The Turning Point

A film set in the world of ballet. Deedee gave up dancing years ago. When she became pregnant she left the stage, settled in Oklahoma, opened a ballet school and raised three children. Emma stayed; today she is one of the best known ballerinas in the country. The company comes to Deedee's city on tour. The two old friends meet after years. At the same time Deedee's daughter Emilia is taken into the company and goes to New York. She continues from where her mother stopped and grows up beside Emma. The question at the centre is which of them chose right. Does Deedee regret leaving her career, or Emma not having children. The narrative brings it out openly in one scene of confrontation. The dance sections were filmed with real dancers and the stage footage is shown without cutting. Shirley MacLaine plays Deedee, Anne Bancroft plays Emma and Leslie Browne plays Emilia. Tom Skerritt is in the cast and Mikhail Baryshnikov appears in a film for the first time. Herbert Ross directed. The film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won none; the number stands as one of the largest empty returns in the Academy's history. A solid production for anyone who likes the ballet world and reckonings between two women. For a viewer with no taste for melodrama, the film keeps the emotion high.