 0:28:53 | 0:28:55 | |
It was new for us, and he kept the attention of everybody. | 0:29:02 | 0:29:07 | |
The little boy when we go outside is a great, great, great artist. | 0:29:07 | 0:29:12 | |
And he dance like... | 0:29:13 | 0:29:15 | |
..I could not explain, you know? | 0:29:16 | 0:29:18 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:30:10 | 0:30:12 | |
Nureyev captured the imagination of Paris. | 0:30:20 | 0:30:25 | |
He was so exotic. When he first appeared, | 0:30:25 | 0:30:28 | |
the audience couldn't believe their eyes, | 0:30:28 | 0:30:30 | |
couldn't believe what they were seeing. | 0:30:30 | 0:30:32 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:30:32 | 0:30:34 | |
-AUDIENCE: -Incroyable! Fantastique! Bravo! Bravo! | 0:30:34 | 0:30:38 | |
-TRANSLATION: -We had a huge success. | 0:30:41 | 0:30:44 | |
And then Sergeyev came over to us and said, "Congratulations. | 0:30:44 | 0:30:48 | |
"But Rudik, don't forget it's a Saturday. | 0:30:48 | 0:30:52 | |
"On Saturdays, you always get an easier, more welcoming audience." | 0:30:52 | 0:30:56 | |
'Rudik was furious. | 0:30:59 | 0:31:01 | |
'I took the criticism. Swallowed this grain of salt, as we say.' | 0:31:01 | 0:31:07 | |
But he stormed off. | 0:31:07 | 0:31:09 | |
Every actor needs reassurance and a good word. | 0:31:09 | 0:31:12 | |
He needed it more than anyone. | 0:31:14 | 0:31:17 | |
After the show, Sergeyev said, "Go talk to him, but not too much, | 0:31:22 | 0:31:26 | |
"and don't tell him that he's fantastic, it's not necessary." | 0:31:26 | 0:31:28 | |
Er... | 0:31:30 | 0:31:31 | |
Maybe you are tired? | 0:31:31 | 0:31:34 | |
Well, we went to see Rudolf, I said, "Wonderful," and he was so happy. | 0:31:37 | 0:31:40 | |
He said, "Tonight, I want to talk to you. | 0:31:40 | 0:31:43 | |
"We shall meet in the street nearby the hotel." OK. | 0:31:43 | 0:31:46 | |
And the first night, of course, it was very interesting | 0:31:50 | 0:31:53 | |
because he never saw Clara Saint before. | 0:31:53 | 0:31:56 | |
'She was a wonderful person, very nice, very beautiful, very calm. | 0:31:57 | 0:32:02 | |
'She knew le tout Paris, I mean, she knew everybody in Paris.' | 0:32:03 | 0:32:07 | |
So it was a relationship that attracted | 0:32:07 | 0:32:11 | |
and was agreeable to Rudolf. | 0:32:11 | 0:32:14 | |
-TRANSLATION: -'Clara Saint was introduced to Nureyev that night. | 0:32:14 | 0:32:19 | |
'She was a rich, young socialite.' | 0:32:19 | 0:32:21 | |
Her fiance was one of the sons of the French Culture Minister, | 0:32:21 | 0:32:25 | |
Andre Malraux. And I'd say she fell in love with Nureyev. | 0:32:25 | 0:32:29 | |
This is Clara. | 0:32:32 | 0:32:34 | |
Clara Saint is a bit of a mystery in this story. | 0:32:39 | 0:32:42 | |
She played a very big role in Nureyev's life in Paris | 0:32:42 | 0:32:46 | |
and in his defection. | 0:32:46 | 0:32:47 | |
But she was always a very private person. | 0:32:47 | 0:32:50 | |
To this day, she refuses to be filmed and even to be photographed. | 0:32:50 | 0:32:54 | |
-CLARA: -'It was incredible. | 0:32:58 | 0:33:00 | |
'He was 23 years old. | 0:33:00 | 0:33:03 | |
'He was very curious of everything, you know? | 0:33:03 | 0:33:06 | |
'And when you have someone asking all the time, | 0:33:08 | 0:33:11 | |
' "I want to see this, I want to go there," it's interesting.' | 0:33:11 | 0:33:16 | |
'She was kind of a little Don Juan at that time.' | 0:33:16 | 0:33:19 | |
She was very free and maybe she saw the fact of seducing Rudolf | 0:33:19 | 0:33:25 | |
like a little challenge like that. But he was gorgeous. | 0:33:25 | 0:33:28 | |
It was quite normal, in a way, that she was attracted to him. | 0:33:28 | 0:33:32 | |
-CLARA: -'There was nothing sexual. C'etait beaucoup plus pur que ca.' | 0:33:34 | 0:33:38 | |
'He was much more pure?' | 0:33:38 | 0:33:40 | |
'Yup. He was like a child. | 0:33:40 | 0:33:44 | |
'I remember he wanted to have a wig. So we went and... | 0:33:44 | 0:33:47 | |
'He wanted to have the wig of Marilyn Monroe, blonde. | 0:33:47 | 0:33:51 | |
-'And the man was so surprised also.' -SHE LAUGHS | 0:33:51 | 0:33:56 | |
Very quickly, Nureyev formed a small, small circle of friends | 0:33:59 | 0:34:07 | |
between Clara Saint and Pierre Lacotte. | 0:34:07 | 0:34:11 | |
One night, he said, "I would like to see a musical. | 0:34:11 | 0:34:14 | |
"West Side Story, I heard it's fantastic." | 0:34:14 | 0:34:17 | |
And, outside, when we went to the street, | 0:34:17 | 0:34:19 | |
he start to dance the cha-cha-cha. | 0:34:19 | 0:34:21 | |
At that time, it was the beginning of the rebellion | 0:34:23 | 0:34:26 | |
in western society, | 0:34:26 | 0:34:28 | |
the beginning of a sensation that you can do whatever you want. | 0:34:28 | 0:34:33 | |
He said, "I would like to see a cabaret," | 0:34:41 | 0:34:43 | |
and we thought the Crazy Horse Saloon would be a good thing for him to go, | 0:34:43 | 0:34:47 | |
so we went there. | 0:34:47 | 0:34:48 | |
-CLARA: -'Well, we took a table there and he was... | 0:34:50 | 0:34:54 | |
'He couldn't believe what he saw. | 0:34:56 | 0:34:58 | |
'All the girls, they dance. | 0:35:00 | 0:35:03 | |
'It was perfect. He was so surprised. | 0:35:09 | 0:35:12 | |
'Surprised and seduced.' | 0:35:15 | 0:35:17 | |
We know today Nureyev had relationships | 0:35:20 | 0:35:22 | |
with both men and women over the course of his life. | 0:35:22 | 0:35:25 | |
But, in 1961, Nureyev's sexuality was not something | 0:35:26 | 0:35:30 | |
that he discussed openly. | 0:35:30 | 0:35:32 | |
-TRANSLATION: -My opinion is that, at this moment, | 0:35:44 | 0:35:48 | |
Clara Saint was more in love with Nureyev than her fiance. | 0:35:48 | 0:35:53 | |
I think that she was seduced and he became something wonderful | 0:35:54 | 0:35:58 | |
and then it became not easy and not possible. | 0:35:58 | 0:36:02 | |
And then she just said, "Bon, tant pis." | 0:36:02 | 0:36:05 | |
I love trains. I was born on a train. | 0:36:17 | 0:36:21 | |
