Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq

A spooky, heartbreaking documentary.

Strangely haunting, often heartbreaking.

Afternoon of a Faun offers privileged glimpses of Le Clercq's life.

Buirski clearly shows that the spark that made her great couldn't be snuffed out so easily.

What’s most fascinating about Afternoon of a Faun — and what the movie could spend more time delving into — is ballet’s grueling and fleeting nature.

The movie is unusual for its absence of gossip. Instead it offers hardheaded commentary about the rigors of a dancer’s life and how everyone who chooses a dance career is aware of its brevity.

Watching De Clercq dance is not only what Nancy Buirski’s uneven documentary does to best effect, it helps you understand the movie’s otherwise restrictive emphasis on the men who became obsessed by her, primarily her discoverer and husband George Balanchine and the dancer/choreographer Jerome Robbins.