Cinematography:
Jack CardiffComposer:
Brian EasdaleCast:
Marius Goring, Moira Shearer, Anton Walbrook, Austin Trevor, Esmond Knight, Irene Browne, Ludmila Tchérina, Albert Bassermann, Hay Petrie, Emeric Pressburger (more)VOD (1)
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Victoria ‘Vicky’ Page (Moira Shearer) is destined for ballet superstardom under the watchful eye of charismatic impresario Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook) who demands total devotion to her art and to himself. She falls in love with the composer of the ballet Julian Craster (Marius Goring), and Victoria leaves the ballet to follow her heart and marries the young man. Victoria however continues to find herself torn between Lermontov’s demands and those of her heart, and also of herself, whose non-stop dancing, could lead to tragic results. The Red Shoes is the seminal ballet film version of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale - a story of a young ballerina and her enchanted red ballet shoes. (Beyond Home Entertainment)
(more)Reviews (4)
I couldn't pass up Martin Scorsese's beloved film (see his Criterion confession). Technicolour cinematography didn't look better anywhere else at the time, the ballet passage in the middle, shot with film techniques and tricks of the time, charmed me, I enjoyed the angles from which the camera sometimes shot the charismatic Anton Walbrook, making him look like a patient Mephistopheles at times. But I was disappointed by the ending, which I found too elementary. It needed more courage, more touch of reality.
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The romance novel walks miles in British Technicolor red shoes in a not-so short, fateful melodrama (with a forty minute prologue!) set in a ballet company about two gingers and one “Mephisto" compellingly played by Anton Walbrook. This trio battles that eternal western conflict of personal life and love versus career and ambitions. A movie which, on paper, I’m hopelessly compelled to loathe. But paper assumptions often aren’t valid. Thank god. And so just like how once every umpteen seasons Real Madrid defeats Barcelona, against all odds, the Red Shoes can, despite the black (red?) mark above, be as fantastic to watch as only the best pictures can.
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Everything that didn't work for me in Black Narcissus doesn't work here either, but The Red Shoes thankfully boasts some truly excellent ballet passages and acting by Adolf Anton Wilhelm Wohlbrück. This man is the star of many wonderful films. That's why I’m not concerned with an collision, the weird makeup for a color film, and the bland acting by Moira Shearer. I just let Boris Lermontov's ballet company play that perfect dream world over and over again.
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Powell and Pressburger and their another film, and in this case actually ballet triumf. A beautiful example of how it is possible to connect different kinds of art. Engaging a professional ballet dancer was the only option, and the creators were lucky. Moira Shearer looks simply amazing in Technicolor. She and her red shoes are the sun of this film, around which everything revolves. The finale is then a demonstration of the power of the creative duo.
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