The Red Shoes - Criterion Collection
by Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Anton Walbrook, Leonide Massine, Marius Goring, Moira Shearer, Robert HelpmannDirector: Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell
Brand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 133 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-05-18
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of The Red Shoes - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: The Sound of Music meets 2001: A Space Oddesy
Summary: 5 Stars
What makes a good story? For most of us perhaps, it would center around tales that deal with things we are interested in, so that if we like slapstick humor, people like Laurel and Hardy are great. Or, if we like science fiction, it is hard to beat a good Star Trek story.
But I think a good story is one that can draw you outside your area of interest, and make you react to something that you would otherwise have no interest. Perhaps "react" is a good word to use, and not necessarily "enjoy." In spite of a dislike for a certain type of story, you just might find yourself reacting to a character from the story in spite of yourself. This is what we have with the movie, The Red Shoes. By itself, its very nature is enough to turn off a great many viewers. The background of the story is set in a ballet company that travels the world giving performances, and it is the story of one young woman who is given her chance to do what she always wanted--to dance. For her, to dance is to live, and to live is to dance. Giving her this chance is a man to whom ballet is a religion, and anyone who looks back is not fit for his kingdom. The bottom line is that for him, ballet is all that is or ever will be, and whoever would be in his ballet company must give up everything else. The man is accused of not having any heart. And he doesn't.
OK. So we have a crisis love story set against a dance background. So what? Every area of life, no matter how obscure, seems to rise to the top to claim its 15 minutes of fame. Classical music was just there until "Switched On Bach" came along, and suddenly classical music was in. People may not have always enjoyed the old hillbilly humor of the old "Hee Haw" TV show, but suddenly Jeff Foxworthy makes being a redneck kind of cool and fun. Golf has always had its fans, but when Tiger Woods came on the scene everyone in golf became a winner. And when The Red Shoes hit the theaters in 1948, it turned on a good many young girls to the art of ballet.
Ballet is admittedly an obscure art form. On one hand, some of the world's greatest athletes are dancers, and what they can do with their bodies would put many people in the hospital just for watching the contortions. Who in their right mind would want to go through months if not years of suffering just to be able to stand on your very tip toes, and walk that way? And it takes effort to watch ballet, because like opera, stories are told through the dance, and you have to work at paying attention to catch the story line. Ballet has been used to tell the story of Romero and Juliet, as well as Anne Frank. Just by dancing. And then there are the costumes. If other women were to wear these types of clothes to a shopping mall they would be arrested for indecency. You won't find any more form fitting costumes than on a male and female ballet dancer, as very little is left to the imagination. And then there are the girly-guys of ballet. Male ballet dancers don't exactly seem like the macho types.
For me, the ballet in movies makes a background for a suspenseful Alfred Hitchcock film, or perhaps something wrapped around "The Phantom of the Opera." Watching this movie, I find myself waiting for a murder mystery to begin, but nothing even comes close to this. Instead, what we get is an answer to the question of what happens when two opposite desires collide, and you have to make a choice as to which desire you want. On one hand, if you stay with this ballet company you will have met your life's ambition to dance, and dance, and dance, and dance for people all over the world. On the other hand, you are working for a man who has no room for romance between men and women in his ballet company, and if such a thing should happen it is seen as the ultimate act of betrayal, and the person is dismissed with a wave of his hand. Well, the romance does come along, and Moira Shearer as the female lead becomes like a person with two ropes attached to her, both pulling in opposite directions. On one hand is this consuming attitude by her boss, who demands that people eat, drink, and sleep ballet. On the other hand is a blossoming love that she doesn't want to let get away.
It is a story that could have taken place in any kind of a background--perhaps with a demanding boss from an office setting, a boss who demands his employees work 14 hours a day to meet their productivity goals. Or perhaps in a sweat shop from a story that takes place in the 1880s. But it doesn't. The story takes place in a ballet company, and what we have here is ballet as you have never seen it before. It is like "The Sound of Music" meets "2001: A Space Odyssey." In one of the most stunning dance sequences ever caught on film, the dancers on stage are transported into a kind of non-stop dream sequence made up of an almost hallucinogenic color, and the dance just goes on, and on, and on. Solid flesh and blood dance partners are turned into two dimensional paper dance partners. The dancers are on a stage one moment, but the next they are transported to some imaginary world, or in a moment morph into birds. And they keep on dancing at a level no human being could sustain. But they do here.
This is most likely not the kind of film that people who receive this e-mail will want to stand in line to watch. It is about boring high society people who can define the word, "snob." It is a film about a high form of culture that most of us would be bored to tears attending--we'd much rather be at a U2 concert than sit and watch a two hour ballet performance. Unless you like looking at the female ballet dancers wearing what appears to be sprayed on butt huggers. No, this film is more modest.
But underneath all of this is a basic human interest story. No matter what your background is, no matter what your job is, you feel stress, you feel pain, you experience longing, and for some of us these feelings are buried beneath a crusty exterior, and for others who are aware of their feelings we have some hard choices to make.
Perhaps the most difficult thing about this movie is that you have to sit through the entire movie before everything comes together. And even then you will have to think about what you just got done seeing. And even then it will not necessarily cause you to fall in love with this movie, but it will cause you to react to it. But the way the movie ends is a big bang.
The Red Shoes of the title refers to the color of the ballet slippers. The movie is based upon a story by Michael Powell and Emerich Pressburger, who in turn based their story on a Hans Christian Anderson story, but they gave the story a darker twist: " under the theatrics and glory is an all-consuming lifestyle with the power to destroy those who love it perhaps too much."--Sean Axmaker (Amazon).
Watching this movie may give you the same feeling you get when you read the doom and gloom from the Old Testament book of Jeremiah. Surely, there are more exciting things to read, but perhaps in spite of this, when you think about the message, being uncomfortable is not always so bad.
If reading the book of Jeremiah can make you appreciate the ease of Psalm 23 better, films like The Red Shoes can help you appreciate a simple story line. If nothing else, if you refuse to see this movie, you should watch the main dance squence. Where is a good HAL 9000 computer when you need one?
Summary of The Red Shoes - Criterion Collection
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