The Red Shoes (1948 film)

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The Red Shoes
The Red Shoes (1948 movie poster).jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Screenplay by
  • Michael Powell
  • Emeric Pressburger
Based on"The Red Shoes"
1845 fairy tale
by Hans Christian Andersen
Produced by
  • Michael Powell
  • Emeric Pressburger
Starring
Cinematography Jack Cardiff
Edited by Reginald Mills
Music by Brian Easdale
Production
company
Distributed by General Film Distributors
Release date
  • 6 September 1948 (1948-09-06)(United Kingdom)
Running time
134 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
Languages
  • English
  • French
Budget> £505,600 [a] [1] [2]
Box office$5 million (U.S. and Canada rentals) [3]

The Red Shoes is a 1948 British drama film written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. [4] It follows Victoria Page (Moira Shearer), an aspiring ballerina who joins the world-renowned Ballet Lermontov, owned and operated by Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook), who tests her dedication to the ballet by making her choose between her career and her romance with composer Julian Craster (Marius Goring).

Contents

It marked the feature film debut of Shearer, an established ballerina, and also features Robert Helpmann, Léonide Massine, and Ludmilla Tchérina, other renowned dancers from the ballet world. The plot is based on the 1845 fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen, and features a ballet within it by the same title, also adapted from the Andersen work.

The Red Shoes was filmmaking team Powell and Pressburger's tenth collaboration and follow-up to 1947's Black Narcissus . It had been conceived by Powell and producer Alexander Korda in the 1930s, from whom the duo purchased the rights in 1946. The majority of the cast were professional dancers. Filming of The Red Shoes took place in mid-1946, primarily in France and England.

Upon release, The Red Shoes received critical acclaim, especially in the United States, where it received a total of five Academy Award nominations, including a win for Best Original Score and Best Art Direction. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and was named one of the Top 10 Films of the Year by the National Board of Review. Despite this, some dance critics gave the film unfavourable reviews as they felt its fantastical, impressionistic centrepiece sequence, influenced by German expressionistic cinema of the 1920s, depicted ballet in an unrealistic manner. The film proved a major financial success and was the first British film in history to gross over $5 million in theatrical rentals in the United States.

Retrospectively, The Red Shoes is regarded as one of the best films of Powell and Pressburger's partnership and one of the greatest films of all time. It was voted the ninth greatest British film of all time by the British Film Institute in 1999. The film underwent an extensive digital restoration beginning in 2006 at the UCLA Film and Television Archive to correct significant damage to the original negatives. The restored version of the film screened at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and was subsequently issued on Blu-ray by The Criterion Collection. In 2017, a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers, and critics for Time Out magazine saw it ranked the fifth best British film ever.

Plot

London music student Julian Craster attends a performance of the ballet Heart of Fire, performed by the eminent travelling ballet company Ballet Lermontov and scored by his professor. Also present are young dancer Victoria 'Vicky' Page and her aunt Lady Neston. Julian furiously walks out after recognising that the professor has plagiarised his compositions.

Lady Neston hosts an after-party in honour of the Ballet Lermontov's impresario, Boris Lermontov. After Vicky tells Boris that dancing is the most important thing in her life, Boris invites her to spend time with his ballet before it leaves for Paris. He hires Vicky full-time after watching her dance the lead in Swan Lake with Ballet Rambert at the Mercury Theatre.

Julian angrily writes a letter to Boris exposing his professor's misconduct. He has a change of heart and visits Boris to take the letter back, but Boris has already read it and is sympathetic. Boris hires Julian as a répétiteur and assistant to the company's conductor. He soon grows impressed with Julian's artistic ambition.

In Paris, Ballet Lermontov's principal dancer Irina Boronskaya is required to leave the company upon getting married, per company policy. Although Boris's official rationale is that that love distracts from artistic excellence, the film also reveals that he takes his coworkers' emotional lives (which he lacks) as a personal slight, due to his jealousy of their happiness.

The company proceeds to Monaco. In Irina's absence, Boris casts Vicky as the lead in a new ballet, The Ballet of the Red Shoes (based on the Andersen fairytale), and hires Julian to score it. In the ballet, a dancer acquires a pair of red ballet shoes which enable her to dance with superhuman skill, but at a price: she can never stop dancing until she dies. During rehearsals, Julian and Vicky's ambition and pride lead them to clash at first—to Boris's glee. However, they develop respect for each other as artists.

The Ballet of the Red Shoes is a resounding success. Boris revitalises the company's repertoire with Vicky as the prima ballerina and Julian as the star composer. In the meantime, Vicky and Julian fall in love. Although Boris is not romantically attracted to Vicky, he is emotionally possessive of his new star. [b] He tries to break up the relationship by telling them that their work is getting worse, but it is implied that he is projecting his own insecurities onto the relationship, as Boris's choreographer is full of praise for Julian. Boris gives Julian an ultimatum to break up with Vicky or leave the company. Julian and Vicky move back to London together and get married. Boris breaks his no-marriage rule to rehire Irina, but cannot mentally let go of Vicky.

