Os Sapatinhos Vermelhos

I have seen this film about 30 times in 30 years and for me this film will always be special. Astonishingly, my wife, who is a Ballet Teacher, doesn't care at all for this film finding it too 'affected'. Perhaps as I am not involved with ballet at a professional level is a reason why I can enjoy this vibrant, colourful fantasy so much, but then our ballet friends adore the film, so who knows why this film affects some so profoundly (Spielberg&Scorsese!!) and not others. Anton Walbrook's authoritative performance is so memorable and Moira Shearer dances beautifully. Perhaps because the film is so highly charged with passion and emotion it will never please everyone, but I feel this is one of the great achievements of British Cinema and a film so rich and inspirational you will never wish to forget it.

`Why do you want to dance?' Anton Walbrook asks of Moira Shearer part way through Powell and Pressburger's inventive ballet film. `Why do you want to live?' is her cool response. Suggested by the Hans Christian Andersen story and a project long in development by P&P, this sumptuous colour production allows Shearer to display her excellent ballet skills alongside Robert Helpmann and Leonide Massine, and all three are excellent.

In fact, the `Red Shoes Ballet' alone is enough to recommend this movie in the strongest terms. Also in the cast is P&P regular Marius Goring, as the composer pushed aside for the lure of the stage. Walbrook, as the emotionless impresario who is only alive within the confines of his art, is superb, and perhaps only his role as Theo in `Colonel Blimp' served him better.

The film isn't THAT closely related to Hans Christian Andersen's story; but it would be a good idea to read the story before seeing the film. It's one of Andersen's better stories, anyway.

Another minor note: if no other consideration will sway you, see `The Red Shoes' for a perceptive look the position of the ballet composer relative to that of the dancers. For Powell and Pressburger it's no more than a diverting side issue, but it's one of the things that especially interested me. If you look at advertisements for ballet productions today, you'll notice that the composer's name is NEVER printed - even if the ballet is called `Cinderella' and the public has no way of working out whose score is being used. It puts the composer in his place, no doubt. Yet musicians at the ballet are in the habit of thinking that they're the most important people there.

I'm on their side. I happen to loathe classical ballet as such. `Swan Lake' strikes me as a lovely score disfigured by people who insist on dancing to it. Yet `The Red Shoes' makes me put all of this aside. Indeed, it would be fair to say that I simply CAN'T dislike ballet while watching the film - which is especially odd, considering some of the things it does to people.

So, yes, if `The Red Shoes' can have this effect on ME, of all people, it's surely one of the best films ever made. I can't agree at all with the people who describe the film as `melodrama' or `camp'. (The latter charge I scarcely even understand.) The story is what it is and it's told at the most realistic and sincere level appropriate. The characters who act theatrically (NOT melodramatically) are all creatures of the theatre, and have not spent not just their days but their lives in Lermontov's troupe. If you want a more understated view of things then watch the musicians. To put in a word for one of them, Brian Easdale's source music is superb: GOOD music of a kind that an English composer like Craster might well be expected to write. It's clear that Easdale wrote Craster's compositions first, and then constructed the rest of the score around them, rather than vice versa.

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.

I first heard of "The Red Shoes" when I read the liner notes to an album by the jazz/fusion group Weather Report, called "Tale Spinnin'". Therein it said that saxophonist Wayne Shorter had seen the film a few dozen times. Intrigued, I watched it when I noticed it in the TV listings. What a discovery!

With its focus on the tangle of lives of a ballerina, a composer, and a dictatorial impresario who uses them both, the story may have elements of a soap opera, but it's a superior soap opera. What appealed to Shorter, I'm sure, is the film's depiction of the artists' creative process. It may have been done better elsewhere, but I haven't seen it. Besides that, it's beautifully directed, beautifully photographed and sumptuous to look at throughout. The surreal title ballet is performed in a segment that is stunning, and I'm not just using that word as a cliche.

Anton Walbrook stands out as Lermontov, leader of the ballet troupe. There are many real-life artists from the ballet world in the film, including Leonide Massine and Robert Helpmann. Massine is particularly effective.

Don't be put off by the notion that this is some effete art film; it's high quality AND accessible. Anyone who enjoys art (especially ballet), romance or just plain good moviemaking owes it to themselves to see it.