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The Dancer

The Dancer image - a film by Stéphanie Di Giusto
The Dancer image - a film by Stéphanie Di Giusto
The Dancer image - a film by Stéphanie Di Giusto
The Dancer image - a film by Stéphanie Di Giusto
The Dancer image - a film by Stéphanie Di Giusto
The Dancer image - a film by Stéphanie Di Giusto
The Dancer image - a film by Stéphanie Di Giusto
NOW AVAILABLE TO OWN OR VIEW ON DEMAND
The Dancer poster - a film by Stéphanie Di Giusto
Electrifying. A spirited, fully committed portrayal that allows you to observe a quintessential artist from the outside in.
Zhou-Ning Su
THE FILM STAGE
Intelligent and thoughtful. Di Giusto’s frank, sympathetic approach, aided by Benoît Debie’s shimmering cinematography (particularly during Fuller’s gorgeous dance numbers), suggests an admiration for the challenges involved in devoting one’s life to a creative passion — and, also, how debilitating it can be to watch that life brushed aside for another’s.
Tim Grierson
SCREEN INTERNATIONAL
Something unique, extraordinary and totally new. You’ll find it hard to believe that it’s Stéphanie Di Giusto’s debut feature. She brings us an eye-opening experience with striking skill. An intelligent and informed piece of work that is impeccably made and gives the viewer the gift of taking them on a marvellous journey.
Bénédicte Prot
CINEUROPA
Director: Stéphanie Di Giusto
Cast: Soko, Lily-Rose Depp, Gaspard Ulliel, Mélanie Thierry, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, François Damiens
Duration: 112mins
Country of Origin: France
M
Mature themes, sex and nudity
Electrifying. A spirited, fully committed portrayal that allows you to observe a quintessential artist from the outside in.
Zhou-Ning Su
THE FILM STAGE
Intelligent and thoughtful. Di Giusto’s frank, sympathetic approach, aided by Benoît Debie’s shimmering cinematography (particularly during Fuller’s gorgeous dance numbers), suggests an admiration for the challenges involved in devoting one’s life to a creative passion — and, also, how debilitating it can be to watch that life brushed aside for another’s.
Tim Grierson
SCREEN INTERNATIONAL
Something unique, extraordinary and totally new. You’ll find it hard to believe that it’s Stéphanie Di Giusto’s debut feature. She brings us an eye-opening experience with striking skill. An intelligent and informed piece of work that is impeccably made and gives the viewer the gift of taking them on a marvellous journey.
Bénédicte Prot
CINEUROPA

OFFICIAL SELECTION - 2016 CANNES INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL – UN CERTAIN REGARD
WINNER – 2017 CÉSAR AWARDS – BEST COSTUMES

French singer/actress Soko (Augustine) and Lily-Rose Depp lead a star-studded cast in Stéphanie Di Giusto’s spectacularly mounted screen biography, inspired by the true story of two rival pioneers of modern dance and theatrical performance in late 19th-century Paris.

Nothing in her background destined Loïe Fuller (Soko), born in the American Midwest, to become the toast of the Belle Epoque cabarets – or to perform at the Paris Opera. Hidden behind metres of silk, her arms extended by long wooden rods, the athletic Fuller was able to reinvent her body on stage, enthralling her audiences a little more every night with her revolutionary “Serpentine” dance. 

Dazzling the capital, she became an icon, the blazing symbol of a generation. Eminent admirers fell to her feet: Toulouse-Lautrec, the Lumière Brothers, Rodin. Even if the physical effort risked destroying her back, even if the glare of the stage lights seared her eyes, she never faltered in the quest to perfect her art. But it was Loïe’s meeting with Isadora Duncan (Depp) – a beautiful young prodigy hungry for glory – that threatened everything: her stature, her confidence and her sanity.

With excellent support from Gaspard Ulliel, Mélanie Thierry, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing and François Damiens, this gorgeously realised debut charts the remarkable destiny of a woman ahead of her time, one who revolutionised her art to a degree that still astounds over a century later.

The Dancer poster - a film by Stéphanie Di Giusto
NOW AVAILABLE TO OWN OR VIEW ON DEMAND