-CLARA: -'I remember he wanted to have un train electrique. | 0:36:22 | 0:36:26 | |
'So, I went with him to a shop called Le Nain Bleu.' | 0:36:27 | 0:36:32 | |
'Of course, Clara bought him the electric train.' | 0:36:33 | 0:36:37 | |
"Look behind me, there is somebody who will follow us. | 0:36:38 | 0:36:41 | |
"It's a member of the KGB." | 0:36:41 | 0:36:43 | |
'Were you aware you were being followed?' | 0:36:44 | 0:36:47 | |
'I didn't care, a black car maybe, I don't know.' | 0:36:47 | 0:36:51 | |
THEY WHISPER | 0:36:51 | 0:36:52 | |
All the time, we have those people behind us, always. | 0:36:52 | 0:36:56 | |
And at least one, maybe two. | 0:36:57 | 0:36:59 | |
What could we do? | 0:37:02 | 0:37:03 | |
TRANSLATION: Of course, Strizhevsky gathered information | 0:37:05 | 0:37:09 | |
about Nureyev's friends and their activities together. | 0:37:09 | 0:37:12 | |
All his reports were sent back to his KGB superiors in Moscow. | 0:37:12 | 0:37:17 | |
He was reporting the developing trend of Nureyev's bad behaviour. | 0:37:17 | 0:37:22 | |
-TRANSLATION: -After the performance every evening, | 0:37:38 | 0:37:42 | |
he would watch for Rudik like a hawk. | 0:37:42 | 0:37:44 | |
He just couldn't keep up with Rudik. | 0:37:47 | 0:37:49 | |
It was impossible to get him. | 0:37:49 | 0:37:51 | |
We would sneak through the kitchen door, | 0:37:56 | 0:37:58 | |
through the restaurant, to fool the accompanying man. | 0:37:58 | 0:38:02 | |
"Who cares? I'll risk it. What's the worst thing that can happen? | 0:38:02 | 0:38:07 | |
"They won't take me on the next tour? | 0:38:07 | 0:38:11 | |
"But now I can live according to my heart. | 0:38:11 | 0:38:15 | |
"I want to live in Paris like I'm in Paris, | 0:38:15 | 0:38:18 | |
"not a provincial shit hole." | 0:38:18 | 0:38:20 | |
-TRANSLATION: -He knew he was being followed. Openly followed. | 0:38:25 | 0:38:30 | |
And, one night, when he was in Maxim's, | 0:38:30 | 0:38:32 | |
he was being tailed by a woman from the KGB. | 0:38:32 | 0:38:35 | |
At one point, he said to the maitre d', | 0:38:36 | 0:38:39 | |
"Take this bread roll and water, and take them to this bitch. | 0:38:39 | 0:38:43 | |
"She doesn't deserve anything better." | 0:38:43 | 0:38:46 | |
And the maitre d' did it, of course. | 0:38:46 | 0:38:48 | |
'It must have been hard to swallow!' | 0:38:49 | 0:38:51 | |
-TRANSLATION: -I remember Strizhevsky sitting in the lobby, | 0:38:59 | 0:39:03 | |
in a groggy state. | 0:39:03 | 0:39:04 | |
Like a suffering Hamlet. | 0:39:06 | 0:39:09 | |
"What am I to do?" | 0:39:09 | 0:39:11 | |
And, when Rudik appeared, he got incensed. | 0:39:15 | 0:39:19 | |
It was natural. | 0:39:24 | 0:39:26 | |
Once Strizhevsky realised he was not going to be able to stop Nureyev | 0:39:30 | 0:39:34 | |
from seeing his friends and from going out, | 0:39:34 | 0:39:36 | |
he started to include them in his reports | 0:39:36 | 0:39:38 | |
and to smear them as he went along, in part, to cover himself | 0:39:38 | 0:39:43 | |
in case anything went wrong. | 0:39:43 | 0:39:44 | |
We know from the files that were accessed in the early 1990s | 0:39:46 | 0:39:50 | |
after the perestroika, | 0:39:50 | 0:39:51 | |
that his reports included mention of Clara Saint being a CIA operative. | 0:39:51 | 0:39:57 | |
-CLARA: -'Incroyable. | 0:39:59 | 0:40:02 | |
'And I was paid also(!)' | 0:40:02 | 0:40:05 | |
'So you were a paid CIA agent?' | 0:40:05 | 0:40:07 | |
'Yes, yes, I was. | 0:40:07 | 0:40:08 | |
'Yes, I was Mata Hari!' | 0:40:10 | 0:40:12 | |
-TRANSLATION: -Strizhevsky was feeding Moscow with information he felt | 0:40:14 | 0:40:20 | |
would take the blame off his shoulders | 0:40:20 | 0:40:23 | |
and the shoulders of his bosses, for the ongoing problems with Nureyev. | 0:40:23 | 0:40:27 | |
On the opening night of a ballet called The Stone Flower, | 0:40:43 | 0:40:46 | |
I remember Nureyev invited Clara to join him | 0:40:46 | 0:40:49 | |
in the box reserved for Soviet artists. | 0:40:49 | 0:40:52 | |
Can you imagine the situation? | 0:40:52 | 0:40:55 | |
This young dancer, considered insubordinate, | 0:40:55 | 0:40:59 | |
seeing the performance in the official box with this young lady, | 0:40:59 | 0:41:05 | |
very rich, the emblem of capitalism. | 0:41:05 | 0:41:09 | |
Sergeyev was furious, of course, but Nureyev just couldn't care less. | 0:41:12 | 0:41:17 | |
BALLET MUSIC | 0:41:19 | 0:41:22 | |
It was during this performance that Clara learnt | 0:41:31 | 0:41:35 | |
that her fiance and her fiance's brother, the two sons of Malraux, | 0:41:35 | 0:41:40 | |
had died in a car accident. | 0:41:40 | 0:41:42 | |
Of course, it was a terrible shock. | 0:41:44 | 0:41:48 | |
'It must have been terribly difficult. | 0:41:48 | 0:41:50 | |
'Rudolf just became part of this turmoil, this tourbillon,' | 0:41:51 | 0:41:56 | |
to try and fill in this terrible vide. | 0:41:56 | 0:42:00 | |
-CLARA: -'The two brothers died in a car accident in the south of France, | 0:42:03 | 0:42:10 | |
'coming back from Corsica. | 0:42:10 | 0:42:13 | |
'It was my car. | 0:42:15 | 0:42:17 | |
'I didn't want to look at the magazines, | 0:42:17 | 0:42:21 | |
'all the newspapers telling this story. | 0:42:21 | 0:42:24 | |
'For me, it was very important to plus penser. | 0:42:25 | 0:42:30 | |
'To not think any more?' | 0:42:30 | 0:42:31 | |
'Yeah.' | 0:42:31 | 0:42:32 | |
She was very, very strong, in a way, | 0:42:34 | 0:42:37 | |
but she need to be surrounded with friends | 0:42:37 | 0:42:40 | |
and she don't want to be alone any more, | 0:42:40 | 0:42:43 | |
so she was with us all the time. | 0:42:43 | 0:42:45 | |
PIANO PLAYS BALLET TUTOR GIVES DIRECTIONS | 0:42:50 | 0:42:54 | |
Nureyev was the discovery of the Paris tour for the audience | 0:43:00 | 0:43:04 | |
and, to an extent, the glory he brought to the Kirov in Paris | 0:43:04 | 0:43:09 | |
reflected on everyone. | 0:43:09 | 0:43:12 | |
At that point, they had been so successful, the Kirov was supposed | 0:43:12 | 0:43:16 | |
