The 14th Chennai International Film Festival started today, delayed by a month due to unfortunate natural events in Chennai. I started the season with my first movie at Inox Screen 2 – it was a French biopic “The Dancer (2016)” aka La Danseuse.

The film is the story about a French American girl Loie Fuller who is an aspiring actress living with this father in the countryside around late 19th century. She then moves to Brooklyn (New York) while she is performing a small role she accidentally invents a new form of dance which involves swirling her loose skirt. With the help from her sponsor a wealthy Count Louis Dorsay she starts improving the dance by adding high power electrical lamps which are themselves a novelty in those days. To get better recognition and register a patent for her dance form she relocates to Paris (France) where she gains instant popularity. What happens after she gets famous, how does her relationship with the Count develops and how she handles the find of new talent in a girl who comes to her from San Francisco forms rest of the story.

The film by Director Stéphanie Di Giusto started well but somehow didn’t impress me as a whole, Loie success in Paris felt rushed up but her life unravelling later was too slow for no obvious reason and was lack anything eventful.

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