fin de siècle

Based on Larson’s research, he writes his nonfiction like a novel, chockablock full of weird and wondrous details of Chicago at the fin de siècle.

This was the starting point of the thoughtful collection, which featured romantic silhouettes fusing the fin de siècle French and English Edwardian styles — through riding coats, sack suits and riding boots — with urban styles such as cargo elements and archival pieces from Woo’s early 2000s collections.

Nigro would often take him to Manhattan’s Central Park, where they’d rent a boat for an hour or two and then paddle up, down, and around the placid lake, through the lily pads, looking like fin de siècle oarsmen in an Impressionist painting.

Scenic designer Derek McLane creates a festive ambience, evocative not so much of fin de siècle Paris, where the story of “Moulin Rouge” takes place, but of a secret gallery of wonder at the Paris Las Vegas hotel casino, where a replica of the Eiffel Tower livens up the skyline, fooling no one.

In particular, I was curious whether his re-creation of culturally oversaturated fin de siècle Vienna, a vanished world that continues to fascinate, would convince an audience more familiar with that glittering epoch.