Isadora (1968) User Reviews (20)

The scarves of Isadora

[jotix100 · 7/10 · 9 August 2008]

The bigger than life Isadora Duncan, a dancing legend, is the focus of this film. "Isadora", which came out in 1968, came and went without much fanfare. The opportunity to watch it again came when it was shown on a cable network recently. The main attraction is Vanessa Redgrave's take in the subject matter.

The biopic, directed by Karel Reisz, follows aspects of Ms. Duncan's life. One thing comes across: she was a woman ahead of her time! Her disregard for classical dance made her famous, although as shown in the film, one wonders what liberties the filmmakers took in Ms. Redgrave's renditions of works created by the famous artist.

Another thing that is clearly evident in the movie is the unhappy life of Isadora. She had no luck with anyone of her lovers. The most famous one was Paris Singer, the son of an American millionaire which ended tragically as their son and her daughter with another man drowned, something that weighed heavily on this tormented woman.

Vanessa Redgrave at the height of her beauty was magnificent in her interpretation of the troubled Isadora. Jason Robards is seen as Paris Singer, the American heir that fell in love with the dancer, but didn't seem to have much in common with her.

Redgrave is simply stunning.

[MOscarbradley · 7/10 · 1 June 2020]

One of the better biopics thanks in large part to a stunning performance from Vanessa Redgrave in the title role of "Isadora" and meticulous direction from Karel Reisz who obviously knew what he was doing and displayed an obvious affection for his subject. It's intelligent and it looks great and there's a fine supporting cast so with all this going for it why does it feel like a very high-class soap opera? Perhaps because all biopics can finally do nothing but reduce their subject's lives to a series of melodramatic incidents or 'highlights'. Perhaps because most famous people's lives are dull most of the time and it's only the melodramatic incidents that people are interested in. This one spins out a series of dances, (very well recreated by Redgrave), and romantic encounters with sufficient aplomb to give it an edge over most biopics. It isn't quite in the same class as Ken Russell's shorter, rawer television version but it comes close.

A muse of grace and fire named Isadora...

[ElMaruecan82 · 8/10 · 31 May 2022]

As I'm about to write this review for Karel Reisz' "Isadora", my writing is like held back by a thought I didn't see coming: "why am I doing this anyway?". What chances are for that review to be read by ten users this year?

I have watched the film and thoroughly enjoyed it, and it has a great deal to do with the magnificent performance of Vanessa Redgrave as the iconic dancer, in fact "Mother of Dance" as she was nicknamed, Isadora Duncan. And that Redgrave was five or six inches taller than the original model made me even more drawn to her dancing moments for I think there's nothing more graceful than a tall woman, let alone one who's dancing barefoot. Sorry for expanding on fetish territory but if anything the film made me realize that it's the little guilty sparks that ignite the most fiery passions.

And while we're on confessing little secrets, I have to say that morbid curiosity also brought me here. Many years ago, my aunt told me about a film where a woman had her scarf struck in the wheel of a car and had her neck instantly snapped. In these days there was no Google or internet therefore no way to get such an information. And as I was following the story, I kept anticipating the tragic moment, that pivotal second when the scarf would be caught in the spoke... just like the shower scene in Claude François' biopic. Some celebrities are so iconic that even their death had to reflect a certain uniqueness. As if a free-spirited, volatile and ahead-of-her-time woman couldn't afford dying peacefully in her seventies.

It's interesting that the film tries to embody Isadora's 'modernity' by not following the classical by-the-book structure and indulge to surrealistic juxtaposition between her dancing and some pivotal life moments but overall this is a rather classic biopic whose main asset is the performance of Redgrave as the eccentric, temperamental -but damned if she's not true to herself- artist. We see her as a woman advocating free love whose establishing moment as a child consists of burning her parents' marriage certification while pledging her total dedication to her art, then the film is a series of back-and-forth between the impoverished bohemian lifestyle in her late forties in French Riviera and her rise to stardom then her scandal-driven fall, the men she loved and had children with and the tragedies that took away her children from her.

Of course, there's s a good deal of dancing but don't expect "The Red Shoes", the film is more about a woman so much inhabited by her passion that she's many steps ahead of the people who share her life. And if a minority can still label her as brilliant or at the very least avant-garde, for the majority of people, there's one word that can describe her: insane. And I don't think she would have ever rejected that word.

