Le lys de la vie, the only feature film by Löie which has survived, is based on a story written by her great friend Queen Marie of Romania. It was when she was offered an interesting project, with a story which allowed her to give free rein to her own creativity – opening up the possibility of creating her own imaginary world rather than just sterilely recording her own dances – that Fuller approached the cinema as an auteur. Her principal aim, as she herself said in an interview, was that of creating “a film d’art of a new kind, simply a story made of light and the unreal”. The diary kept by her friend and close collaborator, Gab Sorère, indicates the importance of the latter’s role in the creation of the work; her contribution appears crucial, to the point that she could be regarded as the film’s co-author.

Massimo Piovesana