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The Red Shoes
"
There is tension between two kinds of stories in The Red Shoes,
and that tension helps make it the most popular movie ever made about
the ballet and one of the most enigmatic movies about anything. One
story could be a Hollywood musical: A young ballerina falls in love
with the composer of the ballet that makes her an overnight star. The
other story is darker and more guarded. It involves the impresario
who
runs the ballet company, who demands loyalty and obedience, who is
enraged when the young people get married. The motives of the ballerina
and
her lover are transparent. But the impresario defies analysis. In his
dark eyes we read a fierce resentment. No, it is not jealousy, at
least
not romantic jealousy. Nothing as simple as that."
"The film is voluptuous in its beauty and passionate in its storytelling.
You don't watch it, you bathe in it. Yes, the ending is a shocker, but
you see it coming and there's no way around it; the movie tells us a
fairy tale and then repeats it as real life. It's the Hans Christian
Andersen fable about a young girl who puts on a pair of red slippers
that will not allow her to stop dancing; she must dance and dance, in
a grotesque mockery of happiness, until she is dead. This is a dire
subject for a ballet, you will agree; the movie surrounds it with the
hard-boiled business of running a ballet company." --------- Roger
Ebert
DVD - The Criterion Collection
- New digital transfer supervised by director of photography Jack
Cardiff
- Audio commentary by film historian Ian Christie, featuring interviews
with stars Marius Goring and Moira Shearer, Jack Cardiff, composer
Brian Easdale, and Martin Scorsese
- Jeremy Irons reads excerpts from Powell and Pressburger’s novelization
of The Red Shoes and the original Hans Christian Andersen fairy
tale “The Red Shoes”
- Martin Scorsese’s collection of Red Shoes memorabilia
- A collection of rare publicity and behind-the-scenes production
stills
- The Red Shoes Sketches, an animated film of Hein Heckroth’s
painted storyboards, with a comparison to “The Red Shoes”
ballet as an alternate angle
- A Powell and Pressburger filmography with film clips and stills
- English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
- Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition
- Theatrical trailer
Curator's Comments:
Read
Roger Ebert's essay on this DVD Classic.
Director: Michael Powell,
Emeric Pressburger
Color
134 minutes
Released: 1948
Rated: NR
Country: England
Language: English (optional English subtitles for the deaf and
hearing impaired)
Genre: Drama, Romance
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