Worth: $13.00
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Cast:
Soko, Lily-Rose Depp, Gaspard Ulliel, Melanie Thierry
Intro:
...a solid period drama rather than an insightful biographical study...
In her first feature film, director Stephanie Di Giusto takes us from the wilds of Montana to fin de siecle Paris to tell the story of avant-garde French-American dancer, Loie Fuller (Soko) and her rivalry/relationship with Isadora Duncan (Lily-Rose Depp).
The problem, however, is that almost none of the events depicted in the film actually happened, Di Giusto having taken the broad strokes of Fuller’s actually rather fascinating life and used them as the parameters for a fairly rote story of artistic ambition and rivalry. That it works at all is down to some strong performances from the game cast, particularly a fully committed Soko, and a striking visual aesthetic courtesy of cinematographer Benoît Debie.
After the death of her ne’er-do-well father, the artistically-inclined Loie (actually Louise at this point, her more famous stage name being acquired later) is packed off to New York City to live with her strict, god-fearing mother (Amanda Plummer). There, she is drawn to the emerging vaudeville scene, finding an artistic outlet in free dance and a sponsor – of sorts – in the louche, ether-sniffing French Count Dorsay (Gaspard Ulliel).
Knowing that Paris is the place to be, Loie ups stumps, paying her way with a wad of cash lifted from the Count, and immerses herself in the Belle Époque art scene, developing her trademark dance routines involving coloured lights and acres of swirling fabric. Her determination to push the boundaries of dance as an artform drives her to incredible feats as well as incredible suffering as she puts her body through the wringer in search of perfection. However, waiting in the wings is Depp’s Duncan, a new member of Loie’s troupe who seems both a more effortlessly talented dancer and a more calculating operator, and whose ambition may outstrip Loie’s own.
So, while we don’t get any insight into such matters as Loie’s friendships with royalty, the way she inspired notables like Toulouse-Lautrec and Auguste Rodin, her central place in the development of art nouveau as a design aesthetic and so on, we do get endless scenes of her soaking her muscles in ice after another gruelling rehearsal, or almost blinding herself under the hot stage lights she herself designed (one thing the film does touch on is her scientific achievements; Fuller was, by any lights, a technical genius who revolutionised stage presentation). Di Giusto has certainly drilled down deep into one element of Fuller’s life, but in doing so has excised so much that it’s difficult to understand the motive behind such choices.
What we’re left with is a solid period drama rather than an insightful biographical study, and whether that’s a dealbreaker for you will probably depend almost entirely on your knowledge of the subject at hand. If you do want a more accurate look at Fuller’s life, her own memoir, Fifteen Years of a Dancer’s Life, is worth a look – but apparently not worth adapting for the screen.
I couldn’t stand the darkness in most scenes of the film, especially before Louise started performing.