To the degree that one artist can bring out the best in another, Nijinsky is an inspired masterpiece. Australian director Paul Cox has not fashioned a biography of Russian ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky (1880-1950), nor is this a comprehensive survey of Nijinsky's influential works. Instead, Cox ventures deeply into Nijinsky's thoughts and emotions as expressed in diaries begun in 1919, just as the once world-famous dancer began his descent into... insanity? The question is valid, for what we
witness here--eloquently expressed through Derek Jacobi's sublime readings of Nijinsky's diaries--are the musings of an artist who lost touch with reality, only to rediscover a kind of glorious divinity in the intensity of his own feelings. Cox accompanies the diaries with his own interpretive dance of imagery, archival photos, and performed excerpts of Nijinsky's dances, all set beautifully to perfectly chosen classical music. As a filmed state of mind, this is a challenging work of art to be savored over and over again. --Jeff Shannon
Cox gropes blindly into the past to reincarnate Nijinsky visually, viscerally and with a sensual muscularity of movement, gracing the border between inspiration and insanity.
Though Nijinsky's words grow increasingly disturbed, the film maintains a beguiling serenity and poise that make it accessible for a non-narrative feature.
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