Isadora Duncan

[Pamela Moberg]

Once a year the Swedish Broadcasting Corp. most graciously shows what they call "An entire evening of dance". This year it was worse than ever before. It started with an announcer who cheerfully proclaimed that "there will be no dancing on point and such stuff".

Indeed no...

The evening started with some Cullberg stuff - didnt see this but I suspected that it was the late Birgit herself who did something to Abba music (she was then about eighty something). Then followed a documentary (French) about Isadora Duncan which was like most French documentaries I have seen, both well researched and well made. Then some hip hop and modern stuff. The evening ended with the movie "Isadora". Now Vanessa Redgrave is a very competent actress, I dont deny her that, but the movie itself wasnt much. Anybody has views on this, anybody seen this movie?

Then, end of annual evening of dance. Switched off with a great feeling of disappointment.

[rg]

i don't know if it's ever been republished but Lincoln Kirstein wrote a letter to LIFE magazine in 1969 detailing his very favorable opinion of Redgrave's ISADORA.

[Mashinka]

Redgrave's Isadora came shortley after Ken Russell's TV film 'Isadora Duncan: the biggest dancer in the world' with Vivian Pickles in the title role and was inferior to the Russell version. Ken Russell made some wonderful TV films in his early career and I have fond memories of his films about Elgar and Debussy, not so keen on his later work on the big screen though.

[innopac]

The Biggest Dancer in the World / Dante's Inferno (1966)

"Controversial British director Ken Russell helms this pair of made-for-TV documentary films, including The Biggest Dancer in the World, a loving exploration of the colorful career of outspoken American dance star Isadora Duncan. Dante's Inferno is a close look at the stormy relationship between poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his chronically ill wife, Elizabeth Siddal. Vivian Pickles, Oliver Reed and Judith Paris star." This dvd is listed on netflix.

It is part of a 3 disc set called Ken Russell at the BBC (2008) which is for sale on Amazon.

I was disappointed -- both Duncan and Rossetti were larger than life but I would have preferred documentaries where one gains a greater understanding of the subject.