THE DANCER
synopsis
1887. After the death of her gold prospector father, 25-year-old Marie-Louise leaves her life in the American West to join her mother in New York and pursue her heart’s dream – becoming an actress. One night on stage, becoming tangled in her long dress, she avoids falling by spinning the fabric in a graceful, magical gesture: the "Serpentine Dance" is born. The audience - shocked, then overwhelmed - calls out for more. Marie-Louise has become Loïe Fuller. She embarks on a new, hectic life, leaving New York, where imitators try to steal her radical innovations, for Paris. At the Folies Bergères, she dazzles the capital, and illustrious admirers fall at her feet. Toulouse Lautrec, the Lumière Brothers, Rodin… the Electric Fairy becomes an icon, the blazing symbol of a generation. But fame isn’t all. An encounter with the young, spellbinding Isadora Duncan will disrupt her turbulent love affair with Louis and her complex relationship with her devoted assistant Gabrielle, and risk the very essence of her art… Revolutionary genius of dance and impassioned artist, neither pain nor treachery can defeat her. Loïe Fuller is the heroine of an historical epic to which only cinema can do justice - the remarkable destiny of a modern woman who revolutionized her era. Based on a true story.
international title: | The Dancer |
original title: | La Danseuse |
country: | France, Belgium, Czech Republic |
sales agent: | Goodfellas |
year: | 2016 |
genre: | fiction |
directed by: | Stéphanie Di Giusto |
film run: | 112' |
release date: | FR 28/09/2016, IT 15/06/2017 |
screenplay: | Stéphanie Di Giusto, Sarah Thibau, Thomas Bidegain |
cast: | Mélanie Thierry, Gaspard Ulliel, François Damiens, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Lily-Rose Depp, Stéphanie Sokolinski a.k.a. Soko, Denis Ménochet |
cinematography by: | Benoît Debie |
art director: | Carlos Conti |
costumes designer: | Anaïs Romand |
producer: | Alain Attal |
production: | Les Productions du Trésor, Wild Bunch Production, Les Films du Fleuve, Sirena Film |
distributor: | Wild Bunch Distribution, Vértigo Films |