The Loves of Isadora
| Isadora | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Directed by | Karel Reisz |
| Produced by |
Raymond Hakim Robert Hakim |
| Written by |
Melvyn Bragg (adaptation & screenplay) Clive Exton (screenplay) Margaret Drabble (additional dialogue) Isadora Duncan (book, My Life) Sewell Stokes (book, Isadora Duncan: An Intimate Portrait |
| Starring |
Vanessa Redgrave James Fox Jason Robards Ivan Tchenko John Fraser |
| Music by |
Anthony Bowles (dance music) Maurice Jarre |
| Cinematography | Larry Pizer |
| Edited by | Tom Priestley |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
|
Release date
|
December 18, 1968 |
|
Running time
|
Original Version 168 Min Director's Cut 153 Min Edited Version 128 Min 131 Min |
| Country | UK / France |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.7 million |
| Box office | $1.25 million (US/ Canada rentals) |
Isadora (also known as The Loves of Isadora) is a 1968 biographical film which tells the story of celebrated American dancer Isadora Duncan. It stars Vanessa Redgrave, James Fox, and Jason Robards.
The film was adapted by Melvyn Bragg, Margaret Drabble, and Clive Exton from the books My Life by Isadora and Isadora, an Intimate Portrait by Sewell Stokes. It was directed by Karel Reisz.
It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress (Vanessa Redgrave). The film was also nominated for the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival, where Redgrave won Best Actress.
In 1927, Isadora Duncan has become a legend as the innovator of modern dance, a temperamental bohemian, and an outspoken advocate of free love. Now past 40, she lives in poverty in a small hotel on the French Riviera with her companion Mary Estelle Dempsey/Mary Desti (named only as Mary in the film) and her secretary Roger, to whom she is dictating her memoirs. As a young girl in California, Isadora first demonstrates her disdain for accepted social standards by burning her parents' marriage certificate and pledging her dedication to the pursuit of art and beauty. In 1896, she performs under the name of Peppy Dora in a rowdy music hall in Chicago and publicly embarrasses the theatre manager into paying her $300 so that she can take her family to England. Modeling her free-form style of dance and costume after Greek classicism, she rapidly acquires international acclaim.
In Berlin, she meets her first love, Gordon Craig, a young stage designer who promises her that together they will create a new world of theatre. After bearing the already-married Craig a daughter, Isadora moves to Paris and meets Paris Singer, a millionaire who lavishes gifts upon her and later buys her an enormous estate for her to open a School for Life, where only beauty and simplicity are taught.
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