In London, Vicky and Julian's careers go in different directions. Julian writes an opera that is set to open in Covent Garden, while Vicky's ballet career stalls. Vicky goes on holiday to Cannes without Julian, who is focused on his work. Boris meets her there. He reminds Vicky that she is the one making all the sacrifices in her marriage, and persuades her to "put on the red shoes again".

Coincidentally, the opening night of Julian's opera in London falls on the same date as Vicky's comeback performance in Monaco. Although Julian is supposed to conduct on opening night, he abruptly leaves for Monaco as a grand gesture for Vicky. In return, he insists that Vicky cancel her performance and leave Monaco and Boris immediately. After Julian and Boris have a heated argument about the value of art versus love, an anguished Vicky chooses to stay with Ballet Lermontov.

An attendant escorts Vicky to the stage. She is wearing the titular red shoes, and looks faint. She suddenly runs off and jumps in front of an oncoming train, paralleling her ill-fated character in the ballet. Julian tries to save her, but cannot. As Vicky dies, she asks Julian to remove the red shoes.

A shaken Boris announces to the audience that "Miss Page is unable to dance tonight—nor indeed any other night". The company performs The Ballet of the Red Shoes with a spotlight on the empty space where Vicky would have been.

Cast

Analysis

"Art versus life"

A central theme to The Red Shoes is a performer's conflict between their art and personal life. [6] Commenting on this theme, Powell himself stated that the film is "about dying for art, that art is worth dying for." [6] Film scholar Adrienne McLean, however, notes that Victoria's final leap to her death does not adequately represent this idea. [6] Rather, McLean states that Victoria "seems pushed by those she loves who would rather possess her than support her," and that the film ultimately illustrates the impact that "ruthless personalities" can have on "the weaker or more demure." [6]

Scholar Peter Fraser, in Cinema Journal , observes of this tension between art and life that the film implodes its own "narrative and lyrical worlds...  from the moment of recognition, when Vicky looks down at her red shoes and knows that she is then her lyrical persona, her two worlds collapse." [7] He further states that the interpenetration of the lyrical upon the narrative "alters the meaning of the fiction" itself. [7] This blurring of the lyrical and the narrative is represented at the end of the film, when Vicky jumps onto the train tracks; she is wearing the red shoes which she wore while preparing in her dressing room, despite the fact that in the performance her character does not put them on until part way through the ballet. Powell and Pressburger themselves discussed this idiosyncrasy [8] and it has been subject to significant critical analysis since. [9] Powell decided that it was artistically "right" for Vicky to be wearing the red shoes at that point because if she is not wearing them, it takes away the ambiguity over why she died. [8]

The Ballet of the Red Shoes

"We have tried to make our [ballet] sequence subjective as well as objective. When the girl is dancing, she feels she is a bird, a flower, a cloud; when the spotlight hits her, she feels she is alone on a small island with waves breaking around; the figure of the conductor melts in turn into the form of the impresario, the magician, the lover, and at last into a figure made of newspapers."

–Art director Hein Heckroth on the film's stylized central ballet sequence, 1947 [10]
Publicity still showing a moment of the Ballet of the Red Shoes sequence Original publicity still for the film "The Red Shoes." From The Red Shoes (1948) Collection at Ailina Dance Archives.jpg
Publicity still showing a moment of the Ballet of the Red Shoes sequence

The Red Shoes is famous for featuring a 17-minute ballet sequence (of a ballet entitled The Ballet of the Red Shoes) as its centrepiece. [11] [12] The sequence uses a variety of filmic techniques to provide an "impressionistic link" to the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale on which it (and the ballet within the film) is based, as well as the personal struggles faced by the protagonist, Victoria Page, who is dancing the lead role. [13] McLean notes that the ballet not only duplicates Victoria's own story, but also foreshadows her love for Julian, the composer and conductor in the ballet's orchestra, as well as the contemptuous jealousy of Lermontov, its director. [14]

Throughout the ballet, visual metaphors and fantastical references to Victoria's own life come alive on the screen, including a portion in which she dances with a floating newspaper that alternates in form between mere paper and the human form of Helpmann's character; this is referential to a windblown newspaper that Victoria previously stepped on the night she discovered she had acquired the lead role in the ballet. [14]