How could someone who modeled her style from Greek classicism and dress as if she was one of Apollo's muses not be insane? Art is timeless and conformism implies a true obedience to the mores and trends of your time. Isadora couldn't care less if she married a Bolchevik when the anti-Communist sentiment began to rise or if she bared her breasts during a recital in Boston or if she shared her life with a companion of female persuasion (Cynthia Harris), even in the roaring twenties, I don't think it was pretty common. Isadora's life is such a hymn to liberty and to the Russian-Occidental friendship I'm surprised the film underperformed despite its release in 1968.

It is possible that the descent into madness was accelerated by the death of her children and the leitmotif of the 'car' is a bit overplayed. But there's an interesting pattern in the men she loved. Stage designer Gordon Craig (James Fox) was so flamboyant and confident he literally had Isadora at 'hello', she would bear his child out of wedlock. Then came the second, sewing machine tycoon Paris Singer (Jason Robards) who'd win her the instant he threw his ex-wife from a party (a stunt more efficient than the jewelry he offered and she sold right away). In all logic, she would compromise the boring comfort of her marital life by succumbing to the advances of a repulsive pianist. Finally, there was the Soviet poet Sergei Essenin (Zvonimir Crnko) with whom she'd endure a destructively passionate and vodka-soaked romance

Isadora embraces the foolishness of men who dares to follow their guts and so being with Isadora is also like being saddled on a horse called unpredictability. On that level, I truly fell in love for the statuesque Redgrave... and her performance is simply a mixture of joy and madness proportional to her devastation after the loss of her children. I was less convinced by her portrayal as the fifty-years has-been not because of her acting but because she couldn't be made convincingly ugly like that. But I did enjoy one exchange with a cocky Englishmen who complimented her by saying his mother thought she was great. Redgrave's facial reaction is priceless.

So, why the review? Maybe because there's something on a microcosmic level that maintains my own flame for movies and my irrational exploration of Oscar-nominated performances... much more I love and respect the actress and what a sad irony that she had to experience the loss of a child just like her own character.

The film isn't about dancing, but about giving, sharing, making your life worthwhile to you and those who count, and as I'm concluding the review, I can't get off my mind that beautiful communion with her audience in Russia under the frenetic and infectious rhythm of the Kalinka and Isadora like the new muse of the revolution, with her red dress ... her beautiful smile... and naturally, her bare feet...

Isadora Dancin'

[ptb-8 · 6 March 2005]

ISADORA is one of those exquisitely produced big studio films of the late 60s that had a major release for 3 months and then vanished off the face of the earth forever. Some other titles this seemed to have happen to are; YOUNG WINSTON, NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA, MONTECARLO OR BUST (the other "Great Race" movie), STAR!, MAROONED, FINIANS RAINBOW, ON A CLEAR DAY, DARLING LILI....all presented in 70mm as souvenir ticket presentations in luxury cinemas of the time and then.....rarely revived or screened but also never forgotten, because so many people apparently saw them and remember them from this one major release. ISADORA may have been more financially successful than some mentioned above and it did have a huge impact on the beautiful Art Nouveau decor revival of the 60s (Art Deco ate the 70s..or vice versa). The look for the film was a sensation and the impact on teenage girls and their mothers was undeniable, all having a huge impact on free form ballet classes (nymphs and Grecian urns and veils) so hilariously satirized in THE BOYFRIEND in 1972. Vanessa Redgrave is synonymous with this role and one yearns for a cinema presentation of this extraordinary 20s icon now in 2005. I don't remember the film being overly criticized in 1968, it was a hit and respected for its tragic story and superb art direction. Several docos appeared on TV (one even being directed by Ken Russell) and there was quite a celebration of all things ISADORA and Vanessa in that year. But none since.

"Like all artists, I'm a true revolutionary."

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 4 July 2017]

Showy but empty biography of internationally-acclaimed modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan (1877-1927), played by Oscar-nominated Vanessa Redgrave. This scrapbook of memories directed by Karel Reisz attempts to pass off Isadora as an Auntie Mame in her later years (by way of Paris and San Francisco), given to gaily eccentric behavior which would lead to her demise. The film was advertised in the US as "The Loves of Isadora", shrewdly shifting the emphasis from Isadora herself to the men in her life (anything to bring audiences in); however, one might be tempted to say the movie follows suit, as Isadora's lovers--Paris Singer (Jason Robards), Gordon Craig (James Fox) and Sergey Esenin (Ivan Tchenko)--are portrayed as the fuel to her fire. This angle might have worked in a romantic-drama context were it not for the prologue which features a 12-year-old Isadora vowing allegiance to her art over love. Redgrave is neither American nor a dancer--and she can't imitate either (her exaggerated American accent has a monotone twang, as if she were speaking English phonetically). While the actress is certainly lovely--and, in performance, her long arms are eloquent and expressive--one can immediately tell director Reisz is protecting his star with the editing. The film looks beautiful, but it isn't beautifully realized. It's tumultuous and melodramatic and volatile, but there must have been more to Isadora Duncan than her craving for male companionship and her affection for the Soviets. When she's in a man's arms, staring into his eyes, it's fitting that Reisz should intercut shots of Isadora dancing alone on a bare stage, photographed from above. But when that romance is over, the filmmaker takes his diva right along into the arms of another man. A batty Isadora in her late forties complains aloud of being betrayed, while this picture--ostensibly about her--is the ironic response. **1/2 from ****

