Rudolf Nureyev (documentary, 1991)

Patricia Foy's absorbing Rudolf Nureyev--A Documentary, a portrait of surely the most committed and versatile dancer in the history of ballet, was made in 1991, two years before his death. It is as much the study of a life apart as a profile of a tireless jet-setting artist. His career took him from poverty-stricken provincial childhood to life as a student at the Kirov, through defection to the West in 1961 and on to the great classical roles on the world's most famous stages, a sublime professional partnership with Margot Fonteyn and a fascinating evolution as a supreme exponent of modern dance. And through it all, Foy's film suggests that for all Nureyev's desire to be a member of the corps, he always felt isolated. The dancer himself concludes by saying he never felt a part of society.