The Ice King (2018)

[Dr. Jenn]

That looks amazing! Thanks for sharing the link. I hadn't heard about the movie before.

Here is the homepage for the movie (which can be watched online): https://www.theicekingmovie.com/

Here is an article (from The Guardian) about it: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...ng-skating-star-bittersweet-life-story-icarus

 

[Ladskater]

No but I saw another documentary about the great Donald Jackson, titled "King of Blades" It's a little dated but fun to watch.

https://www.nfb.ca/film/king_of_blades/

 

[itsallok]

Yes I've seen it - it had a brief showing in the UK - loved it. By good fortune there is some early video of John as a child, and of his ice shows. Quite astonishing, the idea that ice shows with live orchestra in theatre will ever be financially viable, so probably something that will never ever happen again. Recommended.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Just bumping this thread up to let you know that “The Ice King” will be shown TONIGHT from 22:00 – 23:25 BST (21:00 – 22:25 GMT) on BBC4.


BBC (All times BST)

Monday 9[SUP]th[/SUP] July 2018
BBC4 22:00 – 23:25 John Curry: The Ice King – Storyville


BBC4 (i.e. Standard Definition) is available via:

Digital terrestrial (UK only): Ch. 9 on Freeview
Digital cable (UK only): Ch. 107 on Virgin Media
Digital cable (Ireland only): Ch. 117 on UPC Ireland
Digital satellite (Europe): Ch. 116 (UK) / 143 (IRE) on SkyDigital

Astra 28.2E, Transponder 45 (10.773H. MBaud 22,000. FEC 5/6).​

BBC4 HD is available via:

Digital terrestrial (UK only): Ch. 106 on Freeview
Digital cable (UK only): Ch. 163 on Virgin Media
Digital satellite (Europe): Ch. 815 (UK) / 833 (IRE) on SkyDigital

Astra 28.2E, Transponder 61 (11.024H. MBaud 23,000. FEC 2/3).​

PLEASE NOTE: Channel numbers on SkyDigital changed at the start of May 2018. So, the numbers are not the same now as they were during the Olympics.


Really looking forward to watching this.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[sadya]

Thank you so much for sharing! I can't believe I'm going to watch it tonight!

 

[TontoK]

In some ways, despite the differences in their individual styles, Toller Cranston and John Curry are peas in a pod.

That's because they actually HAD individual style, in an era when artistic flair and innovation among men was pretty rare.

It's also worth noting that Toller beat Curry in the Olympic Short Program.

I vaguely remember that Curry was outed in the tabloids immediately following his Olympic win.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Starts in 1 hour from now.

As is often the case with the BBC, it is NOT being repeated on their lienar channels (well, not within the next week anyway). However, it should be available for 30 days sometime afterwards on the following link:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b9zrhb

It is already available on Sky as part of their Buy or Rent service on Sky Store.

Hope this helps

CaroLiza_fan

 

[sadya]

Well, being ready yesterday to watch, it turned out we don't have BBC4 here in the Netherlands anymore. I will buy the dvd one day.

 

[LadyB]

It's also worth noting that Toller beat Curry in the Olympic Short Program.

Thank you for highlighting that.
I watched the docu with great interest and I won't deny that Curry was special. But I remember that night of the Olympics as a child. I was a mega Toller fan and I always will be. Toller will always have the edge for me. :luv17:

 

[TontoK]

Thank you for highlighting that.
I watched the docu with great interest and I won't deny that Curry was special. But I remember that night of the Olympics as a child. I was a mega Toller fan and I always will be. Toller will always have the edge for me. :luv17:

Your post has given me reason to think. My deep admiration of Curry is based on one performance - his Olympic Long. I suppose it's because it was my first exposure to this sport I love. Going back over his other programs, I still admire him... but it's not the same level as that one performance.

In particular, some of his professional skating is a bit too... something... for me, although I appreciate the innovation he brought to skating.

Toller was just a blast every time he stepped onto the ice.

