The Red Shoes (1948)

Time rushes by, love rushes by, life rushes by, but the Red Shoes go on.

In the world of cinema we have lost, to a degree, a sense of wonder at the artistry old fashioned special effects. Thanks to CGI (a wonderful tool, if used right) directors and producers strive for realism in their visuals even if the realism is a giant clunking robot fighting another. 'Real' is relative, though, in the end, but there is an insistence that the visuals must look believable. Computers can also create short-cuts to many effects that used to be a such a chore to do in the old days that it is hard to imagine directors going through the rigmarole of in-camera effects, optics or matte painting ever again*. Yet these things, though primitive, helped create a certain, incredible feel to some movies, particularly as Technicolor came around. Not all of Hollywood embraced colour immediately, but many saw potential and strove to create more than just ordinary films. Some strove to create living paintings. There were several attempts like John Huston's Moulin Rouge from 1952, which notably attempted to mimic the colours and style of Toulouse-Latrec paintings. But few Technicolor movies look as visually astounding as The Red Shoes, which is a painting come to life.

This is a generous film that opens up like a novel; it begins simply and builds slowly into something unique and sumptuous. Young Vicky Page (the luminous Moira Sheerer) wants to do ballet - it is all she lives for. She joins the Lermontov Ballet, a prestigious production company run by the enigmatic Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook, a criminally underrated actor). Lermontov is an autocrat who considers ballet his religion and wants it practised only with utter dedication. "A dancer who relies upon the doubtful comforts of human love can never be a great dancer. Never." Having a good nose for talent he hires a young music student, Julian Craster (Marius Goring), to work as an assistant to the conductor. Seeing talen he asks him to eventually compose for the company. After small successes the three of them (and the other members of the company) begin to work on The Red Shoes, a ballet based on a macabre Hans Christian Anderson tale. The ballet within the movie tell the story of a girl who wishes to dance more than anything and puts on a magical pair of red shoes. She begins to dance and finds she is unable to stop. She dances as if in joy, but the dance is just a parody of happiness. Her life fades away and she eventually dances herself to death. During the production the composer and star fall in love, and the master does not approve. All of this sounds like a simple backstage melodrama, but it is not that simple. Nothing is simple or straight forward in this film. This is a film that can guard its heart and challenge the viewer to make of it what they will.

Part of what makes it a great film is that it paints a fascinating portrait of life in a ballet company; we see people not always fond of each other striving to collaborate something exceptional. It does not go into the detail of the routine of a ballet company like other films (or the physical and mental exertion that is vital to The Black Swan) but it has an element of authenticity to the scenes.We get to know the production designer, the conductor and some of the other dancers who come across as real people. It helps that the supporting cast were some of the greatest ballet stars of the 40s and 50s, including Ludmilla Tchérina, Robert Helpermann and Léonide Massine who bring believability to their roles. But the star of the film is Moira Shearer, who director Michael Powell considered the only "natural" he's ever met.

The best performance, however, goes to Anton Walbrook as Lermontov, a German actor who fled the Nazis in the 30s and who settled in Britain. Whenever he appears on-screen he captivates it with his underplayed yet commanding performance. Most of the time he seems kind and fatherly but clings to his belief of eliminating distractions. Marius Goring, as Craster, plays the role well of a seemingly simple romantic lead, but even towards the end he is shown to have layers. In certain ways he and Lermontov are the same, even if the younger's motive is more transparent. This build to a unsettling climax that should bewilder many (but going into more detail would spoil too much - other reviews may do so).

It is strange to think that Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger have both been somewhat short-changed by film history. Make no mistake they have supporters, the biggest of which is Martin Scorcese who personally oversaw the restoration of this film. Compared to their contemporaries (Alfred Hitchcock, Carol Reed, John Huston, William Whyler, Billie Wilder, Akira Kurosawa, John Ford) they seem neglected. Yet few of the big-time Hollywood directors played or experimented with stylistic innovation as much as Powell and Pressburger (except maybe Hitchcock).

Take, for instance, the 17 minute ballet sequence that is the heart of the movie (not the climax). It starts out on a simple stage where everything is as it should be, but the longer it goes on the more expressionistic it becomes. We end up seeing not the ballet as it is produced on the stage, but as Vicky experience it in front of a large audience, caught up in the spell of the performance. She dances on an empty stage that transforms into an eerie painted ballroom without cutting to another camera. At other stages she dances with a piece of newspaper blowing in the wind that transforms into a dancer. These tricks were done in camera and were developed during the silent era, but have been forgotten in the late 40's. The cinematography of Jack Cardiff is commendable. He not only managed difficult shots but made them beautiful. Technicolor did not strictly speaking render colours 100% correct, but made it appear richer, and Cardiff exploits that exceptionally well. After the general release of the film the Technicolor Company considered The Red Shoes the best use of its product.

Having any sort of love or knowledge of ballet is not necessary to enjoy this film, though it certainly helps. Although I personally admire ballet I am not a fan and had some misgivings. Watching this film for the first time on Blu-Ray (the restored British release, which is almost identical to the US Criterion Release) I was converted to an admirer and understand why so many people embrace have embraced it. Many good films have acting, dialogue, but in the end The Red Shoes has, more than anything, imagination. Imagination is what fuelled Powell and Pressburger's unlikely mindscrew romance A Matter of Life and Death (known in the US as Stairway to Heaven), which is one of my favourite movies as well. But there is was the layered story that hinted at the darker aspect of the British Empire. Here it is the haunting images of Vicky Page putting on the Red Shoes wishing only to dance.

* The pictures (in order) from Fritz Lang's Metropolis, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Raiders of the Lost Ark. The first one was done by filming on a real with some parts of the lens covered, then running it backwards, then covering up the one part and uncovering another and filming a different angle of the same scene. The second one was done in a very similar way, but mostly uses slit-scan technology with the diamond-like reflections created with mirrors. The last one is self-explanatory.