French singer Soko and Lily-Rose Depp star in this exquisitely dressed, spectacularly danced drama inspired by the true story of two rival pioneers of modern dance in late 19th-century Paris.
This gorgeously mounted Belle Epoque drama presents a fictionalised account of the rise and fall of Loïe Fuller, the American-born pioneer of modern dance (and theatrical lighting design) whose ‘serpentine dance’ took Paris and then the world by storm. French singer-songwriter Soko plays the dancer, opposite Gaspard Ulliel, with Lily-Rose Depp, the daughter of Vanessa Paradis and Johnny Depp, as her friend and rival Isadora Duncan.
First-time director Stéphanie Di Giusto turns these sequences into feats of electrifying elegance aided by artful production design, textured costuming, and fluent cinematography…
Soko has both the willful masculinity and a feminine vulnerability down. Playing Louis, Ulliel is his usual charismatic self, exuding an effortless, pansexual allure… And though she only appears later in the film, Depp positively dazzles as Isadora. With her elfin litheness and an almost contemptuous self-assuredness, she owns the screen during every appearance." - Zhuo-Ning Su, The Film Stage
