The Turning Point (1977)
Learning Our Plié, B, C's
Greetings and good evening to our faithful patrons of the arts, the lovely readers back for another installment of I’d Like to Blank The Academy. After our last post, we humbly bring you back to the stage for a very different type of performance than Michael Keaton shooting himself in the head, though some would say it’s just as brutal: the ballet! Come away with us to the world of tutus, pointe shoes, and lingering resentment over choices you and your best frenemy made 20 years ago. So get your muscles warm and ready to throw a bouquet at the stage and read on!
Previews
What, if anything, did we know about this coming attraction before we watched it?
Ellen: I want to say maybe my Mom mentioned this to me once, but I really don’t have anything. My ballet experience consists of tap dancing, getting moved to a tap/ballet class, and then subsequently getting in trouble during the ballet portion for making too much noise!
Tyler: From everything I’ve heard about you as a kid, that does not surprise me one bit. As for me, aside from the fact that it’s set in the ballet world in some capacity, this movie could be about anything. Presumably there will be some actual ballet dancing in it, which I’m actually looking forward to a little! First Dance at our wedding aside, I am not into nor good at any form of dancing, but I think that makes me appreciate those who are really good at it even more. Let’s turn some points!
Plots & Feelings
This one’s pretty self-explanatory.
Short Version (courtesy of IMDb): When her daughter joins a ballet company, a former dancer is forced to confront her long-ago decision to give up the stage to have a family.
Long Version (modified from Wikipedia and formatted to fit your screen):
A radio on the dresser in DeeDee and Wayne Rodgers’ home in Oklahoma City informs us that the American Ballet Company is performing there tonight! DeeDee bustles about, making sure Wayne has set up the bar for the after-party, that her youngest, Ethan, comes inside from dancing in the backyard, and that her daughters Janina and Emilia are all dressed up. As former members of the company, DeeDee and Wayne want everyone to look their best! The credits roll over an ever-growing swarm of elegant ballerinas doing their thing.
“I’m gonna frow up” (Source) After the show, DeeDee, who left the company at the height of her career after becoming pregnant with Emilia, is lowkey sobbing in the empty auditorium before steeling herself to go backstage. She sees old colleagues, including dancers, choreographers, and the harsh but competent head of the company Adelaide. The person DeeDee is most anxious to see, however, is standing alone out on the stage. It’s her old friend, rival, and godmother to Emilia: Emma Jacklin. They exchange slightly awkward pleasantries about the show, and while at the house later, Emma invites Emilia to take a class with the company tomorrow. A wonderful time is had by all at the party, and Emma and DeeDee end up on the bench outside. We learn why it’s frosty between them: they were both up for a premiere role as Anna Karinina, and at the end of the day, DeeDee got pregnant and Emma got 19 curtain calls.
Ellen: Janina is the only child not into ballet, so she’s not destined for much screen time, but we learn that she cooks and even the critical Adelaide says she should open a restaurant, therefore she is my favorite.
Tyler: Janina (aside from having a distractingly off name) also works as a decent yet short-lived audience stand-in given her seeming lack of knowledge of and/or appreciation for ballet.
Tyler: I also kind of appreciated DeeDee and Emma having such a frank and honest conversation this early in the movie. In a lesser, more standard movie, they would have danced around this (pun intended) completely for the entire movie.
When at least you threw a kick-ass party (Source)
Emilia’s audition disguised as a class goes extremely well, and she’s invited to join! Over the course of several conversations, DeeDee and Wayne decide it’s best for her to go to New York, and DeeDee and Ethan will go too, where Ethan will rehearse on scholarship. Though DeeDee clearly felt she had unfinished business in this world, she feels out of place in New York, in part because Adelaide refuses to return her calls and let her teach. The first of several dance class montages shows us Emilia’s progress, and also the beginning of Emma’s decline, as she refuses to dance a modern art piece (and subsequently puts Emilia up for it) and learns that she won’t be playing Giselle this season.
