Isadora [Blu-ray]

Very entertaining, fast paced & electric!

I saw this 1968 film in the 1980s on a premium movie channel and was impressed but haven't seen it available anywhere since. This new release is compatible for US players unlike previous releases. KL Studios did a great job on this excellent film. Isadora Duncan was quite an interesting and eccentric character, whose life is told in flashbacks as she dictates her autobiography. Outstanding performances from Vanessa Redgrave and the rest of the cast, screenplay, cinematography, editing and music.

One of my favorite movies! Isadora Duncan was an amazing woman and Vanessa Redgrave was exquisite in this !

After saying that 'Isadora', the film by Karel Reisz that stars Vanessa Redgrave is one of my great favourites, and I believe one of the very best bio-pics ever made, I am going to pass on to the second disc, a 'bonus' of the complete 107 minute 'Isadora' Ballet,, with choreography by Kenneth MacMillan, and music by Richard Rodney Bennett. Bennett was one of my most loved modern composers. A true eclectic, he was an adept at Serialism, traditional tonality, Jazz, and Pastiche, all of which are evident in the really solid, endlessly fascinating score, for symphony orchestra with extended piano solos, a narrator, and, briefly, a chorus.MacMillan set himself quite a task, reducing Isadora Duncan's busy life to a narrative ballet that lasts under two hours. The ballet has two Isadoras, one dancing, and one speaking. (Shades of the Brecht/Weill ballet 'The Seven Deadly Sins', where Anna is embodied by both a dancer and a singer.) Although both dancer and actress are superb, and look very much alike, this is ultimately too choppy and distracting. A straightforward dance narrative would have been more interesting.The supporting cast are all excellent. The male dancers representing Duncan's many lovers are wonderful, and well chosen for physical type. The Pas de Deux of Duncan and Paris Singer after Isadora's children are killed in an accident, is heartrending. The Covent Garden production couldn't be better.Well filmed, and a more than decent sound recording.Apologies for not including the names of the dancers and actress. They are only to be found on the DVD itself, and nowhere in the packaging.A fascinating and frustrating work.

A phenomenal and gripping bio-pic of the phenomenal Vanessa Redgrave playing the role (stunningly) of the shocking life of American dancer Isadora Duncan. My favorite scene... her lover, a stage set designer, painting his bedroom in moonlight so that the floor would always look like moonlight... as Isadora dances around him either naked or in something totally diaphanous... Another great scene... When she goes to open a school in Russia (her last husband was a well know Russian poet)... and dances in scalding red for the workers. Wow. Director: Ken Russell Redgrave even LOOKS like Isadora... google it! PLEASE see this amazing film... all of it wonderful. Some very heartbreaking incidents for Isadora... she lived on the edge and sometimes it bit her backsides... but SO WORTH SEEING.

This is a good but very dated movie. Also the quality of this DVD is not of the best. It appears ans a blurred movie, although the sound is good and the plot is also very good, including her bizaar death.I did purchase this movie from Amazon.Com, which is my favorite source for all books and movies and countless other products but Amazon .Com has revolutionized the book and movie businesses, gone are the days of hunting down movies and books in dusty heaps in old used odds and end stores, now I find the hardest-to-locate boos and movies literally in minutes!

The new Blu-ray "Isadora" release is very nice and does justice to this fascinating film. Vanessa Redgrave gives a truly brilliant performance. Two other Vanessa Redgrave films have just been released in Blu-ray. "Morgan" and "Mary Queen Of Scots" are also beautiful and worth the purchase. Great news for Redgrave fans!

"Isadora" is a wonderful film - in it's uncut (or the almost uncut director's) version - and the print here is gorgeous. But this is a terribly truncated version of what was intended to be seen. I was privileged enough to see the uncut version when in played in Los Angeles in 1968, Because of poor box office, Universal recut it into a much shortened version. Later, the director restored SOME of the footage, and this "medium" version played on network television. The full "Isadora" does exist, but, alas, not here. I gave it the one star only for this version.Also, caveat emptor - this is a European format version. Nowhere on Amazon does it explicitly say this. i was forced to buy an all format DVD only to find out that this is not the version that should be seen. DO NOT BUY..

Una excelente película cuya edición fue realizada por un maestro del tema. Se trata de la vida de Isadora Duncan, la iniciadora del ballet contemporáneo, cuya vida fue bastante escandalosa en su época. Sólo para aficionados al cine, la historia y el baile contemporáneo.

Still an excellent film - holds up well. I recently saw an advertisement for a dance performance where the dancers were going to interpret the music being played and the architecture they were performing in. It was advertised as innovative and groundbreaking. Another current case of ignorance of the past especially when there are readily available film clips of Isadora Duncan doing this almost 100 years ago.

Ce film est une étude profonde du caractère de vie hors-norme de cette comète qu'était Isadora Duncan. De +, le traitement des couleurs rend ce film magique, un hymne à la folie de l'artiste qu'elle était. Et la sobriété de la scène finale de sa vie ajoute à la beauté du film de Karel Reisz. Vanessa Redgrave y confirme une fois de + toute l'étendue de son talent. Un "grand" film.

Una película imprescindible para conocer una de las bases de la danza moderna. La interpretación de Vanessa Redgrave es impresionante. Karel Reitz dirige la obra con brillantez sabiendo la importancia de esta conmovedora artista.

Isadora [DVD]The film itself is beautifully shot and Vanessa Redgrave's performance is nothing short of stunning. Also worth mentioning is Maurice Jarre's beautiful original film score.The run time of the main feature on the Odeon Entertainment 2 disc collector's edition is 134 minutes. The audio language is ENGLISH ONLY (not German as is currently stated in the product description!). There are no subtitles. Picture and sound quality of the main feature are excellent.Bonus features on disc 1:- Stills gallery- Aquarius - Isadora Duncan (11 mins)- Archive footage of Isadora Duncan (only a few seconds, but apparently this is all the film footage that is known to exist of the great Isadora Duncan)Disc 2:- The Royal Ballet perform Isadora. A ballet by Kenneth MacMillan (106 mins).