Unlike in conventional filmed theatrical ballet, the ballet sequence in The Red Shoes is not one continuous, static shot, but instead employs a variety of editing techniques, close-ups, and special effects. [15] As the ballet progresses, McLean notes that the action of the sequence "rockets from stage right to stage left, a series of swiftly performed vignettes alternating with garishly decorated set pieces. Then, as Robert Helpmann, playing the girl's lover, is borne away into the distance by a crowd, leaving the girl alone in her cursed red shoes, the action reverses...  into and through the ballerina's subconscious mind." [16] Because of its dynamic nature and excessive use of cinematic techniques, McLean contests that the ballet sequence is a "greater, or more characteristic, film experience than a dance one." [17]

Genre

The question of genre in relationship of The Red Shoes has been a recurrent preoccupation of both critics and scholars, as it does not neatly fit within the confines of a single genre. [18] While the film's extended ballet sequences led some to characterise the film as a musical, McLean notes that the "conventional signals that had allowed fantasy elements to occur in other [musical] films are missing in The Red Shoes." [18] Fraser contests that the film is not emblematic of the standard musical as it has a tragic and violent resolution, and that it is best understood as a "prototype of a generic variation" emerging from the musical film tradition. [19]

The 21st-century critic Peter Bradshaw identifies elements of horror in the film, particularly in its central, surreal ballet sequence, which he likens to "the surface of Lewis Carroll's looking-glass, through which the viewer is transported into a new world of amazement and occult horror." [20]

Production

Screenplay

Producer Alexander Korda had conceived a ballet-themed film in 1934, which he intended to be a biopic about Vaslav Nijinsky. [21] The project never came to fruition, but in 1937, Korda found himself again inspired to write a ballet-themed film as a vehicle for Merle Oberon, his future wife. [21] Korda, along with filmmaker Michael Powell, fashioned a film based on Oberon's looks, but, because she was not a skilled dancer, Korda knew he would need to use a double for any dance sequences. [21] Korda eventually abandoned the project, instead shifting his focus to The Thief of Bagdad (1940). [21]

In 1946, Powell and his filmmaking partner Emeric Pressburger bought the rights to the screenplay Powell had co-written with Korda for £9,000. [21] According to Powell, the original screenplay contained significantly more dialogue and less story. [22]

The character of Boris Lermontov was inspired in part by Sergei Diaghilev, the impresario who founded the Ballets Russes, [23] although there are also aspects about him drawn from the personalities of producer J. Arthur Rank and even director Powell himself. [8] The particular episode in Diaghilev's life that is said to have inspired the characterisation is his seeing the 14-year-old Diana Gould partnering Frederick Ashton in the première of his first ballet, Leda and the Swan. On the basis of this, Diaghilev invited her to join his company, but he died before that plan could come about. [24]

Basis

The Hans Christian Andersen story tells how the orphan Karen's colour blind guardian buys her an inappropriate pair of red shoes for her church confirmation ceremony, but, when the mistake is discovered, forbids her to wear them. She disobeys. A crippled "old soldier" at the church door tells Karen they are dancing shoes. Later, she wears them to a ball, and cannot stop dancing. She dances day and night until an executioner, at her request, amputates her feet; the shoes dance away with them. She lives with a parson's family after that, and she dies with a vision of finally being able to join the Sunday congregation. In this story, the shoes represent "her sin", the vanity and worldly pleasures (implicitly, female sexuality) which distracted her from a life of generosity, piety, and community.

The ballet has three characters: the Girl, the Boy and the Shoemaker. The Boy, danced by Robert Helpmann, is at first the girl's boyfriend; as she dances, he turns into a sketch on transparent cellophane. Later he appears as the living counterpart of the Press, with "Le Jour" written on his forehead ("The Daily") and an alter ego made of folded newspapers, then as the prince in a triumphant Pas de deux/six. Finally, the Boy appears as the village parson; when he unties the red shoes, the girl dies in his arms. The Shoemaker, danced by Léonide Massine, is a diabolical figure far beyond the scope of the "old soldier". Always dancing, he tempts the girl with the shoes, installs them by "movie magic" on her feet, partners her briefly, and generally gloats over her confusion and despair. At one point he leads a mob of "primitive" monsters who surround her, but they elevate her high in a triumphant ballerina pose. At the end, the shoemaker picks up the discarded shoes and offers them to the audience. In the context of the movie, the shoes represent the choice offered by Lermontov to become a great dancer, at the expense of normal human relationships.

