The Diaries Of Vaslav Nijinsky

Australia's best known auteur revisits the mode of his Van Gogh cinematic portrait, Vincent, with this visual interpretation of extracts from Nijinsky's 1919 diaries, written shortly after his mental breakdown, read by Derek Jacobi and reinforced by music by Paul Grabowski, Cox's long-time collaborator.

Mixing a variety of visual material but more reverie than biopic or documentary in both style and content this will appeal principally to an audience familiar with Nijinsky and his cultural context, and especially to those interested in dance. It is less accessible than Vincent, partly, I suspect, because Nijinsky's dancing is less a part of our general cultural knowledge but also because tragedy aside (he died in institutionalised care in 1950, never having danced again after his 1919 breakdown and diagnosis as schizophrenic), Nijinsky's musing are in themselves relatively mundane. This film is as much about Cox's identification with the tortured artist as it is about Nijinsky and the film should only be considered within those parameters. Anyone coming to this film with conventional narrative expectations will be sorely tested.

 

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