Film: The Red Shoes
Director: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Country: UK
Released: September 1948
Runtime: 134 minutes
Genre: Fantasy
Studio: Rank Organisation
Influenced: Scorsese, Bob Fosse, Kate Bush, Stephen Daldry, Luca Guadagnino, Darren Aronofsky
Honestly I had no idea a film about ballet could be this gripping. The idea for The Red Shoes was developed by Powell and Alexander Korda in the 30s, inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of the same name – about a vain young girl whose red shoes become cursed and cause her to dance endlessly – but fused with the modern world of high-end ballet, and combined with elements of horror and psychedelic fantasy. It's a bizarre, intoxicating, entertaining mix.
Early in the movie there's a great shot of the Royal Opera House and Covent Garden market in full swing, with slice of life touches like the receptionist at the Opera House who is reminiscent of Del Boy in the way he uses French ("ça va by me"). Dramatic tension in the film is set up by Lermontov (played by the masterly Anton Walbrook), tyrannical leader of the touring Ballet Lermontov company, wishing to dismiss the famous ballerina Boronskaya who plans to marry, an act deemed unacceptable (the conflict between personal happiness and art is a primary theme in the film). Will new prima ballerina Vicky face a similar fate if she falls in love with fellow upstart and musician Julian Craster?
At just past the 1hr mark comes the film's famous 15-minute ballet sequence, when the visuals become weird and psychedelic, with elaborate special effects to show Vicky dancing in a nightmarish fantasy land, at one point with a newspaper shaped as a dancer who turns into a man & back again. It’s ballet on an infinite stage. In the lead role of Vicky is Moira Shearer, an actual ballet dancer, who went on to have a career in film, starring in several other P&P productions. She and other actors like choreographer Léonide Massine (as Grischa Ljubov) give the film a sense of authenticity, and part of the movie's phenomenal success at the time was the feeling among audiences of being transported backstage to a live ballet performance.
After the success of the company's new show, we see Lermontov’s sumptuous birthday celebration spoiled by the revelation that Vicky and Craster have fallen in love. Hearing the news, the tyrannical Lermontov soon turns on them both, partly out of jealousy (he appears to be falling in love with Vicky) but also out of concern that they will be "sidetracked by idiotic flirtations". Craster fights back at Lermontov, calling ballet a "second rate means of expression", which cuts deep. They part ways.
Craster and Vicky, now together in London as a couple, both with their red hair and blue eyes, are visually stunning. P&P had such a gift for colour, taking full advantage of the Technicolour age to create their own unique aesthetic on film (aided by the experimental work of cinematographer Jack Cardiff). Some find the colour schemes kitsch, but for me it adds to the fantasy. The colours in the 4K restoration are even more astounding. I won't spoil the ending, other than to say in the immortal words of Lermontov, "Put on the red shoes, Vicky, and dance for us again".
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