 

[el henry]

Thank you for highlighting that.
I watched the docu with great interest and I won't deny that Curry was special. But I remember that night of the Olympics as a child. I was a mega Toller fan and I always will be. Toller will always have the edge for me. :luv17:

Ahhh, a fellow Toller fan:thumbsup: once football season starts (my football, that is ) I will change my avatar and the tag line back to “Still fangirling for Toller”, which it was three years on GS.

At the time, I was too much of a fangirl to appreciate Curry’s skating. Toller was not at his best (not at his worst) in the 76 Olys and barely got bronze. Given how Toller challenged the preconceptions of skating as something proper gentleman in tuxes did while jumping, it’s a wonder he medaled at all. But still, I resented anyone who beat him.

Now I appreciate Curry much more, see how wonderful those Olys were for men, and wish we could see the doc here in the US.

 

[sadya]

‘We were opposites – John hated skating showbiz’ : Dancing on Ice’s Robin Cousins remembers his skating hero John Curry

https://www.radiotimes.com/news/201...n-ice-john-curry-bbc4-storyville-documentary/

“It all came together for John in Innsbruck,” explains Cousins, now 60. “Like him, I wanted to do something different from everyone else – but John’s ethos was purely aesthetic dance perfection. He loved the perfect line, the perfect jump, and it made him mesmerising to watch. “Everything was so precise, and yet there was such freedom in that performance. It was balletic and beautiful, but I still find it a very masculine performance – his aura and command. Every performance of John’s was a statement.”

“John and I were absolute opposites. I lived for the spotlight, I loved the frivolity and the showbiz of skating. John hated all that. He was interested only in the pure aesthetic value he could bring to skating as a form of dance. He never understood why I left ballet behind to skate, when he only became a skater because his father would not allow him to do ballet. “But I learned so much from watching him. Being on the same training ice in Innsbruck gave me an insight into how he coped with the pressure of being the favourite. It helped me four years later.”

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Right, I taped “The Ice King” on Monday night and watched it yesterday afternoon. And it was really interesting.

I have to admit that I was disappointed with the start of the programme. When setting the scene, they didn’t go as much into John’s early life as I would have expected for a documentary about somebody. And although they had a couple of contributions from his Mum later in the programme, I was surprised that they didn’t when talking about his early life. (It could be that Rita wasn’t comfortable talking about it. But it could also simply be that the programme makers just didn’t get as far as filming that part before she died in 2016).

I did find some of the attitudes from the time interesting. For example, ballet dancing was not acceptable for a boy; but figure skating was because it had a competitive element to it and so could be passed off as sport.

And about when John was getting more of a grown-up physique, he was told to stop doing cutesy things that entertained the audience, and start to be more serious and “manly”.

The programme then started featuring a lot on his relationship with Heinz Wirz. To the extent that I was starting to think “is this programme just going to be about John’s personal life?”

But, after this, it was nearly all skating. With personal bits interspersed.

There was a very interesting point where they showed a feature where John Curry was dissecting Donald Jackson’s “Habanera” programme, and showing us how he would have done it. And the contrast between the two styles was like chalk and cheese. With Jackson, he seemed to be quite wooden, because he was concentrating so hard on getting things technically perfect. But with Curry, what he was doing was more flowing and natural, and recognisable as the beginnings of what we are used to seeing today.

Given the discussions in this thread, I was surprised that Toller Cranston wasn’t even mentioned at this point. It would have been nice if the programme had explored what John’s peers were doing at the same time.

When they were showing his “Don Quixote” FS from the 1975–1976 season, my head was obviously making comparisons with Alina Zagitova’s FS to the same music from this season. And although he wasn’t fitting in quite as many jumps in the same short space of time as Zagitova was, you could see similarities between the two programmes.

I did find it strange that they didn’t go into more detail about his competitive career. After all, as my Mum said, that is where most people would have known him from.

Instead, the focus was more on his professional career. And it was very interesting. Especially seeing the footage of him in the shows.

There was one point where they were talking about a show he had put on in the Royal Albert Hall. Now, this show was full of problems, due to them not being able to get enough ice to properly make the temporary rink. But, the think that struck me was the sheer numbers of people in the audience. Like, I am used to seeing the Royal Albert Hall packed to the rafters during the BBC Proms. But, it was packed to the rafters for John Curry’s show too! (Well, apart from the floor, as that was where the rink was). This was a real visual representation of how popular figure skating was in those days.