to move to the arena that had 5,000 seats to fill, the Palais Des Sports. | 0:43:16 | 0:43:21 | |
-TRANSLATION: -The Palais Des Sports was a challenge. | 0:43:22 | 0:43:24 | |
To fill 5,000 seats in that era was a challenge. | 0:43:24 | 0:43:28 | |
They didn't know if it could be done with a ballet. | 0:43:28 | 0:43:31 | |
But, in response to Strizhevsky's reports, | 0:43:51 | 0:43:54 | |
Moscow decided to issue a recall order for Nureyev. | 0:43:54 | 0:43:58 | |
It put Sergeyev in a very difficult position | 0:44:09 | 0:44:12 | |
and Sergeyev knew that Nureyev was meant to open Swan Lake. | 0:44:12 | 0:44:16 | |
The responsibility for the success of the tour | 0:44:21 | 0:44:24 | |
came to lie with the Soviet embassy. | 0:44:24 | 0:44:27 | |
Reading their reports, it is clear the ambassador became involved. | 0:44:27 | 0:44:32 | |
He had tried to save the tour by keeping Nureyev in Paris, | 0:44:32 | 0:44:36 | |
against the recall order from Moscow. | 0:44:36 | 0:44:38 | |
Now, ironically, Sergeyev has to become Nureyev's protector. | 0:44:52 | 0:44:56 | |
MUSIC FADES IN | 0:45:40 | 0:45:43 | |
'It was extraordinary for him.' | 0:45:49 | 0:45:52 | |
The freedom was something new. | 0:45:52 | 0:45:54 | |
And, you know, for instance they asked him don't go with us, | 0:45:54 | 0:45:59 | |
he said, "Why do I have to hide myself behind an Iron Curtain? | 0:45:59 | 0:46:03 | |
"I'm there to profit of life, I will go." | 0:46:03 | 0:46:07 | |
He had his own character, very strong. | 0:46:07 | 0:46:10 | |
'The first opening night of Swan Lake, in the third act, | 0:46:10 | 0:46:13 | |
'he stopped the orchestra during the performance. | 0:46:13 | 0:46:16 | |
AUDIENCE GASPS | 0:46:22 | 0:46:24 | |
ORCHESTRA STOPS | 0:46:28 | 0:46:30 | |
He stand up and he said... | 0:46:39 | 0:46:41 | |
-TRANSLATION: -The whole auditorium went quiet. | 0:46:41 | 0:46:44 | |
And, of course, Sergeyev was furious against him - | 0:46:55 | 0:46:59 | |
furious, furious, furious. | 0:46:59 | 0:47:00 | |
'Nothing like this had ever happened before.' | 0:47:04 | 0:47:07 | |
And he came back, and he said to the conductor, "You can go." | 0:47:09 | 0:47:13 | |
And, in myself, I said, "My God, you have to dance much better than ever." | 0:47:13 | 0:47:18 | |
So he started to dance, and he danced...beautifully. | 0:47:25 | 0:47:29 | |
And, the next day, the press wrote that Nureyev, | 0:47:33 | 0:47:36 | |
with a regal gesture, stopped the orchestra | 0:47:36 | 0:47:40 | |
and demonstrated his virtuosity. | 0:47:40 | 0:47:42 | |
MUSIC FINALE | 0:47:44 | 0:47:46 | |
AUDIENCE CHEERS | 0:47:46 | 0:47:48 | |
'That made him feel invincible. | 0:47:48 | 0:47:50 | |
'And, from this point, his success reached new heights.' | 0:48:00 | 0:48:03 | |
He became intoxicated with himself | 0:48:10 | 0:48:12 | |
and started to think that anything was allowed. | 0:48:12 | 0:48:15 | |
-TRANSLATION: -Of course, all of this tried Strizhevsky's patience. | 0:48:28 | 0:48:32 | |
-TRANSLATION: -You never know what can explode a person from the inside. | 0:48:38 | 0:48:42 | |
STRIZHEVSKY SHOUTS ANGRILY | 0:48:42 | 0:48:46 | |
That was a hard mission for Strizhevsky. | 0:48:46 | 0:48:49 | |
TRANSLATION: Yuri didn't tell me much about what happened | 0:49:16 | 0:49:19 | |
between him and Rudik that night, but I heard the rumours. | 0:49:19 | 0:49:24 | |
The forbidden fruit is too sweet, so to speak. | 0:49:24 | 0:49:27 | |
I don't know exactly what happened but, when you share a room on tour, | 0:49:40 | 0:49:45 | |
it's natural to ask your roommate for a massage. | 0:49:45 | 0:49:48 | |
-TRANSLATION: -I don't want to talk about it. | 0:49:58 | 0:50:01 | |
Yuri never told me what happened about that. | 0:50:01 | 0:50:04 | |
He made hints and Alla Osipenko told me, "Yes, there was some incident." | 0:50:04 | 0:50:09 | |
Yes, there was some incident. | 0:50:26 | 0:50:28 | |
That's why Yuri pushed him out and they parted company. | 0:50:28 | 0:50:31 | |
He needed to do anything at this point | 0:51:04 | 0:51:07 | |
to turn the mission to his advantage. | 0:51:07 | 0:51:09 | |
It was his right to use the influence | 0:51:10 | 0:51:12 | |
of other members of the company against Nureyev. | 0:51:12 | 0:51:15 | |
While I was a KGB officer, | 0:51:56 | 0:51:59 | |
I was able to see the agents' operative documents. | 0:51:59 | 0:52:03 | |
And it's clear, from this moment, | 0:52:03 | 0:52:05 | |
Yuri Soloviev became Strizhevsky's main informer | 0:52:05 | 0:52:10 | |
and what he had to say made all the difference. | 0:52:10 | 0:52:13 | |
You know, they accused me to push Rudolf to leave the company. | 0:52:19 | 0:52:23 | |
That I know they did it and it was so stupid | 0:52:26 | 0:52:29 | |
because if really we wanted to do it, | 0:52:29 | 0:52:31 | |
don't you think it would easier to go to the police? | 0:52:31 | 0:52:35 | |
Even if the KGB was behind us and say to Rudolf, | 0:52:35 | 0:52:39 | |
"If you want to leave, you go there and sign, 'I want to stay in.' " | 0:52:39 | 0:52:44 | |
It was very strange... Very easy. | 0:52:44 | 0:52:46 | |
Just before the company was going to move to London, a recall order, | 0:52:46 | 0:52:51 | |
a new recall order came in, ordering Nureyev back to Moscow | 0:52:51 | 0:52:56 | |
and this time it could not be avoided. | 0:52:56 | 0:52:58 | |
This time, the final ultimatum came from the highest authority, | 0:53:02 | 0:53:07 | |
the Central Committee. | 0:53:07 | 0:53:09 | |
Could there be any further delay? | 0:53:09 | 0:53:12 | |
No. The order said, "Put him on a plane to Moscow immediately, | 0:53:12 | 0:53:17 | |
"when the rest of the group is travelling to London." | 0:53:17 | 0:53:21 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:53:24 | 0:53:26 | |
CLARA: 'He was not so free. | 0:53:33 | 0:53:35 | |
'I remember we had the conversation about that and I said, | 0:53:38 | 0:53:43 | |
