The Nureyev Valentino
Subtitle: portrait of a film
By: Alexander Bland.
Publisher: Studio Vista
Published: 1977
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 124
Subjects: Valentino, Rudolph, 1895-1926 -- In motion pictures.; Valentino. [Motion picture]
First sentence: BRINGING
A LEGEND BACK TO LIFE
In August 1926 the screen actor Rudolph Valentino died in New York at the age of thirty-one. Almost exactly fifty years later, in August 1976, the cameras began to roll again for a film with his name on the title sheet. The alchemy of art had brought about a strange rebirth. The Sheik carrying a half-reluctant maiden into his tent went through familiar motions, but he bore another name. Rudolph had turned into Rudolf, Valentino became Nureyev. On Spanish sands a Russian tartar was reincarnating an Italian in the role of an Arab. The portrayer of screen heroes had himself become a screen hero, a star impersonated by a star.
It was an occasion in which Valentino would surely have felt at home. The first great romantic superstar of the cinema, his image still haunts its history. Half hero and half victim, triumphant, battered (the American male, threatened by the success of his foreign charms, hit back by accusations of effeminacy and hints of impotence), sometimes pathetic but never pitiable, armed with a charisma which nothing could impair, he makes an obvious subject for a film.
Valentino was conceived - appropriately in Hollywood - in the minds of a pair of producers, Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler, partners for eleven years and godfathers to twenty pictures. 'Every year we are reminded of Valentino in Los Angeles by the commemoration held at his crypt,' says Chartoff. 'He opens the lid on a whole period; he's part of our legend and lore, the first great romantic leading man, the Great Lover. He's never left our sight or mind and he probably never will.
Description: Rudolph Valentino, Hollywood's legendary Great Lover, died in August 1926; fifty years later, in August 1976, Hollywood began to bring the legend back to life. A new Valentino rode out in front of the cameras. The portrayer of screen heroes himself became a screen nero - in a film which bears his name.
Its star is Rudolf Nureyev, its director Ken Russell -two personalities known for their prodigious but idiosyncratic talents. This book describes the five-month encounter between the two men and portrays the remarkable film which resulted. It tells the story of its creation, from the first days in the office of a producer in Los Angeles, to the last shots in a studio outside London.
Alexander Bland has talked to all the major figures involved in the multi-million dollar operation and describes the preliminary preparations - the overall budgeting, the casting, the set and costume designing; the atmosphere in the studio during shooting; and the problems posed by location filming - such as turning a gorilla cage in a Barcelona zoo into a set, burying 40 foot palm trees in concrete to withstand high winds and finding hairdressers to give a twenties haircut to 600 extras.
He examines the achievements and methods of the director, Ken Russell, and the career and life style of the star, Rudolf Nureyev, who gives his own account of how he approached the role. He tells the true story of the real Valentino and then its transformation in the hands of the director and star'.
The book ends with a pictorial account of the film itself, told with extracts from the script.
The 160 stunning illustrations have been chosen from some 15,000 photographs taken during shooting and include off set shots, original set and costume designs, and scenes that were eventually cut, as well as coverage of every major sequence in the film.