Tyler: I know the movie is trying to stay true to reality, but the other siblings add almost nothing to the plot whatsoever. Ethan goes with them to New York and then essentially disappears from the movie.
Ellen: Because I didn’t know this was BOATS1, I just kept waiting for it to be an extended flashback once we got to NYC to let us all in on what really happened between DeeDee and Emma, but eventually I had to concede “okay I guess I care about Emilia’s life now.”
Tyler: I didn’t know it was BOATS going into it, but I had a feeling that the real story would be more of a climactic explanation.
DeeDee and her children are staying in rooms in Carnegie Hall with Madame Dakharova, who was prima ballerina when DeeDee and Emma were coming up, and now she coaches. Emma in turn agrees to coach Emilia, though you can tell she sees this as a step down. She is singularly dedicated to her craft, forgoing a personal life except for three little dogs2, but aging is catching up to her. On the young end of the spectrum, Emilia is making eyes with a male prima ballerina Yuri at rehearsal one day, and it transitions into a very beige dancing dream sequence that then transitions to sex! She returns home to DeeDee and is very blasé about the whole thing, and DeeDee is like, “okay, okay, I guess I’m happy for you?? Is this how you be a cool mom??”
Tyler: The dancing interlude reminded me of Top Hat where they just let Fred and Ginger cook because they’re both just so darn good.
Love, whether it’s a good idea or not, is in the air! An old conductor friend of DeeDee’s spots her on the street, and though they’re both married, things eventually escalate offscreen, which Emilia deduces and is pissed about. Meanwhile, Emma’s married admirer Carter sees her in her dressing room after a show, and he’s been asking her to quit and take their relationship seriously for 15 years. She might finally be ready… but now he’s not. To top it off, Emilia sees Yuri giving another ballerina a leg massage, and that gets spicy3! All told, she’s not in a great mental state during rehearsals for her modern piece the next day and walks out on the choreographer. She sweeps into a bar, pretends to be Russian, and gets rip-roaring drunk before attempting to perform! Emma is in the wings helping her get her shit together, which DeeDee sees and does not appreciate. Emilia sleeps at Emma’s that night.
Tyler: I really wish the movie somehow explained why Emma felt the need to send out a clearly intoxicated Emilia to perform publicly. Do you really think the audience would notice if one fewer dancer was out there, compared to Emilia flailing around out there? Granted, sending her out there made for a much more entertaining movie given the fact that I was essentially watching that scene through my eyes and saying “Dear god make this stop!”
Ellen: At some point in their slumber party Emma tosses out a “I don’t believe in being sorry” UGH OKAY MA’AM I GUESS SELF-REFLECTION IS FOR LESSER BEINGS. Ahem.
It’s Gala time, baby! Emma sends Emilia a dress, and DeeDee lets her former (?) friend know she’s not happy about it. Emilia similarly is not happy with her mother’s infidelity, and when DeeDee tries to get her to talk about it, she accidentally reveals that she’s in part concerned because she feels Emma is trying to take over as a mother figure. At the Gala, Adelaide is thrilled that if they sell out the last two weeks of the season, they’ll only have a $80,000 deficit4! Onstage, there’s a full program showcase that the movie is committed to showing us a whole lot of. Emilia’s solo goes great (and good grief Yuri can jump high), but DeeDee can’t stand to watch Emma reprise Anna Karinina. Out in the lobby, she finally gets up the nerve to ask her old choreographer if she hadn’t gotten pregnant if she would have gotten the part. He honestly doesn’t remember.