' "Well, don't be sad, because we are going to come to see you in London." | 0:53:43 | 0:53:47 | |
'I remember I saw a rat, a big rat like this - "Ah, a rat!" | 0:53:49 | 0:53:55 | |
'And he said to me, "There are many rats in Paris." | 0:53:55 | 0:53:58 | |
LAUGHING: 'And I said, "Yes." | 0:53:58 | 0:53:59 | |
'I don't know why I remember that and not things more interesting...' | 0:54:02 | 0:54:05 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 0:54:05 | 0:54:07 | |
'It's bizarre, no?' | 0:54:07 | 0:54:09 | |
HE COUGHS | 0:54:13 | 0:54:15 | |
'At the airport, I go to say hello to Rudolf.' | 0:54:34 | 0:54:37 | |
THEY SPEAK IN FRENCH | 0:54:37 | 0:54:40 | |
'They were all there, and immediately Sergeyev was very...' | 0:54:40 | 0:54:44 | |
very quiet, completely different. And we start to talk, | 0:54:44 | 0:54:49 | |
very nicely with Dudinskaya and Sergeyev, | 0:54:49 | 0:54:52 | |
and we talk completely normally for the first time. | 0:54:52 | 0:54:55 | |
'He said to me, "Why don't we have a coffee together?" # | 0:54:55 | 0:54:58 | |
-OK? -OK. | 0:54:58 | 0:55:00 | |
And Sergeyev go to talk to Rudolf, and I stay there with Dudinskaya, | 0:55:12 | 0:55:18 | |
drinking my coffee. | 0:55:18 | 0:55:20 | |
And I saw Rudolf going white, completely white. | 0:55:20 | 0:55:23 | |
And he said, "Pierre, you don't know what happened, | 0:55:30 | 0:55:32 | |
"I'm punished. They want me to come back to Moscow. | 0:55:32 | 0:55:35 | |
"Do something - I don't want to come back. | 0:55:35 | 0:55:37 | |
"I will never dance any more. | 0:55:37 | 0:55:39 | |
"Do something for me or I kill myself!" | 0:55:39 | 0:55:41 | |
In my place, he saw a paper knife in silver that I bought in Mexico. | 0:55:43 | 0:55:49 | |
And he said, "Oh, I like that." I said, | 0:55:49 | 0:55:51 | |
"Take it, it's yours, for you." | 0:55:51 | 0:55:53 | |
But I could not do anything. They took him. | 0:55:54 | 0:55:56 | |
C'est bien, c'est bien, my friend. | 0:55:56 | 0:55:58 | |
And I realise that he was lost. | 0:55:58 | 0:56:00 | |
OK, goodbye, goodbye, it was nice to meet you. | 0:56:00 | 0:56:02 | |
He realised that the danger is there and he was shaking. | 0:56:02 | 0:56:06 | |
He was very, very, very, er... | 0:56:06 | 0:56:09 | |
afraid about the situation. | 0:56:09 | 0:56:10 | |
I saw the last moments when Rudolf was sitting on a bench | 0:56:14 | 0:56:17 | |
with Alla Osipenko. | 0:56:17 | 0:56:20 | |
While everyone else was boarding, I saw that Rudik | 0:56:20 | 0:56:24 | |
was in tears... | 0:56:24 | 0:56:26 | |
And Alla was trying to console him in her arms. | 0:56:30 | 0:56:34 | |
And I still have that picture in my mind. | 0:56:38 | 0:56:40 | |
And in my heart. | 0:56:41 | 0:56:43 | |
It's an awful thing. | 0:56:43 | 0:56:44 | |
I was still there and then suddenly Vitaly Strizhevsky pushed me | 0:56:49 | 0:56:54 | |
to the departure gate. | 0:56:54 | 0:56:56 | |
I turned to see Rudik... | 0:56:56 | 0:56:58 | |
He showed me this. | 0:57:04 | 0:57:06 | |
He makes that sign. | 0:57:06 | 0:57:08 | |
It means prison. | 0:57:09 | 0:57:11 | |
And that's it. | 0:57:12 | 0:57:13 | |
The curtain closes. | 0:57:16 | 0:57:17 | |
And at that point, no-one could do anything. | 0:57:20 | 0:57:23 | |
I look at the watch and he said, "My God, now look at the time." | 0:57:29 | 0:57:33 | |
And suddenly I saw Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux and he came here, | 0:57:33 | 0:57:38 | |
and I said, "Jean-Pierre, do something. | 0:57:38 | 0:57:40 | |
"that is the telephone of Clara, call her and say that it's urgent, | 0:57:40 | 0:57:44 | |
"she has to come because Rudolf have a big problem | 0:57:44 | 0:57:47 | |
"and we need somebody. | 0:57:47 | 0:57:48 | |
"Maybe in half an hour it is too late - we can not do anything." | 0:57:51 | 0:57:55 | |
PHONE RINGS | 0:57:57 | 0:57:59 | |
'I was sleeping. | 0:57:59 | 0:58:01 | |
'Because I spent a lot of the night walking.' | 0:58:01 | 0:58:06 | |
Oui? | 0:58:06 | 0:58:07 | |
' "Are you Clara Saint?" I said, "Yes." | 0:58:08 | 0:58:11 | |
'And he said, | 0:58:11 | 0:58:12 | |
' "I am at the Aeroport Le Bourget and I just spoke with Nureyev. | 0:58:12 | 0:58:18 | |
' "Please come, he wants to see you." | 0:58:18 | 0:58:21 | |
'And I said, "He's going on the plane to London." | 0:58:21 | 0:58:26 | |
' "No, no, the plane already left." ' | 0:58:29 | 0:58:32 | |
SHE SIGHS | 0:58:33 | 0:58:34 | |
During that time, the KGB said, "Listen, Mr Lacotte, | 0:58:43 | 0:58:46 | |
"don't stay here, look, he look at you, | 0:58:46 | 0:58:49 | |
"he think that you could do something, | 0:58:49 | 0:58:51 | |
"and, of course, you could not do anything." | 0:58:51 | 0:58:53 | |
And suddenly, behind me, Clara was there | 0:58:56 | 0:59:01 | |
and she said, "What can I do?" | 0:59:01 | 0:59:03 | |
I said, "Clara, you have to do something immediately." | 0:59:03 | 0:59:05 | |
CLARA: 'And I went to him and the bodyguard went to me | 0:59:07 | 0:59:10 | |
'and said, "What do you want?" | 0:59:10 | 0:59:12 | |
'And I said, "I want to speak to my friend." | 0:59:12 | 0:59:14 | |
'OK, well, they... They were not very afraid of me, I think. | 0:59:16 | 0:59:18 | |
'He's too big. | 0:59:18 | 0:59:20 | |
'And he said to me, "Please do something." | 0:59:21 | 0:59:25 | |
'And I said, "Are you sure you want to stay here?" | 0:59:25 | 0:59:27 | |
'And he said, "Yes, absolutely, absolutely sure." | 0:59:27 | 0:59:30 | |
'That I remember very well. | 0:59:30 | 0:59:31 | |
'I saw this arrow saying, "Police - First Floor," | 0:59:36 | 0:59:42 | |
'so I went there and I said, "Listen, there is someone downstairs | 0:59:42 | 0:59:47 | |
' "that is with two bodyguards | 0:59:47 | 0:59:50 | |
' "and they want to send him by force to Moscow. | 0:59:50 | 0:59:55 | |
' "He is a dancer." | 0:59:55 | 0:59:56 | |
'And they said, "Are you sure he's a dancer?" | 0:59:56 | 0:59:59 | |
'And I said, "Yes, I'm sure he's a dancer." | 0:59:59 | 1:00:02 | |
