I found by accident that YouTube now has the video of the Soviet docudrama "Anna Pavlova: A Woman for All Times," divided into 16 segments. The narration and dialogue are dubbed into English. Galina Baliaeva performs (and dances) the title role. The cast includes James Fox.

This link will get you to the menu: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_quer...2B+%22ballet%22 I don't know how long these things stay in place on YouTube, but I found that by typing in "anna pavlova" and "ballet".

All I've had time for so far was a brief glimpse at the first and 6th segments. The latter contains a performance of "Dying Swan" performed to a very bizarre over-orchestration of the music. The interpretation, however, was clearly based on the fascinating and powerful video -- also available on YouTube -- of Pavlova herself dancing the role.

I did not know that such a film existed. Has anyone seen it? What do you think about it?

Bart,

Your post made me, and I am quite pleased I spent the time, view the film. As someone with little knowledge of ballet and its history except what I am reading on BT, I found the film to be a wonderful picture of Ballet, politics and this remarkable woman of ballet. The dubbing made it hard to understand... or was it the poor sound quality in general? The sets and costumes in the film are wonderful as well and really set the mood beautifully for the romantic story or this real life queen of ballet.

Pavlova was remarkable and driven and danced non stop around the world for almost 3 decades until she succumbed to pnuemonia before the age of 50. Everything she did, she did it with style and panache. What a great dame of ballet. I thought the actress who played her was stunning.

I would recommend it to those who want to get a peak at that period in the early 20th century when Russia gave the world ballet in no small part through the efforts of Ms Pavlova and her impresario friends. You get to see Petipa, Chechetti, Diagalev, Najinsky Saint Sains to name a few who are so important to what ballet is today.

Her entire life and death was like one of the romantic characters we see on stage in opera or ballet and it makes for a good movie was well. (Martin Scorsese plays a part too.)

Anna Pavlova left her mark on millions of people, even those who never saw her dance. Thanks for the link... it made for a lovely night in front of the small screen.

Martin Scorsese as a guest star? Interesting!

It looks like this is movie called both Pavlova: a woman for all time and Anna Pavlova: a woman for all time. The following information is from WorldCat:

Filmed on location in Russia and England, this colorful and entertaining feature film re-creates in glorious detail the fascinating life story of the legendary ballerina Anna Pavlova.

Executive producer, Frixos Constantine ; written and directed by Emil Lotianou ; Western version supervised by Michael Powell. Starring Galina Beliaeva as Anna Pavlova, James Fox as Victor D'Andre, Martin Scorsese as Gatti-Cassaza, Roy Kinnear as the Gardener, and Bruce Forsyth as Alfred Batt.

Originally produced as a motion picture in 1983

Publisher: Kultur

ISBN: 0769721389; 9780769721385