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White Nights (1985)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Release Date:
22 November 1985 (USA)
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Plot:
An expatriate Russian dancer is on a plane forced to land on Soviet territory. He is taken to an apartment...
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Plot Keywords:
Escape
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Ballet
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KGB
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Expatriate
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Airplane Accident
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Awards:
Won Oscar.
Another 2 wins
&
2 nominations
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NewsDesk:
(7 articles)
Nine Men We Still Miss: AIDS Robs the World of Some of the Brightest Lights
(From AfterElton.com. 12 November 2009, 2:29 PM, PST)
Hackford Named Directors Guild President
(From The Wrap. 26 July 2009, 11:42 AM, PDT)
(From AfterElton.com. 12 November 2009, 2:29 PM, PST)
Hackford Named Directors Guild President
(From The Wrap. 26 July 2009, 11:42 AM, PDT)
User Comments:
Fine interesting movie, wonderfully acted (and of course danced)
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Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Mikhail Baryshnikov | ... | Nikolai 'Kolya' Rodchenko | |
| Gregory Hines | ... | Raymond Greenwood | |
| Jerzy Skolimowski | ... | Colonel Chaiko | |
| Helen Mirren | ... | Galina Ivanova | |
| Geraldine Page | ... | Anne Wyatt | |
| Isabella Rossellini | ... | Darya Greenwood | |
| John Glover | ... | Wynn Scott | |
| Stefan Gryff | ... | Captain Kirigin | |
| William Hootkins | ... | Chuck Malarek | |
| Shane Rimmer | ... | Ambassador Larry Smith | |
| Florence Faure | ... | Ballerina (Death) | |
| David Savile | ... | Pilot | |
| Ian Liston | ... | Co-pilot | |
| Benny Young | ... | Flight Engineer | |
| Hilary Drake | ... | Stewardess #1 |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
136 min
Country:
Color:
Color (Metrocolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) |
Dolby (35 mm prints)
Certification:
UK:15 |
Australia:M |
Singapore:PG |
Canada:14A (Ontario) |
Iceland:L |
Argentina:13 |
Chile:14 |
Finland:K-12 |
Norway:16 |
Spain:T |
Sweden:11 |
USA:PG-13 |
West Germany:12
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
The 747 aircraft is actually a 707 with an artificial hump on the top of the forward fuselage, as the studio couldn't afford to lease a 747.
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Goofs:
Crew or equipment visible: When they are beginning their escape, Daria replaces the argument tape with the apology tape. When the tape reaches the end and flips back, playing the apology again, you see a shadow cross the player as a person hits stop and reverse on the player.
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Quotes:
Nikolai 'Kolya' Rodchenko:
Please inform American embassy that I am here. I am an American citizen.
Colonel Chaiko: What you call yourself is of no concern to us. Here, you're just a criminal.
Nikolai 'Kolya' Rodchenko: The world will demand that you hand me over.
Colonel Chaiko: The world. The world is overjoyed that we allowed a plane to land. We saved hundreds of lives. Only four people died.
Nikolai 'Kolya' Rodchenko: Who? What were the names?
Colonel Chaiko: Don't worry. Don't worry. Your promoter was not hurt. I sent her home, along with the others. I'll explain your condition to her.
Nikolai 'Kolya' Rodchenko: My condition? What condition? I demand that you let me out of here!
[...]
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Colonel Chaiko: What you call yourself is of no concern to us. Here, you're just a criminal.
Nikolai 'Kolya' Rodchenko: The world will demand that you hand me over.
Colonel Chaiko: The world. The world is overjoyed that we allowed a plane to land. We saved hundreds of lives. Only four people died.
Nikolai 'Kolya' Rodchenko: Who? What were the names?
Colonel Chaiko: Don't worry. Don't worry. Your promoter was not hurt. I sent her home, along with the others. I'll explain your condition to her.
Nikolai 'Kolya' Rodchenko: My condition? What condition? I demand that you let me out of here!
[...]
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Movie Connections:
Referenced in "Psych: Bollywood Homicide (#4.6)" (2009)
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Soundtrack:
This is Your Day
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FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (32 total)
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I just saw this on television - having resisted my sister-in-law's entreaties years ago to see it. It's awfully good.
The movie is imaginative - having Gregory Hines in a theater in Siberia, a defector to Russia when disillusioned and unable to find use for his talents as an adult tap dancer in America after the Vietnam War, married to the translator initially assigned him (an astonishing peformance by Isabella Rosellini), and performing Porgy & Bess to audiences including Russian troops - well, it's a character and situation you don't find in movies every day!
I was amazed at the close-knit work of actors who were not then first name movie stars - and at how well-drawn these characters are -
Helen Mirren is superb as Baryshnikov's former lover, partner, and now director of the Kirov Ballet - angry and constantly deluding herself that things are getting more artistically free in Russia -
Baryshnikov is excellent, reliving the pain of defection in his old theater, seeing a tape of himself when at 17 he was care-free and full of illusory ambition, the discovery of the erasure of his name among children in Russia, the anger of his former partner for his abandonment of her and denunciation of his "selfishness" in defecting -
Hines as a man living with an atrocious mistake and trying always to justify itself to himself - in Siberia, he seems like a man on Mars -
an almost unrecognizable Rosellini as a Russian woman in pained love with Hines (just the looks on her face of love and sympathy and pity and helplessness for Hines are so powerful and moving - I'll never forget them)-
the four are so very very fine together. Each TRULY seems the person they're portraying. If one were to see news photographs or a documentary about such characters - they would look this way, sound this way, move and speak and dress this way.
The dancing is very enjoyable to watch - and you really needn't be a fan of dance (I'm not) to marvel at it.
The only downside of the movie is that it takes these four fascinating and pained characters, and stuffs them into a somewhat formulaic action plot. I also found the music too heavy throughout - let there be silences as they contemplate their messy situations.
This is very well worth seeing.