'And they say, "We cannot go to him, | 1:00:02 | 1:00:05 | |
' "we're not allowed to take him, he has to come to us." | 1:00:05 | 1:00:10 | |
'And I said, "OK." ' | 1:00:10 | 1:00:12 | |
You just have to run and say, "I want to be free." | 1:00:13 | 1:00:17 | |
I said to Clara, "Of course, | 1:00:17 | 1:00:19 | |
"but how could...? Look, the police is around him." | 1:00:19 | 1:00:21 | |
What could we do? | 1:00:21 | 1:00:23 | |
'Instead, I went again. | 1:00:23 | 1:00:25 | |
'The men, they said, "Well, she's crazy." ' | 1:00:25 | 1:00:28 | |
SHE CHUCKLES | 1:00:28 | 1:00:30 | |
'And I said to him, | 1:00:32 | 1:00:34 | |
' "You see these two men, French police, you have to go to them." | 1:00:34 | 1:00:37 | |
'It's like in a ballet, you know, he jumped! | 1:00:37 | 1:00:40 | |
'The French policemen took him | 1:01:08 | 1:01:12 | |
'and the two bodyguards, you know, they run and there was a fight | 1:01:12 | 1:01:17 | |
'between one of the French policemen and one of the bodyguards. | 1:01:17 | 1:01:22 | |
'I remember the French policeman said to the Russian, | 1:01:22 | 1:01:25 | |
' "Ah, don't touch me!" | 1:01:25 | 1:01:28 | |
'Screaming, "Vous etes en France ici." ' | 1:01:28 | 1:01:31 | |
My uncle, Mr Gregory Alexinski, | 1:01:41 | 1:01:43 | |
He worked in Le Bourget as a commissar. | 1:01:43 | 1:01:48 | |
Was responsible for the security of Le Bourget. | 1:01:48 | 1:01:52 | |
He spoke with Rudolf in Russian. | 1:01:53 | 1:01:56 | |
I think when you met him, you were impressed, | 1:02:15 | 1:02:18 | |
because he had this kind of calm of the hero, you know, | 1:02:18 | 1:02:22 | |
the people who can deal with danger. | 1:02:22 | 1:02:25 | |
'I remember this office.' | 1:02:27 | 1:02:29 | |
Mademoiselle, non. | 1:02:30 | 1:02:32 | |
'Rudik asked, I think, for a cognac he was really like this... | 1:02:32 | 1:02:38 | |
'And they said to me... | 1:02:38 | 1:02:40 | |
' "The first thing he has to have - papers." | 1:02:41 | 1:02:45 | |
'Et puis, like 20 minutes after I arrive... | 1:02:50 | 1:02:54 | |
'The attache culturel, the ambassade de Russie. | 1:02:54 | 1:02:58 | |
' "Ah, but, Rudik, you cannot do that to us, oh, my God. | 1:02:58 | 1:03:03 | |
' "My God, it is crazy, you know, you are going to go to Russia | 1:03:10 | 1:03:13 | |
' "you are going to be such a star, | 1:03:13 | 1:03:15 | |
' "we don't want to do nothing to you, we respect you so much..." ' | 1:03:15 | 1:03:21 | |
My uncle said that his office was a small office | 1:03:25 | 1:03:30 | |
and that it was probably very chaotic | 1:03:30 | 1:03:32 | |
with the Russian and the French. | 1:03:32 | 1:03:38 | |
In this office, there was two doors - | 1:03:38 | 1:03:40 | |
so he ask Rudolf to decide | 1:03:40 | 1:03:44 | |
if he wanted to take the plane... | 1:03:44 | 1:03:48 | |
..with the Russian agents of the KGB | 1:03:49 | 1:03:53 | |
or wanted to stay in Paris, France. | 1:03:53 | 1:03:56 | |
He had to choose. | 1:03:57 | 1:03:59 | |
This is a beautiful idea, it's very simple and it's very abstract. | 1:03:59 | 1:04:04 | |
Two doors. | 1:04:04 | 1:04:05 | |
You take the left door or the right door | 1:04:06 | 1:04:10 | |
and it's not the same end, you know. | 1:04:10 | 1:04:13 | |
They said to me, "Do you have some place to put him? | 1:04:30 | 1:04:34 | |
"Because they're going to follow him." | 1:04:34 | 1:04:37 | |
And I said, "Yes, I have a friend, no problem." | 1:04:38 | 1:04:41 | |
"And he cannot go outside." | 1:04:43 | 1:04:45 | |
I said, "OK." "Don't go and see him because you're going to be followed." | 1:04:45 | 1:04:50 | |
The real story, it's such an incredible story that the man | 1:04:52 | 1:04:58 | |
escaped at the time from the KGB - he is the most famous world dancer, | 1:04:58 | 1:05:05 | |
he's very beautiful, he's very young, he's a dandy | 1:05:05 | 1:05:08 | |
and he's flamboyant, you know, flamboyant, and he jumps! | 1:05:08 | 1:05:13 | |
He jumped, he escaped, he was the winner. | 1:05:14 | 1:05:20 | |
He had a very good instinct of people, | 1:05:21 | 1:05:24 | |
and he had this ability to meet the right people at the right time. | 1:05:24 | 1:05:29 | |
It's like a film. | 1:05:31 | 1:05:35 | |
It was like I was not in the story... | 1:05:35 | 1:05:37 | |
Very strange. | 1:05:39 | 1:05:40 | |
TRAFFIC | 1:05:45 | 1:05:48 | |
Next morning, | 1:05:51 | 1:05:53 | |
on the way to breakfast, in the lobby... | 1:05:53 | 1:05:55 | |
..there was a newspaper | 1:05:56 | 1:05:59 | |
with a photograph of Rudolf dressed in white making a stage leap, | 1:05:59 | 1:06:04 | |
and the headline, | 1:06:04 | 1:06:06 | |
"Dance To Freedom". | 1:06:06 | 1:06:09 | |
It was on the whole page. | 1:06:09 | 1:06:11 | |
The jump to the Free World. | 1:06:12 | 1:06:15 | |
We were so shocked, we went into our hotel room and quietly whispered. | 1:06:20 | 1:06:26 | |
Telling each other it could not have happened. | 1:06:26 | 1:06:28 | |
It must be a mistake. | 1:06:28 | 1:06:31 | |
Our Rudik couldn't have done it. He couldn't have done it. | 1:06:31 | 1:06:35 | |
It was a betrayal of our motherland. This was my feeling. | 1:06:35 | 1:06:40 | |
The story hit like an atom bomb, and the blast wave grew into legend. | 1:06:41 | 1:06:48 | |
After Rudik defected, in London, I was locked in my room. | 1:06:55 | 1:07:00 | |
I was let out only to go to rehearsals and the shows. | 1:07:00 | 1:07:04 | |
Can you believe that? It was horrible, how I was treated. | 1:07:04 | 1:07:09 | |
I was a ballet dancer with a reputation, | 1:07:09 | 1:07:12 | |
known all over the world. | 1:07:12 | 1:07:13 | |
The West could claim a victory in the Cold War. | 1:07:23 | 1:07:26 | |
That was the simple message of the Nureyev defection, | 1:07:26 | 1:07:30 | |
"We are freedom, we are an open society, | 1:07:30 | 1:07:35 | |
"we permit artistic expression, | 1:07:35 | 1:07:37 | |
"Nureyev has escaped to achieve his artistic goals | 1:07:37 | 1:07:42 | |
"and he can only do that," so the West claimed, | 1:07:42 | 1:07:45 | |
