It is impossible to detach our eyes from this young woman in search of drunkenness and that the mad search for beauty will take her to the top of her art. The dancer recounts the exceptional destiny of Loïe Fuller, carried by an exceptional cast (Soko, Gaspard Ulliel, Mélanie Thierry and Lilly-Rose Depp) and of which it is the first film for Stéphanie di Giusto. Interview.
@Photo by Aurore Marechal Abaca Press
Desiree of Lamarzelle: The main quest of the artist Loïe Fuller (interpreted by Soko) is not it essentially the grace?
Stéphanie Di Giusto: Of course, she is looking for grace because we are dealing with a young woman who does not have it in life. She will try to reinvent her body on stage. She is a little farmer, with an ungrateful physique. She already has this look on the beautiful, she escapes through texts, through the nature she draws. He is someone who is attracted to the handsome and who understands him. When she goes to find her dance, her gesture, she will seize her destiny and invent her way of expressing herself on stage, and transcend her body by becoming the fantasy and an icon of the scene of the belle époque, to Paris.
This film reveals a casting as exceptional as original?
We do not cheat with a cast, especially when it's his first movie. I took six years to do it, it's something that comes from the belly. For Soko, it was obvious, it could only be her. I had seen it in Augustin e and in The origin of Xavier Giannoli. She had both that raw and powerful side, and at the same time grace. Gaspard Ulliel, I really liked his performance in Saint Laurent. I really worked the body with my actors and he has something incredible in his gestures, a precision. Mélanie Thierry too. In the film she is like a mirror, very discreet, and very maternal.
And for Lilly-Rose Depp , who was talked about a lot when she went up the stairs in Cannes?
I had to find a 16 year old American to play Isadora Duncan. The choice was very small among young actresses. When she read the script, she called me very quickly, and it was impressive to see that as young as she had understood the character as well. We did some gaming tests because obviously she had done very little because of her young age, and dance tests too, and she was amazing. She, too, was obvious.
Is it sometimes doubled in some dance scenes?
It is sometimes doubled. We can not improvise fifteen years of work so it was doubled but we still worked the body. We did a lot of work because she was like a teenager. But the biggest work of posture was with Soko (Loïe Fuller) who trained for a month. It was a performance for her, especially for the scenes at 2m50 from the ground in the dark. She was exhausted afterwards. It has not been doubled, there is no plan where it is not Soko. She is very deserving.
Photo DR movie The dancer
It was difficult to sell, this film to realize it?
You can not imagine! I had reflections like "no one is interested in dance" from people in the cultural department, or "why make such an ambitious film with a stranger?" Obviously, the natural, alas, in the making of a movie today is to take an ultra popular actress. I was fortunate enough to be supported by my producer Alain Attal who always believed in the choice of Soko, who is a great actress. He said, "It's Soko and nobody else," and we fought to keep it that way.
Some believe that more space should have been given to the character of Isadora Duncan?
We appreciate this second part of the film because we have the first. I do not tell Edith Piaf or Yves Saint Laurent. Nobody knows Loïe Fuller. I was touched by the way she created her art. In the first part, we understand the hard work, the will. It is also necessary to understand Isadora, who is only grace because she is gifted and because she reads books. She embodies grace but she can become repulsive because there is no effort.
You especially wanted to talk about the destiny of this woman or the dance?
Especially his destiny. I filmed her like a boxer, not like a dancer. because she's not just a dancer. The real dancer is Isadora. Loïe Fuller is more than that, she is a director, she is a complete artist. She has her world. she made a movie, she did the first slow motion, she has a natural curiosity. When one is interested in beauty, beauty is everywhere. In my film, there is a part of chance because she finds her gesture in a momentum, but after, she will use it.
Photo DR movie The dancer
What happened to Loïe Fuller?
She was exhausted and half-blind, because she manipulated the uranium and used it. That's why she turned to the cinema, behind the camera. She consumed herself, consumed.
Was she born at the right time?
She lived the passage from one century to another. She gives curves, something rounder and softer. She was born, like all art, in contradiction with what is happening. It comes to break the metal side of the time. What is incredible about her is her avant-garde side. It seems like she could be an artist today. This woman is timeless. Even today, she is the source of inspiration for many artists.
Recently, a report * revealed the story of these pioneering women in Hollywood who have been erased from the registers and many of whom have sunk into depression.
I am a bit tired when we talk about minorities. Women and men have always made cinema since the birth of cinema. I come from a very disadvantaged social background, and I think we are in a country that gives a lot of people a chance to fight.
It is said that women will have the same rights of men when they have the right to say the same "bullshit".
Yes, but I see too many movies that say it's great that women are as well-known as men, and that annoys me.
What your movie says is that envy does everything else.
I want to give hope, to give hope, we must not limit. We must not build against, we must build with.
* Feature Women Pioneers in Hollywood OCS production
