SAM RILEY IN JOHN CRANKO

JOACHIM A. LANG: JOHN CRANKO (2024) BERLIN & BEYOND, SAN FRANCISCO

A gifted gay choreographer exiled from London, triumphs in Stuttgart and earns world renown

TRAILER

John Cranko came from South AFrica, and apparently grew up speaking German (thIs is not mentioned). This film is interested in his career as the choreographer-artistic director of the Stuttgart Ballet, which put it and German ballet in general on the map in the 1960's. He had become famous in this role with the Sadler's Wells-Royal Ballet in London while still in his his twenties. But he was gay, hommosexuality was illegal, and he was a victim of police entrapment that led to his being abandoned by the Royal Family and "disgraced." His good luck was that Stuttgart hired him to do a ballet, and then liked him so much they kept him on to take over. And they were right. Except that he was a volatile artistic personality, had a taste for rough trade, and was unable to maintain a stable relationship. Cranko's depressions and loneliness, his moods, his alcoholism, and his chain smoking are constantly in evidence.

This film makes all that clear, but its accomplishment is to bring to life the Stuttgart Ballet of the time, with full cooperation of the present company and its magnificant facilities. And it has the remarkable and fully committed Sam Riley to play the role of John Cranko. He just happened to be around and fluent in German, having lived in Berlin for years with his Romanian-German wife. He speaks almost nothing but German in this film.

For those who love ballet and have a tolerance for artistic biopics John Cranko provides enjoyable, fullsome entertainment. At two hours and thirteen minutes it is a bit long. But it has a lot of beautiful, generously filmed dancing and newly recorded symphonic music by the Stuttgart State Opera Orchestra. An essential achievement of this film is to use dancers as actors and make it work.

What's outstanding, if you accept its poetic license, is the way this film shows Cranko visualizing choreography, with Riley demonstrating the man's passion right away in interpreting Shakespeare to the dancers. My favorite is the one where he tells a hot young Mercutio that he will make his final turn a "dance of death," and together they create this dance before our eyes. Sometimes this film's Cranko can be almost a cliché of the self-destructive "artistic" gay man, who wears his emotions on his sleeve. He dramatically fires the lead dancer after they clash when he demands emotion and not just technique and she tells him that is not her "style." And he has a string of unsuccessful, even disastrous, boyfriends, sometimes in front of the company (even though homosexuality was illegal in Germany too), though detailed scenes of private life are minimized in favor of Cranko's career with the company.

From Boston Ballet: "At the beginning of his time in Stuttgart, Cranko created short ballets and gathered together a group of dancers, among them Ray Barra, Egon Madsen, Richard Cragun, Birgit Keil and, most importantly, a young Brazilian dancer named Marcia Haydée who was to become his prime muse and inspiration. The breakthrough for Cranko came in December 1962 with the world premiere of Romeo and Juliet, which was highly praised by critics and audience alike. In Stuttgart, Cranko created many small choreographic jewels such as Jeu de cartes and Opus I, as well as his symphonic ballet Initials R.B.M.E., but it was with his dramatic story ballets such as Onegin, The Taming of the Shrew, Poéme de l’Extase and Traces that Cranko secured his place in the pantheon of great choreographers. In addition, he encouraged young dancers in his company – including Jiří Kylián and John Neumeier – to try their hand at choreography."

In outline, this remarkable career and its playing out in the company are conveyed by the film, which also shows us the important first tour in the States when the Stuttgart Ballet was invited to perform at the Met,and received a rave review from the influential Times critic Clive Barnes, who spoke of "the Stuttgart miracle" and Cranko's unique gifts, and with his words turned Stuttgart and Cranko into players on the world artistic stage.

Sam Riley is known for his remarkable performance as Joy Division's Ian Curtis in Anton Corbijn's 2007Control. He was notable in Brighton Rock, as Sal Paradise/Jack Kerouac in Walter Salles' On the Road, in Neil Jordan's Bizantium, and in other films. But Control was an original work of art and while John Cranko is a big role, it's not on that level. Its staging and dancing are fine and Riley gives a fully dedicated performance. But as Dennis Harvey points out in his otherwise understandably very complimentary Variety review, Joachim Lang's film has several shortcomings.

Apart from flashbacks to childhood, there is no detail about Cranko's earlier life, including his London career. Why the loss of a certain boyfriend may have been tragic is a mystery since not enough information about the man is shown. Cranko complains, becomes desperate even, over negative reviews, but there is too little about what they may have said - or what media coverage of the career in Germany and abroad was like. There is no clarification that Cranko's death at 45 was accidental and not suicide, as was falsely rumored. It feels like the acting, above all the dancing, and the mise-en-scène are btter than the screenplay and the editing. But Riley has said in a Hollywood Reporter interiew that the premiere showing of the filmn at the Stuttgart Opera was a magnificent occasion, with the young dancers and the older ones they are playing all present as well as all the fans, and he was "part of the Stufttgart story now." That is glorious, and the film can appeal to ballet fans anywhere,. But it probably won't translate as well Stateside as Control did.

Principal dancers of the Stuttgart Ballet who perform for the film include Elisa Badenes (as Cranko's muse Marcia Haydé), Friedemann Vogel, Rocio Aleman, Jason Reilly and Henrik Erikson.

John Cranko, 133 mins., debuted Sept. 20, 2024 at Stuttgart Opara, also showing in premieres at Essen and Berlin. Included at Palm Springs and American Film Market at Las Vegas. Screened for this review as part of Berlin & Beyond, San Francisco, where it was scheduled as the Opening Night Film.

Showtimes:
– Roxie, SF – March 27 at 5:30 PM tickets
– Rialto Elmwood, Berkeley – March 31 at 7:45 PM

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.