"within the... within the West." | 1:07:45 | 1:07:47 | |
So it was a huge... a huge propaganda coup. | 1:07:47 | 1:07:51 | |
The Soviet Union had a very strong interest in not publicising this, | 1:07:51 | 1:07:54 | |
because, after all, from their point of view, | 1:07:54 | 1:07:57 | |
it was a propaganda disaster. | 1:07:57 | 1:07:59 | |
Not least for Shelepin, head of the KGB. | 1:07:59 | 1:08:03 | |
The letter Shelepin wrote after Nureyev's defection | 1:08:04 | 1:08:08 | |
is the explanation from the KGB head of what had happened. | 1:08:08 | 1:08:13 | |
It reveals he never knew what was going on. | 1:08:13 | 1:08:17 | |
The whole thing had caught him off-guard. | 1:08:17 | 1:08:20 | |
This story of Le Bourget | 1:08:21 | 1:08:23 | |
was so much a tragedy for the KGB | 1:08:23 | 1:08:26 | |
and proof that the KGB was absolutely not competent at all. | 1:08:26 | 1:08:31 | |
So the first thing that the KGB has to do is... | 1:08:31 | 1:08:36 | |
is to destroy this, er... | 1:08:36 | 1:08:38 | |
this defector. | 1:08:38 | 1:08:40 | |
And Nureyev knows that. | 1:08:42 | 1:08:45 | |
He must have been terribly moved and in a terrible turmoil. | 1:08:45 | 1:08:48 | |
Waking every morning, wondering where he is. | 1:08:51 | 1:08:54 | |
I mean, every awakening must have been difficult for a long time. | 1:08:54 | 1:08:57 | |
He found himself trapped in an apartment | 1:09:01 | 1:09:04 | |
that he couldn't leave for fear that the KGB would find him. | 1:09:04 | 1:09:08 | |
The irony is, when he defected, | 1:09:08 | 1:09:10 | |
that wild animal whom the world was seeing or imagining to be free, | 1:09:10 | 1:09:15 | |
all of a sudden was finding himself in a cage again. | 1:09:15 | 1:09:18 | |
-CLARA: -He was living there, it was a big apartment, very nice, | 1:09:21 | 1:09:24 | |
on the Jardin du Luxembourg. | 1:09:24 | 1:09:26 | |
And he had nothing, so I went to buy toothbrush and shirts | 1:09:28 | 1:09:34 | |
and jeans and all these things. He had nothing, nothing, nothing. | 1:09:34 | 1:09:38 | |
Nureyev was in danger even the day after. | 1:09:41 | 1:09:44 | |
The KGB were in front of all of the apartments - | 1:09:44 | 1:09:47 | |
of Clara Saint, of Pierre Lacotte. | 1:09:47 | 1:09:49 | |
Two KGB was in front of my place. | 1:09:49 | 1:09:53 | |
PHONE RINGS | 1:09:53 | 1:09:56 | |
'Somebody was ringing, they called me.' | 1:09:56 | 1:09:58 | |
'It was a newspaper.' | 1:09:58 | 1:09:59 | |
"Listen, I would like to know where is Rudolf Nureyev." | 1:10:01 | 1:10:04 | |
I said, "I don't know." | 1:10:04 | 1:10:05 | |
"Why are you lie? You have to tell us, | 1:10:08 | 1:10:10 | |
"we need to for our information, for the newspaper." I said... | 1:10:10 | 1:10:14 | |
And they said, "I will give you some money." | 1:10:16 | 1:10:18 | |
I say, "I don't want anything." And they were ready to sign a cheque | 1:10:18 | 1:10:21 | |
and I said, "I don't want it, I don't know where he is | 1:10:21 | 1:10:25 | |
"and even if I know where he is, I never tell you." | 1:10:25 | 1:10:28 | |
And I hang up. | 1:10:30 | 1:10:31 | |
DEAD TONE | 1:10:31 | 1:10:34 | |
PHONE RINGS | 1:10:39 | 1:10:41 | |
Hello? | 1:10:47 | 1:10:49 | |
What I know is that Nureyev was very, very anxious. | 1:10:49 | 1:10:53 | |
KNOCK ON DOOR | 1:10:56 | 1:10:58 | |
He was scared. | 1:10:58 | 1:10:59 | |
And he was... he was right to be afraid, | 1:11:01 | 1:11:05 | |
because the KGB had plans to, er...to destroy him. | 1:11:05 | 1:11:09 | |
FOOTSTEPS | 1:11:12 | 1:11:16 | |
DOOR CREAKS | 1:11:19 | 1:11:21 | |
There is a version that Nikita Khrushchev gave an order | 1:11:33 | 1:11:37 | |
to break Nureyev's legs, to end his dancing career. | 1:11:37 | 1:11:42 | |
Really? | 1:11:42 | 1:11:43 | |
I don't deny that, in private, | 1:11:43 | 1:11:46 | |
he was so furious he could drop a phrase like that, as we say. | 1:11:46 | 1:11:51 | |
But that he ordered it, that he would action it? | 1:11:51 | 1:11:56 | |
It's unthinkable in this context. | 1:11:56 | 1:11:58 | |
Nureyev had no scientist secret, that's true. | 1:12:01 | 1:12:05 | |
He just had one thing - he offended the government | 1:12:05 | 1:12:09 | |
and he betrayed his country. | 1:12:09 | 1:12:12 | |
PIANO MUSIC | 1:12:21 | 1:12:23 | |
The London premiere was in three days' time. | 1:12:30 | 1:12:34 | |
Sergeyev was in a panic, trying to think what to do. | 1:12:34 | 1:12:38 | |
For him, it was a life-or-death question. | 1:12:38 | 1:12:41 | |
He would carry the can unless he could make the show a triumph. | 1:12:41 | 1:12:45 | |
He approached Soloviev to take over Sleeping Beauty and Bayadere. | 1:12:45 | 1:12:49 | |
I did Swan Lake. | 1:12:49 | 1:12:51 | |
We had no time to introduce young Yuri Soloviev into the show | 1:12:54 | 1:12:58 | |
and we were rehearsing day and night. | 1:12:58 | 1:13:01 | |
He wasn't tall enough for me, | 1:13:04 | 1:13:06 | |
so I was on full fingers. | 1:13:06 | 1:13:08 | |
Rudik unwittingly gave him his break. | 1:13:16 | 1:13:18 | |
And he moved into the role of soloist. | 1:13:18 | 1:13:21 | |
I felt it would have been better if it happened gradually. | 1:13:21 | 1:13:25 | |
Instead of maturing, it came in a rush of panic. | 1:13:25 | 1:13:28 | |
'You know, everything was difficult.' | 1:13:32 | 1:13:34 | |
KNOCK ON DOOR | 1:13:34 | 1:13:35 | |
'I said to Clara,' | 1:13:35 | 1:13:38 | |
"Rudolf, now, he have to work." | 1:13:38 | 1:13:41 | |
You know, he was going crazy. | 1:13:41 | 1:13:42 | |
Where have you been? | 1:13:52 | 1:13:54 | |
Don't like this shirt, it's too big. | 1:13:57 | 1:14:00 | |
-CLARA: -'He didn't like the shirt I bought. | 1:14:02 | 1:14:04 | |
'Can you believe it?' | 1:14:07 | 1:14:09 | |
Can you do something? | 1:14:09 | 1:14:10 | |
' "I don't like that shirt." ' | 1:14:12 | 1:14:14 | |
SHE IMITATES HIS GRUMBLING | 1:14:14 | 1:14:16 | |
' "Ah, but these jeans... | 1:14:16 | 1:14:18 | |
' "And you know, the apartment I'm staying in - it is full of marble." | 1:14:18 | 1:14:22 | |