Ellen: I was so concerned this would be all the closure DeeDee got, but keep reading… I mean watching…
At the party after the show, Emilia is clearly the new star of the company, and she’s floated for Sleeping Beauty next season! And Adelaide thinks Emma could stage it, wouldn’t that be a fun new challenge?? Emma storms out to an empty side bar, and DeeDee joins her. Emma accuses her of blaming her for derailing her career, and DeeDee fires back that it’s wild she’s trying to “become a mother” at her age. DeeDee contends that Emma convinced her that Wayne would leave her if she didn’t have the baby, thus securing the role of Anna for herself. Emma says they made their choices and DeeDee’s just mad Emilia’s following in Emma’s footsteps, and DeeDee’s like “oh she can’t do that, because she’s not a killer” and Emma throws champagne in her face! The fight progresses outside and becomes physical, the two wrestling and slapping each other (mainly on the butt) before they both dissolve into laughter and exhaustion. Having gotten it all out, Emma says she did feel threatened at the time, and to know she was a contender is all DeeDee needed to hear.
Wrap up time! Wayne and DeeDee reaffirm their love, I mean, they ruined each other’s careers for this, right? Yuri apologizes to Emilia, and they continue a strictly professional relationship, and their subsequent performance results in a shower of flowers on the stage. Afterward, Emilia silently hands her mother a bouquet in reconciliation. She departs back to the stage where Emma is once again standing alone. They stand together, reflecting on everything Emilia has in front of her, knowing that even if she had all of their experience and knowledge, it wouldn’t matter.
Intermission
Even though ILTBTA is free, please indulge us further and enjoy this quick “advertisement.”
This installment of ILTBTA is brought to you by … Madame Dakharova’s Rooms in Carnegie Hall!
Have you reached, how would you put it, a turning point in your life? Is the whole world of ballet laid before you, and all you have to do is take it, but oops - you need somewhere to sleep? Then come stay with Madame Dakharova, who's been around the block, seen it all, and is still kicking! (Not quite as high as before, but kicking nonetheless.)
Enjoy the prime location for a prima ballerina! Use promo code ILTBTA when booking to be put into consideration for one-on-one coaching with Madame herself!
Wiki-Wiki-Whaaat?
Love a good Wikipedia rabbit hole in search of some fun facts? Us too.
The Turning Point’s Wikipedia page has some interesting facts and anecdotes that we recommend you read through, but here are a few of our favorites:
The Turning Point is a fictionalized account of the real-life friendship between ballerinas Isabel Mirrow Brown and Nora Kaye. Unlike in the film, Brown (who the character of DeeDee is based on) did not leave the ballet company because she got pregnant, though she did stop performing in order to focus on her marriage and to have children. Similar to the film, though, Brown and her husband (dancer Kelly Brown) moved to Phoenix (changed to Oklahoma City in the film) to run a dance studio that had opened up.
Similar to the film adaptation, Isabel and Kelly’s daughter Leslie was indeed a talented ballerina who trained in New York City. Ballerina Gelsey Kirkland was originally slated to portray Leslie in the film, but she dropped out due to substance abuse issues and disliking the script. Who did director Herbert Ross choose to replace her? The actual Leslie Brown, who went on to receive Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress for portraying a fictionalized version of herself. (It helps that Ross was also her godfather.)
Ellen: I was thinking the whole time: either ballet is a lot easier to pick up than I think it is or these have got to be actual dancers. They’re incredible, and the camera is on their faces for far too long for body doubles.
Tyler: My mom and I were wondering aloud the same thing as we watched. It also makes sense because Leslie is clearly a better ballerina than actress, though she did a fine job in what must have been an odd situation!
Herbert Ross was an accomplished choreographer, director, and producer in movies and the theatre. In addition to The Turning Point, he also directed Footloose and Steel Magnolias. He was married to ballerina Nora Kaye (whom we met two bullets ago) for 28 years before her death, after which he married Jackie O’s younger sister Lee Dadziwill.
Several actresses were offered the roles of Emma and DeeDee, including Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, and Doris Day, before Anne Bancroft and Shirley MacLaine landed them. While MacLaine started her performing career as a ballerina and performed on Broadway, Bancroft had no prior dance experience.
The Turning Point was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, including Best Actress nods for both Bancroft and MacLaine, but failed to win any of them. This dubious honor ties the film with The Color Purple for the most Oscar nominations without a single win.
