Purely Joyful Movie!

Pretty Good

Excellent but underrated film

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

A young ballet dancer is torn between the man she loves and her pursuit to become a prima ballerina.Although Michael Powell had a long career with many, many films under his belt, this is probably the one he is most associated with and remembered for. And, you have to admit, rightfully so. The color is great, as is the story and everything within.The layers are nice, as this is a movie about a ballet about a fairy tale. The scene (very brief) of the men picking out the perfect red shoes is gorgeous. And then my twisted mind wonders... what if this were a horror film? You know, a story where the shoes keep dancing even after the dancer stops?

I guess the lesson to be learned is that when one is in the arts and striving to be the best it demands 100% of you. At least that's the lesson I took away from The Red Shoes. The film itself is a reworking of the plot from Maytime with dance instead of singing as the art form.Moira Shearer plays aspiring ballerina Victoria Page and her talent is immediately recognized by ballet impresario Anton Walbrook. He takes her under his wing, but Walbrook seems to want to control every aspect of her life. Walbrook also gives a break to young composer Marius Goring whom he hires to help orchestrate the music that the dancer's use. Goring is talented but also quite full of himself as well. Soon enough Shearer and Goring fall in love and that does not fit into the long range plans Walbrook has.The title comes from a story by Hans Christian Andersen about a ballerina who sees a pair of red ballet slippers and puts them on and she can dance better than anyone has before. But The Red Shoes have their own enchantment, you can't stop dancing once they're on. The ballerina arranges for her feet to be cut off to stop dancing.The ballet is an allegory for the terrible price one of these three has to pay for art's sake. The ballet itself which we see in its entirety is maybe the best ballet sequence ever brought to the big screen. Pieces of other classic ballet numbers are also scattered throughout the film and are woven and completely integrated into the plot.Though John Barrymore who was the manager and husband of Jeanette Macdonald in Maytime was no longer available, Anton Walbrook got his career role out of playing Boris Lermontov who constantly walks back and forth over the line between dedication and obsession. Marius Goring is far from Nelson Eddy in this, he's ambitious and wants it all wife and career. To the extent that Shearer is also in the arts, he wants her in no small part to support his ambitions. In fact he becomes as unlikeable as Walbrook. Torn between these two men it is no wonder Shearer meets the fate she does.Wonderful ballet sequences splendidly photographed by Jack Cardiff and well tuned acting performances by the three leads are the hallmark of The Red Shoes. This one is a timeless classic.

This Powell-Presburger film certainly has stood the test of time, one that many consider a masterpiece. Unfortunately, after multiple viewings, I remain a fair appreciator. On the plus side are its beautiful production values, including Jack Cardiff's outstanding cinematography and a powerful cast headed by Anton Walbrook, Moira Shearer and Marius Goring. The story is interesting, though the love interest of Walbrook and Goring with Shearer never quite seemed convincing.The main let down, though, was the musical score throughout. While Jack Cardiff was an accomplished composer his aesthetic values are simply not mine. Bereft of strong themes, logical structure and comprehensive form, the score supported dance sequences that for me lacked logical progression. Too, the initial themes seemed weak, followed by passages that lacked strong connection to the fundamental statements. The ballet's been compared to "An American in Paris," though the latter was buoyed by Gershwin's incomparable themes and design. In short, I was underwhelmed by both the "Red Shoes" ballet music and its contrived love triangle. At the same time I can see where this movie had great influence in subsequent films using dance as an important foundation. For that I do appreciate its value.

The Red Shoes contains possibly the most excellent exchange of dialog in the history of cinema - a line that sums up everything about who an artist is and why artists are. Ballet director Boris Lermontov meets a young dancer named Victoria Page at a soirée arranged by her aunt. He refuses an audition and she confronts him. Lermontov: 'Why do you want to dance?' Victoria: 'Why do you want to live?'.. Lermontov: "Well I don't know exactly why but.. I must." Victoria: "That's my answer too." They then leave the room, completely under each others' spell. The Red Shoes is above all else about the involuntary and desperate passion found in all artists, and is a tremendously beautiful homage to almost every art form imaginable - music, dance, choreography, photography, painting, design, costume, acting, writing and filmmaking all serve in operatic harmony to tell the story of Victoria's rise into the world of ballet and her subsequent romantic battles with her mentor and a fellow dancer. A masterpiece and one of the best films ever made, with strong suggestive colors that make it one of the greatest Technicolor achievements.