A sensitive and balanced homage by Redgrave (and her hair)

[stjohn-lorca · 7/10 · 5 June 2022]

Biopic of the iconoclastic dancer Isadora Duncan. Set in the last year of her life in the South of France, with flashbacks to her earlier years, each focusing on a different lover (but by no means all of them, and a little disappointing that the mores of the time probably prevented portrayal of her homosexual relationships).

I have known about this film since I saw as a kid the famous still of the accident that caused her death, and have wanted to see it ever since. Even more so when I found out that she was married to Russian poet Sergei Esenin.

I adore Vanessa Redgrave, and with two reservations - that she doesn't really look much like Duncan (while being characteristically gorgeous and watchable) and her unconvincing American accent - she gives a wrenching and believable performance as the histrionic dancer whose grip on reality becomes increasingly tenuous as tragedies and disappointments accumulate. It would have been so easy to overplay this role, but Redgrave gives it just the right touch of passion and neurosis without ever descending into melodrama.

I know nothing about dance, but Redgrave's dancing performances totally convinced me, and for that alone she deserved her Oscar nomination. It must have taken an incredible amount of work and preparation from her, in addition to learning dialogue in convincingly accented French, German and Russian.

In many of her movies, Redgrave's hair is a character on its own, and this one is no exception. I think that that was one of the things that didn't gel for me in the movie: as beautiful as it is, it became intrusive. I think she was cast partly on the basis of her glorious mane aside from her acting talent, but it is superfluous to the action and it doesn't fit with my idea of Isadora Duncan.

Despite its weaknesses as a big-budget, big-name movie of its time, it still deserves to be more widely known and viewed.

Vanessa Redgrave triumphs as "Isadora"

[mfbruck1 · 10/10 · 5 February 2011]

Why this excellent film is not available on DVD is beyond me. I just recently watched the film on an old VHS tape borrowed from the library. It was well worn and faded, but I was riveted by the amazing performance of Vanessa Redgrave as the famous dancer Isadora Duncan. I would love to see the original 168 minute film released (I viewed a cut version) in all it's intended glory. Ms. Redgrave was nominated in 1968 for her role in this film, but lost to Barbra Streisand and Katherine Hepburn. It was obviously a very strong category that year for best actress. However, this performance by Ms. Redgrave should be available to see today on Blu Ray. In my opinion, it is not to be missed. Film fans take note! If you have not seen this film, search it out. Check your local library for the VHS tape if you still have a VCR for it is well worth viewing the wonderful performance by the legendary Vanessa Redgrave.

Freedom of Vanessa

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 24 August 2021]

It's biopic of famed dancer Isadora Duncan (Vanessa Redgrave) who lived from 1877 to 1927. Most of this is a bit low intensity despite the freeing performance of Redgrave. She is the star and the sun of the show. The intensity picks up with the Soviet part of her life. It's really the only major drama that she faces. Before that, her life has a lot of loves and life but it's not the highest of drama. The Soviet part is really interesting and I think the movie could have centered around that. Let's face it. This is all about Vanessa Redgrave. This is a compelling watch for her performance.

A Vanessa Redgrave Essential

[JLRMovieReviews · 10/10 · 29 April 2014]

The life of Isadora Duncan, a famed artist and dancer of the 1900s to the 1920s, is explored in this film. She is embodied by actress Vanessa Redgrave and it is a match made in heaven. Vanessa wears the cloth of Isadora like a wrap, gracefully but with firm determination. We see Isadora in present day - 1927 - and also in flashbacks that show how she came into prominence. Isadora's presence and personality draws the viewer in as she herself tends to withdraw. You feel her movements throughout the film as being small but meaningful and her breaths are but wisps. Lilts. Tips. Vanessa as Isadora is hardly trying to emphasize any one thing and therefore makes the film an experience in feeling everything. A lightness permeates the film, along with the symbolism of the man driving the car that almost hit her, of whom she searches for thereafter. She does have men in her life - James Fox and Jason Robards, who's a millionaire of the Singer sewing machines empire. But they are only secondary to Vanessa. A mysteriousness and sadness encircle the life we are witnessing through losses, fights, and political views. Take in the life of Isadora - the passion, the impractical, the flighty, the will. She might be her own undoing, but she was Isadora Duncan.