A bit earlier in the programme, they were talking about the shows at a temporary rink he had put into the Cambridge Theatre in London in the early days of his company. And they showed a clip of him and a female skater wearing a blue dress and I exclaimed “there’s Lorna!” straight away. I swear, Lorna Brown has barely changed in the past 40 years! She’s got her hair a different colour now, but that’s about it. She hasn’t aged at all in that time!

Lorna was one of the people who were providing short comments during the programme. And this was one thing I didn’t like about it. They didn’t show the people talking – it was just their voices, with a name graphic on screen for a few seconds at the start. This made it very difficult to keep track of who was speaking. Especially when they were jumping back and forth between 2 people in a short space of time, and not putting the names back up each time they spoke.

And it was especially confusing at the very start of the programme (before the titles) when they didn’t have graphics up at all when people were talking. I recognised Jonny Weir’s voice, but as for the others, I hadn’t a clue who they were. Speaking of Jonny, he didn’t re-appear until the last few minutes. And they did show him on screen. But, I was very disappointed that they didn’t make more use of Dick Button. I would have loved to have heard his views about John’s skating. But, they only included a couple of short snippets from him.

Just as I was disappointed with the part where they were talking about his early life, I was disappointed with the part where they were talking about the period before his death. It was barely touched on. I thought they could have done that part better.

Altogether, it was a very interesting programme. Especially for somebody like me who was not around at the time and has only heard stories about him from other people.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[merrywidow]

Dick Button adored & admired John's balletic skating style & so did I. I, also, was a fan of Toller's. One was very classical & the other extremely innovative. Was there no mention of John bringing his troupe to the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in NYC? IIRC, it was sold out.

 

[sadya]

The opinions of Dick Button about John Curry:

https://twitter.com/PushDicksButton/status/964690068966436864

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djadlQLK_ow

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Dick Button adored & admired John's balletic skating style & so did I. I, also, was a fan of Toller's. One was very classical & the other extremely innovative. Was there no mention of John bringing his troupe to the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in NYC? IIRC, it was sold out.

Thanks for that. I had a feeling Dick would have liked him a lot, but we just didn't get to hear a lot from him.

Don't worry, New York was featured. And they even made a point of mentioning that it sold out straight away.

Sorry that I didn't include it in my review. I didn't want to go overboard in what I was writing, like I have done in the past. (Plus, I was in a bit of a tight schedule when I was writing the review yesterday morning, as I was going to a funeral).

CaroLiza_fan

 

[Miller]

Just watched this on BBC4, Storyville documentary strand. Terrifc stuff. Don't know how the rest of the world can see it. but it's on BBC iPlayer for the next 3 weeks or so. Well worth watching if you can somehow watch it some time (it's 1 hr 20 mins BTW).

Also the previous week there was the related 'Olympic Dreams of Russian Gold - Over the Limit', the story of Margarita Mamun in the run up to the 2016 Olympics - there was a thread on here 2 or 3 months ago comparing and contrasting her to Alina Zagitova and it really is interesting stuff - 'Ms Irina' makes Eteri look like a pussycat!

Yet again well worth watching if you can somehow watch it, and an amazing/fascinating insight into the world of Russian rhythmic gymnastics.

 

[likevelvet]

I really want to. But I'm in the US and it's blocked here :/ Once I get off my butt and pay for my VPN for the skating season, I'll tunnel into GB to view it.. lol.

I'm glad to hear from others that it's good. Looks very inspiring. I don't know much about him.

 

[MGstyle]

Is there a site where I can download the film or purchase a DVD from outside UK? Amazon Prime only accepts an account from UK, and I draw a blank from Emule. What else...??

 

[Tavi...]

Is there a site where I can download the film or purchase a DVD from outside UK? Amazon Prime only accepts an account from UK, and I draw a blank from Emule. What else...??

It’s available for purchase as a dvd on eBay, though you’d have to check whether it’s the right format. Since you can pay using PayPal, you could probably fund your PayPal with a non UK credit card. It also looks like it’s available on Amazon EU through third party sellers, but not sure how payment works.