The Red Shoes (1948)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

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

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

I am a huge Powell and Pressburger fan. I have seen most of their films and love most of them. I saw The Red Shoes on tv years ago and did not like it much. I recently bought a Powell and Pressburger boxed set and am working my way through it. I watched The Red Shoes today. It is a stunning looking film and I found it hard to concentrate on the story. The dance scenes are very well filmed. Some of the reviews here are surprised that a film like this could be made in Britain in 1948,Britain made loads of great films in this period I think.

NOTES: From a worldwide attendance standpoint, the most successful British film ever made! With an initial rentals gross of over $5 million, number 1 at the U.S./Canadian box-office for 1948, easily beating off challenges from Road to Rio, The Paleface, Easter Parade and Red River, each of whom grossed $4.5 million. Oddly, this superb result was not duplicated in the U.K. itself. The film did manage to claim the number 10 position, but it was beaten by British picture- goers' far greater preferences for (in order) Spring in Park Lane, The Best Years of Our Lives, My Brother Jonathan, The Road to Rio, Life with Father, It Always Rains on Sunday, Naked City, Oliver Twist, and Unconquered. Second to The Paleface at Australian ticket windows for 1949. Number 1 English-language movie at the French box-office. Number two in the 1949 Film Daily poll of American film critics. A New York Times "Ten Best" for 1948. Film debut of Moira Shearer.COMMENT: A marvelously entertaining movie which succeeds brilliantly — against the odds. The idea of planning the ballet in advance (see Jean Osborne's review below) sounds crackpot to me, but it works. And it just doesn't come off reasonably well, but with power and certitude. Also none too promising were such old hat plot stratagems as a Diaghilev impresario thwarting young love (cf. Waterloo Bridge) and a composer whose music is stolen (cf. the Claude Rains Phantom of the Opera). But thanks partly to absolutely riveting performances; partly to a script crowded with realistically drawn characters, given some wonderfully caustic dialogue, and jam-packed with fascinating incidental touches; partly to masterful direction; partly to evocative music and appealing dancing; partly to superb color in sets and costumes, beguiling outdoor locations and breathtaking production values, The Red Shoes is a masterpiece of absolutely engrossing entertainment. Hard to believe it runs 133 minutes. Seems more like 33.Needless to say the mysticism and religiosity of Andersen's tale has been completely expunged from the main story, though these elements are still reflected in the ballet.

Victoria Page is an up-and-coming young ballet dancer, seemingly headed for superstardom. She has just landed a great role, in the ballet The Red Shoes, a role that gets even better when the lead ballerina leaves and she replaces her. However, things get complicated when she falls in love with the composer of The Red Shoes. This does not sit well with the ballet's director...I really don't know what all the fuss was about. Maybe it's because I am not a huge fan of ballet, or just found all the goings-on rather pretentious, and over-dramatic, but this movie was OK, not great. Plot is pretty conventional, though drawn out. Direction is good though, for its time. Acting is like something out of a soap opera. The only plus in the casting is the beauty of Moira Shearer.

British cinema often gets criticised for its so-called narrow milieu, be it historical/period dramas, feel-good comedies, social realism & gangster films. The films of Powell & Pressburger stand apart, distinctive in the English canon, the artistic marriage in this post-Brexit age of an English maverick (eccentric individualism) to the European sensibility of the émigré Pressburger. Their retinue (such as the cinematography of Jack Cardiff) produced films that are imaginative, passionate, full of dramatic power & beauty. What struck me about 'The Red Shoes', their wonderful modern take on Andersen's tragic fairy-tale, is how ravishing it must have looked to a post-war audience worn down by war & still enduring rationing. A film cannot fill an empty stomach, but the cinematography, the bright colours & exotic locales must have been a feast for the eyes, art as both escapism & entertainment.The story is elegantly structured with the ballet segment 'The Red Shoes', a stand-alone piece on its own as entertainment but which reflects the story set in the present (Lermontov as the shoe-maker who entices the girl to wear the red shoes, the circus represents international fame). Vicky & Julian are introduced, both overcoming initial obstacles to their dreams, then begin to impress the stern task-master Lermontov before fate offers them a chance to finally realise their ambitions.'The Red Shoes' is the story of a young woman who dreams of becoming a celebrated ballerina, though in the background hovers the whisper of 'be careful what you wish for'. It is the story of Vicky's relationship with two men & the eventual conflict which sees them wrest for control of her.Lermontov (Anton Walbrook) is a fascinating character, portrayed as darkly charismatic, detached & cynical, an aesthete, a Diaghilev-svengali type of figure, who runs a world famous ballet company. He is obsessed with art to the point that he demands absolute loyalty to its precepts, even to the extreme where he denies the human, which, in itself, is a contradiction because art is in itself the deepest expression of the self, of our selves & what it is to be human. He is a control freak (the miniature ballet stage on his desk in Paris), one of the ballets referenced in a montage is 'Coppelia' based on Hoffmann, a tale about a diabolical inventor & his mechanical doll. Vicky, too, makes a diabolical pact with the Mephistophelian Lermontov as he & his travelling ballet company casts its spell over her. It will also demand a human sacrifice (Rites of Spring). In the same Paris office, a slightly sinister plaster-cast sculpture of a ballerina's foot anticipates the tragic ending.Julian Craster, in a less obvious way, also mistreats Vicky. He is impetuous & passionate, perhaps representing the emotions. Together, Craster & Lermontov produce a masterpiece & platform for Vicky's talent. After his marriage to Vicky, he returns to his work as he cannot resist the creative impulse, but fails to realise that she, too, has a need for self-expression. Both Lermontov & Craster deny Vicky her individuality: the first views her as his creation, demanding absolute loyalty, the other views her as his muse, subservient to his wishes.The ending is poignant, the ghostly last performance of 'The Red Shoes' & Vicky's final haunting request.