Free Spirit, strung up without a fair trial, but whodunnit ?

[arthurcrown · 7/10 · 16 March 2019]

Karel Reisz's film of Melvin Bragg's telling screenplay explores and portrays the incredible life of Angela Isadora Duncan.

Vanessa Redgrave stars as the daughter of a bank fraudster from San Francisco, whose first step to sexual and artistic emancipation was to ceremonially burn her parents' marriage certificate.

We see in the film a woman who after a faltering start as an ambitious caterpillar is tranformed into glorious and irridescent butterfly who promotes and innovates a wholly new approach to dance and art in general.

Fortuitous meetings with Gordon Craig (James Fox) - an artistic soul mate; and Paris Singer (Jason Robards) a financial supporter and father of her second child.

A life less ordinary. You couldn't make it up !

A VERY long one woman show...

[JasparLamarCrabb · 5/10 · 9 January 2006]

Vanessa Redgrave's ferocious performance dominates this mostly well-mounted but unduly long biography of "modern" dancer Isadora Duncan. So overpowering is Redgrave's performance, it's difficult to recall anything about ISADORA except for her fluttering around. At times she comes off like a turn of the century Stevie Nicks, with her wild hair and layers of flowing dresses. We see Duncan scandalize society on both sides of the Atlantic and then conquer Russia. Along the way she gets involved with every man she meets including Jason Robards as heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune. Redgrave clearly throws herself into the part body and soul, although the make-up used to age her is garish. The flashy, time-bending direction by Karel Reisz helps make the film more enjoyable than it otherwise would be and the ending is a stunner even if you know what happened to Duncan.

Under-appreciated director, and undervalued screenplay,

[Swifttraveler · 9/10 · 14 August 2006]

Over the past weekend, I viewed a VHS of Isadora. Throughout the movie (and I assume this was in the script), the motif of the scarf is repeated in various ways showing that she loved scarves and billowy fabric; even if she didn't in real life, the reinforcement of the scarf (as well as her pursuit of the man driving the Bugatti), gives her death a logic and finality that "real" life cannot. Surely, Isadora's death must have been so fictional as not to be believed, as well as the fate of her children. Film-makers must craft a film in such a way that the viewer believes that every moment is true. Compare this screenplay with what Robert McKee says about writing screenplays in his incomparable book, Story, and you'll agree that the Isadora screenplay is undervalued. Also, Redgrave's performance is surely one of the finest of any era--and should have gotten the Oscar, but thankfully won at Cannes (outside the Hollywood political machine). The length of the film, to me, was no problem; the life of Isadora Duncan, could not have been shown in less. The stage scenes of her dancing were perfectly directed and illustrated how she could fill a theatre while also being rejected.

why a year or so after Ken Russell's brilliant version, Reisz even bothered to make this

[christopher-underwood · 5/10 · 13 September 2018]

I remember rather enjoying this on its original release and even that I watched a very small part being made whilst happening to be in Yugoslavia in 1967 but it seems a sad spectacle today. What then must have seemed daring, revolutionary and inspiring, now looks a little silly and pretentious. Poor Vanessa Redgrave, who must have put in hours to get the dance routines looking respectable, had an impossible task. She cannot dance and her acting is put severely to the test here. It may be argued that Isadora Duncan was also unable to dance in the accepted sense but then we aware of her reputed sexual allure that must have got her through many a scrape and helped her acquire some cash. Alas Vanessa is lacking in this department too. The most pertinent question is why a year or so after Ken Russell's brilliant version, Reisz even bothered to make this (and make it some 100 minutes longer!). The answer is probably that the Russell TV documentary had been little seen but now it certainly hangs on to show the world how and how not to make a bio pic.

View the original version.

[skunk-9 · 14 June 1999]

There are several versions of this film. The original is rather long, but well worth the time spent viewing it. The subsequent edited versions -- even the so-called "director's cut" -- omit small but crucial events in Isadora's life, without which it becomes more difficult to understand how Isadora sublimated her angst into her art.

