Main Cast: Vanessa Redgrave, John Fraser, James Fox, Jason Robards, Jr., Ivan Tchenko
Release Year: 1968
Country: UK
Run Time: 153 minutes
Plot
Vanessa Redgrave stars in this film biography of the free-spirited modern interpretive dancer Isadora Duncan. Trained in classical dance, Duncan shattered the traditional conformities in her art and her personal life. The film begins at the end of her life as she recalls the past while dictating her memoirs to her male secretary. Her uninhibited sexuality and insistence on personal freedom and expression shocked more conservative and narrow-minded patrons and audiences. She brought in elements of classic Greek dance during the height of the jazz age and had children in and out of wedlock. Married to sewing-machine heir Paris Singer (Jason Robards) and the Russian poet Sergei Essenin (Ivan Tchenko), her life was a rollercoaster ride of success and tragic failures. Two of her children drowned when her chauffeur left the car unattended and the vehicle plunged into a river. Duncan lived by her own rules, often shunned by the very people who had so passionately embraced her pioneering efforts in dance, women's liberation and free thinking. Redgrave was nominated for an Oscar for her performance. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
Bessie Love - Mrs. Duncan; Cynthia Harris - Mary Desti; Libby Glenn - Elizabeth Duncan; Tony Vogel - Raymond Duncan; John Quentin - Pim; Nicholas Pennell - Bedford; Ronnie Gilbert - Miss Chase; Christian Duvallex - Armand; John Brandon - Gospel Billy; Robert Ayres; Margaret Courtenay - Raucous Woman; Arnold Diamond; Mark Dignam; Hal Galili; Anthony Gardner; Alan Gifford - Tour Manager; David Healy - Chicago Theater Manager; Richard Marner; Lucy Saroyan; John Warner - Mr. Sterling; Arthur White - Hearty Husband; Ina DeLa Haye - Russian Teacher; Wallace Eaton - Archer
Credit
Michael Seymour - Art Director, Litz Pisk - Choreography, Jocelyn Herbert - Costume Designer, Ruth Myers - Costume Designer, Karel Reisz - Director, Tom Priestley - Editor, Maurice Jarre - Composer (Music Score), Wally Schneiderman - Makeup, Jocelyn Herbert - Production Designer, Dick Bush - Cinematographer, Larry Pizer - Cinematographer, Raymond Hakim - Producer, Robert Hakim - Producer, Harry Cordwell - Set Designer, Bryan Graves - Set Designer, Ken Ritchie - Sound/Sound Designer, Margaret Drabble - Dialogue Writer, Clive Exton - Screenwriter, Melvyn Bragg - Screenwriter, Margaret Drabble - Screenwriter, Sewell Stokes - Screenwriter, Isadora Duncan - Book Author, Zelda Barron - Assistant to the Director
