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The Turning Point
original movie poster
Directed by	Herbert Ross
Produced by	Arthur Laurents Herbert Ross Nora Kaye
Written by	Arthur Laurents
Starring	Shirley MacLaine Anne Bancroft Tom Skerritt Mikhail Baryshnikov Leslie Browne
Cinematography	Robert Surtees
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	November 14, 1977
Running time	119 min.
IMDb profile

The Turning Point (1977) was written by Arthur Laurents and directed by Herbert Ross. In starring roles were Shirley MacLaine, Anne Bancroft, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Leslie Browne, Tom Skerritt, Martha Scott, Anthony Zerbe, Marshall Thompson and James Mitchell.

This film tells the story of two women who were childhood friends formerly competitors in the world of ballet, and met again when the daughter of the woman who left ballet to raise a family decided that she wanted to join the American Ballet Company.

DeeDee (Shirley MacLaine), the woman who left ballet after getting pregnant to her boyfriend, another ballet dancer, Wayne (Tom Skerritt). The two settled down to raise a family and co-run a ballet studio in their Midwestern one-horse town. Emma (Anne Bancroft), an old friend of DeeDee's, who stayed in the company to become a prima ballerina. When the company finally comes back to town, the two reunite and it stirrs back old memories and present ever-growing wounds.

DeeDee's daughter, Emilia (Leslie Browne) is invited to join the company at Emma's request and starts an affair with a big-name Russian ballet defector (Mikhail Baryshnikov). Emma's brother Ethan is offered two scholarships in ballet, but is unsure to pursue a career between ballet and baseball. And an old male friend of DeeDee's is getting to know her all over again as well and we find out he's had his eye on her back then. Meanwhile, it looks as if Emma's day in the sun is coming to an end. Dancers don't have an old-timers day. And a married man she's having an affair with.

It was nominated for 11 Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Mikhail Baryshnikov), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Anne Bancroft), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Shirley MacLaine), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Leslie Browne), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Picture, Best Sound, and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Despite these 11 nominations, the film won no Oscars. Thus, along with The Color Purple, it shares the dubious distinction of receiving the most Oscar nominations without any awards.

• The title is a pun, referring to that moment in life where everything turns and changes and you must take a new path in life when you come to the cross-roads and the piroutte step in ballet.

• The film's ballet company is based on the American Ballet Theatre (which supplied the corps de ballet). Many of the principals and production team were affiliated with ABT in some form: Baryshnikov and Browne were both members of the company at the time of filming; director Ross choreographed for the company in the 1950s; executive producer (and Ross' wife) Nora Kaye was one of its most famous principal dancers; and Mitchell was a frequent guest soloist (and one of Kaye's dancing partners) during the 1950s.

• The rivalry between the main characters, Deedee and Emma, is loosely based on the relationship between Kaye and Browne's mother, Isabel Brown, while the artistic director, Michael, is an amalgam of Jerome Robbins and Oliver Smith (Lawrence 430).

• Much to writer Arthur Laurents' exasperation, Ross deleted Michael's gay relationship with the company's ballet master, although a brief reference to his sexuality remains in the film (Russo 227).

In an episode of The Nanny, Fran references the film by saying: "This is like that movie 'The Turning Point', only they were dancers and one was the mother and they were old friends... I should really rent that again."

• Lawrence, Greg. Dance with Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins. New York: Putnam, 2001. ISBN 0-399-14652-0.
• Russo, Vito. The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies. New York: Harper, 1987. ISBN 0-06-096132-5.

• The Turning Point at the Internet Movie Database