ISADORA: Blu-ray (Universal, 1968) Kino Lorber

The unorthodox life of American-born interpretive dance sensation, Angela Isadora Duncan takes center stage in director, Karl Reisz's Isadora (1968) - a film that, not unlike the uniquely liberated Ms. Duncan, was not without its praise-worthy followers and critical detractors at the time of its release. Indeed, there appears to be no 'common ground' where Isadora Duncan is concerned. She was either beloved or reviled, considered a breakthrough artist of modern dance or a shameless charlatan whose free-form interpretations flew in the face of actual skill and ranged in consideration from the deliriously wild abandonment of youth to the pornographic. That she was to die, rather hideously, when the gossamer fabric of her scarf, billowing behind a convertible, suddenly caught in the spokes of the wheel to instantly snap her neck, added even more mystery to the already well-ensconced mystique of this renegade artiste. This, and, of course, that the self-proclaimed 'Red', to her last day, defied virtually every moral convention of her times, flouting beliefs in spiritual transcendentalism and celebrating her bisexuality when such behavior was not only considered avant garde, but virtually taboo for a man - much less a member of the fairer sex, still expected to be seen - decorously - but not heard. 

With Vanessa Redgrave as his star, another rebel from another time, Reisz's Isadora manages to capture much of Duncan's defiant flame, caught between ecstasy and agony for most of her adult life, while eschewing some of the particulars that made for, if not a grand entertainment, then most definitely, a life well-lived. In her lifetime, the real Isadora Duncan bore two children out of wedlock; the first, a daughter to theater designer, Gordon Craig, then another - a son - to Singer sewing machine magnet, Isaac Singer.  Tragically, both drowned in the care of their nanny in 1913 when the car they were in plummeted into the Seine River. Following the accident, Duncan retreated to Corfu for a much-needed rest, fueling rumors of a lesbian affair with feminist, Eleonora Duse. What is known, is Isadora implored Italian sculptor, Romano Romanelli to impregnate her. He obliged. Alas, their child was stillborn. After the Russian revolution, Duncan moved to Moscow, becoming involved in a romantic detente with acclaimed poet, Sergei Yesenin, 18-yrs. her junior. However, like everything else she touched, the happiness was short-lived, and, ended when Yesenin, already estranged from Duncan, committed suicide in St. Petersburg. Afterward, Duncan continued to embrace her hedonism, despite the controversy it stirred.

Indeed, everything about Isadora Duncan was larger than life, including her claim she had managed to trace dance to its sacred roots. Her inspiration derived from Greek influences, Duncan's departure from the conformity of traditional ballet led some to consider her as both amateurish and vulgar, though, by most accounts, her society debut was met with fascination and bewilderment from the critics. Her focus on natural movement earned Duncan the right to be considered the 'creator' of modern dance. In retrospect, she never strayed far from these youthful impressions, preferring fantasy to form and improvisation to time-honored techniques. Although she studied briefly with Marie Bonfanti, Duncan quickly tired of the fixed rigors and went her own way. Believing America was too provincial, she later moved to London where her ‘drawing room’ engagements drew big crowds. Buoyed by wealthy patrons, she rented a studio, traveled on to Paris, and, with notoriety accrued, made a tour of European capitals, proving an elixir to artists like Antoine Bourdelle, Auguste Rodin, Arnold Rönnebeck, and Abraham Walkowitz.

Despite her shameless self-promotion, Duncan despised the commercial aspects – touring and contracts - of public performance. Indeed, her only thought was for some divine self-expression. To this end, Duncan opened her first school in Berlin, her protégées to proliferate her legacy upon her death. She also became associated with occultist, Aleister Crowley who viewed her dancing as the ultimate expression of the ‘superb 'unconsciousness', and, French fashion designer, Paul Poiret, who gave a lavish party in her honor at the Pavillon du Butard in La Celle-Saint-Cloud. Returning to the U.S. to establish a school in Gramercy Park, Duncan was afforded all the pomp and circumstance of a great artist. Alas, her leftist sympathies became an anathema to her popularity, and she retreated to the Soviet Union. With a failed venture in Moscow behind her, Duncan begrudgingly returned to the West, bequeathing her school to one of her disciples. Alas, by now, age and destiny had begun to encroach upon her popularity. In the devil-may-care 1920’s, Duncan’s financial woes, scandalous affairs and drunkenness were met with indifference. She moved back and forth, from Paris to the Mediterranean, sinking deeper into debt and increasingly to become isolated from all but a dwindling troop of devout loyalists, some of whom had been with her from the beginning and now encouraged her to pen her memoirs. On the eve of her death, Duncan wore a magnificent silk scarf bequeathed to her by life-long companion, Mary Desti, the mother of American film director, Preston Sturges. According to reports, as the scarf became entangled in the wheel, it not only snapped Duncan’s neck, but hurled her from the open car onto the stone pavement. True to her unorthodox view of life, in death, Duncan was cremated, her ashes interred next to her children at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

As scripted by Melvyn Bragg, Clive Exton and Margaret Drabble, drawing inspiration from Duncan’s autobiography, ‘My Life’ and Sewell Stokes’s ‘Isadora Duncan: An Intimate Portrait’, Reisz’s picture stays close to the truth and begins in earnest in 1927, with Duncan already considered a legend in her own time. An oft volatile nonconformist, Duncan (luminously reincarnated by Vanessa Redgrave), now past 40, and impoverished, resides in a small hotel on the French Riviera with her companion, Mary (Cynthia Harris) and her secretary, Roger (John Fraser), to whom she is dictating her memoirs. We regress into the past - to California where Isadora first demonstrated her abject contempt for societal mores and manners by destroying her parent’s marriage certificate and pledging her life to ‘art and beauty’.  Under the stage name, Peppy Dora, Duncan goads a Chicago theater owner into paying her $300, money enough to take her family to England. Soon, her free-form dancing acquires an international reputation. In Berlin, she falls for married, Gordon Craig (James Fox), a stage designer who presents Duncan with new opportunities to promote her craft. After bearing him a daughter, Duncan departs for Paris and meets Isaac Singer (Jason Robards), a millionaire who lavishes her with an estate she transforms into her School of Life.