Ellen: What does the Academy hate (besides Black people)? Women!
Oscar NomNomNomz
Since we all know a movie is nothing without the food and drink it incorporates.
It’s now time to award the Oscar for Best Snacktor in a Supporting Role5. And the nomnomnominees are:
Assorted cakes and cookies that you will NOT eat at the after-party
A bowl of borscht from Madame Dakharova
A glass of wine at Rosie's place before you cheat on your spouse
A sad glass of champagne after your killer performance
And the Oscar goes to … the assorted cakes and cookies! Unfortunately, we both ate them all because we’re not professional ballerinas, so … uh, our stomachs will accept this award on their behalf.
Honorable Mentions
What other movies should you be watching?
No discussion of Oscar-nominated ballet movies would be complete without Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 psychological thriller Black Swan. Starring Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis as rival dancers as they prepare for a production of Swan Lake, the film follows Portman’s character as she struggles to deal with the incredible pressure of the lead role and maintain her grip on reality.
Black Swan is an intense little mindfuck of a movie, with incredible performances and scenes that will stick with you whether you like it or not. Am I (Tyler) writing this with one particularly unnerving scene in mind? Yes I am!
After that ringing endorsement, if you’d still like to watch Black Swan, it’s available to rent from the usual coterie of streaming services/movie rental platforms/data harvesters.
Fill In The Blank
How did we really feel about The Academy nominating this?
Ellen: I’d like to treat the Academy to one-on-one coaching. Though not necessarily action-packed, depending on how you count extended scenes of ballets, I was pretty invested! Professional ballet seems like such an insular world, and from the way all the characters were interconnected, I think my assumption is correct. To get a window into what it takes to make it, and on the flip side, what it looks like to leave, was really interesting. I thought both the leading ladies acted wonderfully, and I honestly wanted to focus more on them. It's not that I wasn't interested in Emilia, but more that it was clear there was so much going on between them. It made the blow-up at the end really satisfying. I get that they wanted to showcase ballet in a real way, but it got a little tiresome to just have extended sequences when there was plot I wanted to get to. And I know we already gave it an honorable mention, but it also really made me want to watch Black Swan again…
Tyler: I’d like to give The Academy a strong ovation for a job well done, but not throw any flowers onstage. I was much more invested in the story than I initially would've expected, though I agree that it focused a bit more on Emilia than I preferred. I understand that she essentially serves as another proxy fight for our two main protagonists, but there was clearly a LOT going on with their relationship (as evidenced by the end) that I would've liked digging into more. I also thought it took a tad too long to get to the actual conflict of the movie, but that's a relatively minor complaint.
Other random comments that I'm too lazy to fit into an overarching narrative: Anne Bancroft's eyes do a lot of acting on their own; why were there seemingly no consequences for Emilia's drunken actions on stage and leaving rehearsal early; DeeDee needs to stop spiraling and trying to relive the past; the last performance dragged on. Okay, back to our vacation …
Let The Credits Roll
Thanks for reading! Some quick housekeeping as you exit the theatre:
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Post-Credits Scene
Get a sneak peek at the next ILTBTA installment.
To celebrate the return of spooky season, our next ILTBTA adventure will feature the 1943 supernatural comedy Heaven Can Wait. Starring Don Ameche and Gene Tierney, Heaven Can Wait tells the story of a playboy who must discuss with Satan whether or not he belongs in Hell. Sounds like a hoot!
Heaven Can Wait is available for free on YouTube thanks to a very generous account that uploaded it there.
Until then, keep raising the barre!
Based On a True Story, I’m trying to make it happen.
Sounds like my ex-wife!
Tyler: Yuri (unknowingly) shutting the door in Emilia’s face was absolutely SAVAGE.
That’s about $400,000 in today’s deficits!
Results tabulated and certified by the accountants at Ernst & Yum™.
Great job you two. I never thought I'd enjoy a movie review of a ballet movie, yet here I am! I thoroughly enjoy your writing styles and humor.