'I said, "Yes, it's a very beautiful place." | 1:14:22 | 1:14:25 | |
' "Yes, but it's cold, it's very bad for me, it's cold." | 1:14:25 | 1:14:28 | |
' "Merci beaucoup." J'ai dit, "Thank you very much." ' | 1:14:31 | 1:14:35 | |
He have to work and we talk about... | 1:14:38 | 1:14:41 | |
I say, "What about in Paris Opera?" | 1:14:41 | 1:14:43 | |
It's impossible politically, it was a national theatre, | 1:14:43 | 1:14:46 | |
they could not take somebody who escaped from Russia, | 1:14:46 | 1:14:49 | |
otherwise never will the company go to Russia any more. | 1:14:49 | 1:14:53 | |
The only thing was the ballet company of Marquis De Cuevas. | 1:14:58 | 1:15:03 | |
Clara called Raymundo de Larrain. | 1:15:05 | 1:15:09 | |
Raymundo de Larrain was the director of the ballet | 1:15:09 | 1:15:13 | |
of the Marquis de Cuevas. | 1:15:13 | 1:15:15 | |
CLARA: 'Raymundo, I call him - he said, | 1:15:16 | 1:15:18 | |
' "No! Tell him I'll hire him! We are going to produce Sleeping Beauty." ' | 1:15:18 | 1:15:25 | |
And Nureyev had seen Sleeping Beauty, | 1:15:25 | 1:15:28 | |
and he met Raymundo de Larrain during his tour with the Kirov, | 1:15:28 | 1:15:33 | |
and he told him the production was awful | 1:15:33 | 1:15:37 | |
and the costumes were so kitsch. | 1:15:37 | 1:15:39 | |
And two weeks after his defection, what did he dance? | 1:15:42 | 1:15:46 | |
Sleeping Beauty with the Marquis De Cuevas company. | 1:15:46 | 1:15:49 | |
CHATTER | 1:15:49 | 1:15:51 | |
There was a press conference in the morning, | 1:15:56 | 1:15:59 | |
at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees. | 1:15:59 | 1:16:01 | |
Of course, I was there, | 1:16:01 | 1:16:03 | |
but there were also hundreds of journalists and photographers. | 1:16:03 | 1:16:07 | |
NUREYEV: I will never return my country, | 1:16:10 | 1:16:13 | |
but I can never be happy in yours. | 1:16:13 | 1:16:16 | |
The whole world was watching. So the KGB couldn't do anything. | 1:16:18 | 1:16:23 | |
Nothing could have been worse for Russia | 1:16:23 | 1:16:25 | |
than if they had tried to get to him at that point. | 1:16:25 | 1:16:28 | |
He had the event, the main event in ballet world. | 1:16:31 | 1:16:34 | |
Raymundo had it in his hands | 1:16:34 | 1:16:36 | |
from the moment Rudolf accepted to come. | 1:16:36 | 1:16:39 | |
Well, he came like un grand fauve, | 1:16:39 | 1:16:41 | |
like a wild animal. | 1:16:41 | 1:16:43 | |
And we were fascinated. | 1:16:43 | 1:16:45 | |
I was especially fascinated by the way he worked. | 1:16:45 | 1:16:48 | |
He would lock himself up, somehow, | 1:16:48 | 1:16:50 | |
when he wanted to be alone, with the pianist. | 1:16:50 | 1:16:53 | |
Into to the foyer | 1:16:53 | 1:16:55 | |
of the Theatre des Champs Elysees, and he would do his own class. | 1:16:55 | 1:16:58 | |
Pardon. | 1:16:58 | 1:16:59 | |
Rudolf told me that he was redoing carefully, | 1:17:01 | 1:17:04 | |
precisely, the class of Pushkin, not to forget it, not to lose his shape. | 1:17:04 | 1:17:09 | |
One thing he was very afraid of by passing to the West | 1:17:09 | 1:17:12 | |
is to lose his shape, | 1:17:12 | 1:17:14 | |
because he wouldn't have the same training any more. | 1:17:14 | 1:17:18 | |
So he used to do that class very slow, very... It was fascinating. | 1:17:18 | 1:17:23 | |
I had never seen somebody work so thoroughly, | 1:17:23 | 1:17:26 | |
with so much precision and slowly correct a movement | 1:17:26 | 1:17:30 | |
until it was perfect. This was absolutely incredible. | 1:17:30 | 1:17:34 | |
On the night of Nureyev's debut as Bluebird in Sleeping Beauty, | 1:17:38 | 1:17:42 | |
he asked that nobody disturb him in his dressing room. | 1:17:42 | 1:17:47 | |
But a journalist managed to get in and gave him three letters. | 1:17:47 | 1:17:51 | |
One from his father, one from his mother, | 1:17:51 | 1:17:54 | |
and one from his coach, Pushkin. | 1:17:54 | 1:17:57 | |
All of them told him he could not betray his homeland. | 1:17:57 | 1:18:01 | |
They all told him to come back and that there would be no punishment. | 1:18:08 | 1:18:12 | |
I think it was the Communists, of course, | 1:18:13 | 1:18:16 | |
want to organise a big evening against Rudolf... | 1:18:16 | 1:18:19 | |
..to make him afraid and to shock everybody, to say, | 1:18:20 | 1:18:23 | |
"Look, that boy, he did something wrong, | 1:18:23 | 1:18:26 | |
"he's leaving his own country." | 1:18:26 | 1:18:27 | |
But only the Communists could think that way. | 1:18:27 | 1:18:30 | |
That evening, everything was done to demoralize him. | 1:18:30 | 1:18:34 | |
He understood this straight away, and he was furious. | 1:18:34 | 1:18:37 | |
Then, as he approached the stage, | 1:18:37 | 1:18:40 | |
he heard abuse coming from the auditorium. | 1:18:40 | 1:18:42 | |
SHOUTING | 1:18:42 | 1:18:44 | |
It was not spontaneous, | 1:18:44 | 1:18:46 | |
it was really organised, you could feel that. | 1:18:46 | 1:18:49 | |
When he came from the wings, he came very close to my left | 1:18:49 | 1:18:53 | |
and I remember his eyes - | 1:18:53 | 1:18:56 | |
he was in total panic. | 1:18:56 | 1:18:57 | |
They were yelling, "Traitor - go back to your country." | 1:19:01 | 1:19:05 | |
They were throwing coins, broken glass on stage - | 1:19:05 | 1:19:08 | |
GLASS BREAKS | 1:19:08 | 1:19:09 | |
They did everything possible to unnerve him. | 1:19:16 | 1:19:20 | |
But he kept going. | 1:19:20 | 1:19:21 | |
That was, for me, the proof of his, the strong-ness of his character. | 1:19:23 | 1:19:28 | |
In the middle of all that situation, he proved his own personality, | 1:19:30 | 1:19:34 | |
his strength. | 1:19:34 | 1:19:36 | |
That day, he really became free. | 1:19:36 | 1:19:39 | |
He had broken off with everything from the past. | 1:19:39 | 1:19:44 | |
APPLAUSE | 1:19:44 | 1:19:45 | |
He wanted to learn, he wanted to know, he wanted to do, | 1:19:48 | 1:19:52 | |
he wanted more, he didn't want to be blocked, | 1:19:52 | 1:19:55 | |