The two are inseparable and begin a torrid affair. For Singer, Duncan bears a son. Alas, upon their return to England, she becomes bored with motherhood and has an affair with her pianist, Armand (Christian Duvaleix). A short while later, both children are drowned and Duncan leaves Singer, aimlessly to wander through Europe until she receives an offer to start a dance school in the Soviet Union. Developing an affinity for the local peasantry, Duncan indulges in yet another affair with the poet, Sergei Essenin (Ivan Tchenko – a.k.a. Zvonimir Crnko) whom she weds so he can immigrate to the U.S. Alas, Essenin’s perverted notions of Western decadence creates anti-Bolshevist sentiment during a public conference, compounded when Duncan – in a deliberate attempt to shock and revile the patrons who have come to see her dance - bares her breasts during a recital in Boston. Separated from Essenin, Duncan retreats to Nice to pen her memoirs. Impulsively selling off her worldly goods to open a new school in Paris, Isadora retires to a local cafe to celebrate her victory over small-minded conservatism and spies a handsome Italian, Bugatti (Vladimir Leskovar) whom she has been admiring from afar for several days. Agreeing to accompany him in his sports car, as the couple prepare for what seems to be yet another routine episode in Duncan’s free-spirited grand amours, her billowing chiffon scarf is instead caught in the spokes of the wheel, strangling her to death. This gruesome episode is dealt with respectfully in the movie; the particulars, left to the imagination to fill in the blanks.

Isadora is largely memorable for Vanessa Redgrave’s unvarnished performance; the actress, perhaps, as liberated by her subject matter as she is by that mid-sixties’ rebellious nature she too carried like armor throughout her early career. While Redgrave bears no earthly resemblance to the real Isadora Duncan, retrospectively at least, one finds a kindred spirit in her unorthodox approach to life. The year of Isadora’s release, Redgrave was on the edge of divorcing her first husband, director, Tony Richardson and already romantically involved with Italian actor, Franco Nero whom she had costarred with in Camelot (1967). Like her alter ego, Redgrave would continue to defy convention, carrying on an affair with Timothy Dalton, and later, reconciling with Nero. Too, as Duncan, tragedy later marred Redgrave’s life as, within 14 months, she lost both her daughter, Natasha Richardson – felled by a brain injury (in March, 2009) – and her two siblings, Corin (in April, 2010) and Lynn (in May).

Isadora had its world premiere on Dec. 18, 1968, with a lavishly appointed 177-min. roadshow engagement at Loew's Hollywood. And while much praise was heaped upon Redgrave’s performance, many critics felt the picture was too long. Audiences agreed, and thus, the movie was recalled and shorn of 20-mins. before going into general release. Alas, even in its newly streamlined form, the picture failed to catch on. In Europe, Isadora debuted at 138-mins. In the U.S., it was further pared down to 122-mins. Nothing helped. In 1972, the movie was partially restored for its television premiere, NBC airing it over two nights where its run time registered at 168-mins. Viewed today, Isadora is mostly regarded for Redgrave’s one woman show; also, Jocelyn Herbert’s lavishly appointed production design, Larry Pizer’s sumptuous cinematography, and, Maurice Jarre’s plush orchestral score. Given the reputation the real Isadora Duncan enjoyed throughout her lifetime, the waning interest in her cinematic biography is likely owed to the changing times and tastes of movie-goers than any genuine fault of the picture. Indeed, by the late sixties, the verve for these immersive roadshow spectacles, evenly paced and expertly staged, had given way to a grittier form of story-telling, with audiences preferring it to the escapist fancies of yore. And Duncan’s hedonism, once considered scandalous, was, by the end of the sixties, nothing more than a footnote to all the sexual liberation since wrought by the ‘let it all hang out’ hippie/drug culture dedicated to free love. So, Isadora Duncan – trailblazer, legend, maverick, was now considered passé.  

Isadora arrives on Blu-ray via Kino Lorber’s alliance with Universal. The movie was earlier made available in hi-def in Europe in a ‘region free’ disc that unfortunately left much to be desired. This newly minted offering from Kino is therefore welcomed and preferred. Over the years, there have been multiple edits of the movie, and this disc represents yet another incarnation, running 140-mins. Difficult to say what’s missing as Karel Reisz's definitive director-approved cut that ran 153-mins. In comparing Kino’s release with the Euro-release both have the same run time.  Where Kino’s improves is in the 1080p transfer. Whereas the U.K. release marginally suffered from some light age-related dirt and debris, the Kino appears to have undergone some minor tweaking to eradicate these ravages of time. Color density and saturation throughout are excellent, and contrast is solid. A light smattering of grain looks indigenous to its source and fine details abound. Very nicely put together.  And the audio, 1.0 DTS mono – as released theatrically – is in excellent shape too. While the U.K. disc was a bare-bones offering, Kino has shelled out for a new audio commentary from filmmakers, Allan Arkush and Daniel Kremer. This pair are passionate about the movie and in their discussions, offer some insightful glimpses into the making of the movie. Bottom line: a worth-while release.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

3.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

5

EXTRAS

1