One of Vanessa Redgrave's best performances!

[Sylviastel · 8/10 · 7 August 2001]

Vanessa Redgrave who should be awarded Dame Commander of the British Empire if it was up to me but she declined damehood in 1999 and even regrets accepting the C.B.E. in 1967. She gives one of her best and memorable performances as the legendary dancer, Isadora Duncan. It is a long and memorable movie. THe best lover in my opinion is the foreign piano lover who is described first by Isadora as "hideous and revolting." When they finally share a carriage ride, she begins to recognize his inner beauty of another artist. Isadora's life is also tragic with the loss of her two children in a dreadful car accident. This film is really Vanessa Redgrave's vehicle. She drives smoothly from beginning to end. American actress, Cynthia Harris, does a good job in a featured role in this film. So does Jason Robards and others who bring the life to this wonderful creature.

"Don't let them tame you!"

[MissSimonetta · 9/10 · 3 November 2022]

ISADORA is hard to evaluate, particularly since it exists in a truncated version mandated by the studio. Karel Reisz's original 3-hour version might have been a masterpiece for all I can tell. As it is, ISADORA is an interesting but flawed biopic. Isadora Duncan is at the center of it, a character both admirable for her dedication to her art and her willingness to defy convention, and irritating in her narcissism and histrionics. While Vanessa Redgrave is magnificent and the editing is stunning (there's an almost Proustian fluidity to the film's overall narrative structure as we jump back and forth in time), the emotional impact is a bit muted-- once again, is this because of missing footage from the earlier cut?

Vanessa Redgrave Should Have Won The Best Actress Academy Award

[Real_Review · 8/10 · 16 March 2019]

Real Review Posting Scoring Criteria: Acting - 1/1 Casting - 1/1 Directing - 1/1 Story - 1/1 Writing/Screenplay - 1/1

Total Base Score = 5

Modifiers: Originality: Cinematography: 1 Standout Performances: 1 (Redgrave) Personal Favorite: 0.5

Total Real Review Rating: 7.5 (rounded up for IMDB)

REDGRAVE is magnificent!

[MLaug22477 · 25 August 2002]

Vanessa Redgrave gives a great one in this film. Though I know very little about the real Isadora Duncan it really does not matter for Redgrave is so thoroughly into her character that we think she is Duncan. Redgrave has to rank as one of the great actresses of our time.

The Dance of the Seven Veils

[ags123 · 8/10 · 24 February 2021]

Vanessa Redgrave has a field day with this one. Captured at her peak, she prances and pontificates like a real diva, in a wild assortment of wigs and barely-there outfits. Her unconvincing American accent is the only fault in an otherwise joyous performance. Locations and costumes are outstanding. The new Kino Lorber Blu Ray DVD does justice to the lavish production. Though a bit overlong, the film is never dull and it helps to have a taste for this sort of thing. It's surprising this wasn't a hit in 1968, as it dovetails with that decade's nonconformist and free-spirited nature. Ken Russell's 1966 television version is still much better, but "Isadora" holds up well after more than half a century. Note: The optional audio running commentary on the Kino Lorber Blu Ray DVD is horrendous.

Redgrave has a ball playing a Marxist dancer.

[fedor8 · 10 September 2007]

Occasionally interesting bio about a not-too-intelligent dancer called Isadora Duncan. If this film is anything to judge her by, then I would describe her as arrogant, stupid, self-delusional, self-obsessed, narcissistic, shallow, and slightly insane. (So pretty much like a certain actress involved in this.) The Russian poet she marries is a pathetic moron who looks like a clown. He shortly after commits suicide, a decision one might understand in view of the fact regarding his character and life.

The movie is too long; it's not that it's badly made, but, rather, the problem is that the dance scenes are utterly dull, and that Duncan was neither a "deep" enough person, nor was her achievement anything to shout about (I mean she was just a dancer - big deal) - and a Communist on top of that. The high point of the movie is the last scene, in which she dies by getting strangled by her own clothes that get stuck on the wheel of a car she's in. A very good scene and very surprising. Like in a horror film.

As for dancing, what a dumb activity that is. To quote a friend of mine: "women must have invented all those ritualistic pair dancing routines which are designed to check if your testicles are small and warm enough for him to be with a woman forever".

Now to quote a dumb critic: "Isabela was the the most prominent free-thinker of her time." So to sleep around and succumb to Marxism's imbecilic philosophy constitutes free thinking, huh?