he didn't accept the fact to be limited. | 1:19:55 | 1:19:58 | |
CHEERING | 1:19:58 | 1:20:01 | |
And he's so right, I mean, he wanted to conquer the world, | 1:20:01 | 1:20:04 | |
and it was his right to conquer the world. | 1:20:04 | 1:20:07 | |
His perfect right. How dare the people stop him from that? | 1:20:07 | 1:20:11 | |
APPLAUSE | 1:20:13 | 1:20:16 | |
CHEERING | 1:20:18 | 1:20:21 | |
When we got back, | 1:20:42 | 1:20:44 | |
they declared Nureyev to be an enemy of the nation, | 1:20:44 | 1:20:49 | |
and that he committed treason. | 1:20:49 | 1:20:51 | |
That's what they always used to say | 1:20:52 | 1:20:55 | |
when people did something extraordinary. | 1:20:55 | 1:20:57 | |
I remember it like yesterday, the day they returned to Russia. | 1:21:03 | 1:21:08 | |
I had to find out what happened, from Yuri Soloviev. | 1:21:08 | 1:21:11 | |
Everyone was asking, "How could it have happened? | 1:21:48 | 1:21:51 | |
"What did happen?" | 1:21:55 | 1:21:57 | |
Yuri was taken repeatedly to the grey house - the KGB headquarters. | 1:21:57 | 1:22:01 | |
Of course he was influenced. | 1:22:01 | 1:22:03 | |
They put pressure on him. | 1:22:03 | 1:22:05 | |
It took a heavy toll. | 1:22:05 | 1:22:07 | |
That pressure didn't stop. It continued relentlessly. | 1:22:14 | 1:22:19 | |
We used to talk, sometimes, in the locker room. | 1:22:20 | 1:22:23 | |
"Sergei," he said... | 1:22:23 | 1:22:25 | |
"..what a success we've become. | 1:22:28 | 1:22:30 | |
"But what's the point of it all?" | 1:22:35 | 1:22:38 | |
He was sinking into some darkness and this inclination... | 1:22:38 | 1:22:45 | |
This would not have taken place if Rudik hadn't defected. | 1:22:47 | 1:22:52 | |
It was a complex time, I think, you know. | 1:23:09 | 1:23:11 | |
I don't understand what it is about this guy. | 1:23:16 | 1:23:19 | |
That was a kind of thing | 1:23:22 | 1:23:24 | |
that you never feel that you know everything about it. | 1:23:24 | 1:23:27 | |
And I think with Rudolf, we don't know everything. | 1:23:27 | 1:23:31 | |
My feeling is that it was decided in advance, | 1:23:34 | 1:23:39 | |
that Rudolf would leave to stay in France. | 1:23:39 | 1:23:43 | |
It's possible. | 1:23:44 | 1:23:46 | |
Uncle Greg - I remember that what he told me | 1:23:48 | 1:23:51 | |
when I ask him one day, "What's happened exactly?" | 1:23:51 | 1:23:54 | |
He said, "In the morning, | 1:23:54 | 1:23:56 | |
"there was a call telling me that something could happen. | 1:23:56 | 1:24:01 | |
"I had to be very careful and to help - | 1:24:02 | 1:24:05 | |
"somebody was probably going to escape the Russian guards | 1:24:05 | 1:24:12 | |
"to come inside the French frontier." | 1:24:12 | 1:24:15 | |
The final order to secure Nureyev's immediate return to Moscow | 1:24:23 | 1:24:27 | |
at the airport was a provocation. | 1:24:27 | 1:24:31 | |
The final push to make this man take that step. | 1:24:31 | 1:24:35 | |
I am completely convinced that the Central Committee | 1:24:35 | 1:24:39 | |
really knew what they were doing. | 1:24:39 | 1:24:42 | |
They were provoking Nureyev in order to make | 1:24:52 | 1:24:55 | |
a strike against the KGB chief, Alexander Shelepin. | 1:24:55 | 1:24:59 | |
The Central Committee really didn't like Shelepin - | 1:24:59 | 1:25:03 | |
he was a rival to their power, | 1:25:03 | 1:25:06 | |
and they would do anything to get rid of him. | 1:25:06 | 1:25:09 | |
He was kept in the dark and he missed it. | 1:25:09 | 1:25:12 | |
His security services failed to prevent the defection of Nureyev | 1:25:13 | 1:25:19 | |
and, thanks to this event, Shelepin was taken down. | 1:25:19 | 1:25:23 | |
-INTERVIEWER: -Why do you think Shelepin was deposed? | 1:25:25 | 1:25:27 | |
Well, I'm sure this was connected, this was surely... | 1:25:27 | 1:25:30 | |
It must have been connected to... to the defection. | 1:25:30 | 1:25:33 | |
There was also an extraordinary degree of factionalism, | 1:25:33 | 1:25:35 | |
pure power struggles, control of the political agenda. | 1:25:35 | 1:25:39 | |
This is what happens when you open up to the West, this is what happens | 1:25:39 | 1:25:42 | |
when you try to engage the West and allow people to travel to the West. | 1:25:42 | 1:25:46 | |
You're going to end up with these kinds of disasters. | 1:25:46 | 1:25:49 | |
How somebody has the ability in their life to escape, | 1:25:51 | 1:25:58 | |
it's difficult to say. | 1:25:58 | 1:26:00 | |
But I think some people have luck in their blood, you know? | 1:26:01 | 1:26:07 | |
-CLARA: -I don't remember very well, | 1:26:18 | 1:26:20 | |
but after all that, he became a star, of course. | 1:26:20 | 1:26:24 | |
I went with him to this shooting... | 1:26:24 | 1:26:30 | |
And then they said to me - "You know, you can stay now" | 1:26:30 | 1:26:34 | |
"but then you have to leave | 1:26:34 | 1:26:36 | |
"because I want to photograph him naked." | 1:26:36 | 1:26:39 | |
And I said, "OK, yes, I'm not going to stay." | 1:26:39 | 1:26:41 | |
SHE CHUCKLES | 1:26:41 | 1:26:43 | |
"How long? | 1:26:43 | 1:26:44 | |
And he said, "Well, come back in one hour if you want." | 1:26:44 | 1:26:47 | |
INTERVIEWER: What do you think you meant to him? | 1:26:49 | 1:26:52 | |
-I don't know. -Did he love you? | 1:26:52 | 1:26:55 | |
No, I don't think so. | 1:26:55 | 1:26:56 | |
No, he thought... | 1:26:59 | 1:27:01 | |
..that I was... | 1:27:02 | 1:27:05 | |
an interesting person. | 1:27:05 | 1:27:07 | |
I was free - I didn't work at that time. | 1:27:07 | 1:27:10 | |
I was completely free. | 1:27:10 | 1:27:12 | |
Everything was easy with me, you see? | 1:27:14 | 1:27:17 | |
But, you know, he was such a star. | 1:27:19 | 1:27:22 | |
I was, I was happy for him. | 1:27:23 | 1:27:25 | |
And this is the last time I will speak of... | 1:27:28 | 1:27:30 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 1:27:30 | 1:27:32 | |
..Rudolf Nureyev. | 1:27:32 | 1:27:33 | |
PIANO MUSIC | 1:27:40 | 1:27:44 |