Summary
Energetic Eva serves as a frantic, celluloid reliquary for the 'Cyclonic' Eva Tanguay, capturing a performer who fundamentally refused to be tethered by the burgeoning cinematic grammar of 1916. The film functions less as a traditional narrative and more as a kinetic explosion of vaudevillian anarchy, where Tanguay’s 'I Don't Care' persona obliterates the fourth wall through sheer physical exuberance. It is a visual manifesto of early 20th-century iconoclasm, documenting a woman who transformed her own eccentricity into a high-voltage commodity. The plot, such as it is, acts as a skeletal scaffolding for Tanguay to execute her signature paroxysms of dance and comedic pantomime, effectively bridging the gap between the proscenium arch and the flickering silver screen. In an era of burgeoning filmic restraint, Tanguay remains a lightning rod of unrefined charisma, her every gesture a defiance of the Victorian sensibilities that still lingered in the shadows of the Great War.
