Cinema
Narcissus and I the Ballet Story Inspired by Onegin and Cinderalla
About Paul Surety, the Director: “The year of 2014 has been announced as the UK-Russia Year of Culture, which will celebrate the long-lasting cultural links between the two countries, and illustrate how the relationship continues to develop exciting new creative and contemporary narratives. It is in this context we have aimed to conceive a project to celebrate the best of Russian and UK culture in beautiful union, and directly explore the connection of performance and audience in this cultural setting. With this goal in mind we have developed this short film “Narcissus and I”. “Narcissus and I” celebrates some of the best of Russian culture - classical ballet, and Pushkin poetry, but the plot is set in contemporary London.
RM Special issue 2014
It is a modern day Cinderella tale. The narrative revolves around the action of a young woman and a striking male ballet dancer (performed by renowned Russian ballet dancer Sergei Polunin). The film is narrated to translations of the love letters from Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin (read by great British actor Simon Callow)”.
The Dancer
Sergei Polunin is a world-known ballet dancer, former a principal ballet dancer of the British Royal Ballet. Currently he is a principal ballet dancer of The Stanislavsky Music Theatre (Moscow) and Novosibirsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre (Novosibirsk) in Russia. He joined the British Royal Ballet School at the age of 13 in 2003, sponsored by the Rudolf Nureyev Foundation, and became a first soloist at the Royal Ballet in 2009. In June 2010 Polunin became the Royal Ballet’s youngest ever principal. He was first shown in the international spotlight in the role of Slavemaster/ Sheppard in the 25th Anniversary of The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall. 50
The Actor
Simon Callow has played some of the theatre’s most iconic roles. These have ranged from Titus Andronicus, Mozart in Amadeus and Faust to Oscar Wilde in The Importance of Being Oscar, Captain Hook and Pozzo in Waiting For Godot, opposite Sir Ian McKellen, Ronald Pickup and Patrick Stewart. Simon has also written 13 books. These include Being an Actor, Shooting the Actor, a highly acclaimed biography of Charles Laughton, a biographical trilogy of Orson Welles (of which the first two parts have now been published), Love is Where it Falls and his memoir My Life in Pieces. “Narcissus and I” will be released in 2014. www.dreamingof.co/Narcissus-I
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