Casting

Moira Shearer, a trained ballerina, was cast in the lead role Moira Shearer 1951 press photo.jpg
Moira Shearer, a trained ballerina, was cast in the lead role

Powell and Pressburger decided early on that they had to use dancers who could act rather than actors who could dance. [25] To create a realistic feeling of a ballet company at work, and to be able to include a fifteen-minute ballet as the high point of the film, they created their own ballet company using many dancers from The Royal Ballet. [26]

In casting the lead role of Victoria Page, Powell and Pressburger sought an experienced dancer who could also act. [27] Scottish ballerina Moira Shearer was recommended by Robert Helpmann, who had been cast in the film as Ivan Boleslawsky, and was also appointed the choreographer of the central ballet sequence; Helpmann had worked with Shearer prior in a production of his ballet Miracle in the Gorbals . [27] At the time, Shearer was beginning to ascend in her career with the Sadler's Wells Dance Company, dancing under Ninette de Valois. [11] Upon reading the screenplay, Shearer declined the offer, as she felt taking a film role would negatively impact her dancing career. [27] She also felt that the screenplay presented a ballet company that was unrealistic, "utterly unlike any ballet company that there had ever been anywhere." [27] She recalled: "Red Shoes was the last thing I wanted to do. I fought for a year to get away from that film, and I couldn't shake the director off." [28]

After Shearer's refusal of the role, American ballerinas Nana Gollner and Edwina Seaver tested for the part, but their acting abilities proved unsatisfactory to Powell and Pressburger. [27] Non-dancers Hazel Court and Ann Todd were briefly considered before Shearer changed her mind, and decided to accept the role with de Valois's blessing. [29] Shearer claimed that de Valois, exasperated by the ordeal, finally advised her to take the role. [28] Powell alternately recounted that de Valois was "more manipulative" in the process, and would vacillate in regard to whether or not Shearer would have a place in the company to return to once filming was completed, accounting for Shearer's alleged protracted contemplation of whether to take the part. [28]

For the role of Julian Craster, the musician with whom Victoria falls in love, Marius Goring was cast. [30] While Goring—at the time in his mid-30s—was slightly too old to play the role, Powell and Pressburger were impressed by his "tact and unselfish approach to his craft." [30] They cast Anton Walbrook in the part of Victoria's domineering ballet director, Boris Lermontov, for similar reasons, as they felt he was a "well-mannered and sensitive actor" who could support Shearer through their emotional scenes together. [30]

The other principal dancers cast in the film included Léonide Massine (who also served as a choreographer for his role as the shoemaker in The Ballet of the Red Shoes), portraying dancer Grischa Ljubov, [31] and Ludmilla Tchérina as dancer Irina Boronskaya; the latter was cast by Powell, who was captivated by her unconventional beauty. [32]

Filming

Filming of The Red Shoes took place primarily in Paris, with principal photography beginning in June 1947. [33] Jack Cardiff, who had shot Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus, served as cinematographer. [34] The shooting schedule ran for approximately fifteen weeks, on a budget of £ 300,000 (equivalent to £12.58 millionor US$ 15.63 million in 2023) [35] . [36] Filming also occurred on location in London, Monte Carlo, and the Côte d'Azur. [37] Some sequences were filmed at Pinewood Studios, including the stage and orchestra pit sequences, which were sets constructed specifically for the film. [38]

"It is the way the film is shot and edited, the number of close-ups, a particular handling of the tools of cinematic technique, that creates the drama; there is more revealed by method than anything inherent in the dramatic context of the scenes."

Critic Adrienne McLean on the film's technical feats [39]

According to biographer Mark Connelly, the shoot was largely copacetic, with the cast and crew having a "happy time" on set. [40] On the first day of the shoot, Powell addressed the cast and crew: "We'll be doing things that haven't been done before, we'll have to work very hard—but I know it's going to be worth it." [40] The shooting of the film's central The Ballet of Red Shoes sequence took approximately six weeks, according to Shearer, who recalled that it was completed in the middle of the production. [41] Powell disputed this, instead claiming that it was the last portion of the film to be shot. [41] Filming the ballet proved difficult for experienced dancers, who were used to performing live ballet, as the filming process required them to spend hours preparing to shoot moments that lasted sometimes only a few seconds. [17] Shearer recalled that the ballet sequence was "so cinematically worked out that we were lucky if we ever danced for as long as one minute." [17]

The shoot overran significantly, totalling twenty-four weeks rather than the planned fifteen, and the final budget ballooned to over £500,000. [a] John Davis, the chief accountant of The Rank Organisation, forced a £10,000 cut to Powell and Pressburger's salaries due to the film going over budget. [40] Because the shoot was extended so far beyond schedule, Powell and Pressburger promised the cast and crew a fortnight's holiday in September. [40]

Choreography and score

Australian ballet star Robert Helpmann choreographed the ballet, played the role of the lead dancer of the Ballet Lermontov and danced the part of the boyfriend. Léonide Massine created his own choreography for his role as the Shoemaker. Brian Easdale composed the original music for the film, including the full ballet of The Red Shoes. [44] Easdale conducted most of the music in the film, except for the Ballet of the Red Shoes, where Sir Thomas Beecham conducted the score and received prominent screen credit. Beecham's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was the featured orchestra for the film. Hilda Gaunt, the long-term Sadler's Wells and Royal Ballet pianist, performed as herself.

The score for The Red Shoes was written to "fit the cinematic design," [45] and completed in an unorthodox manner: Easdale composed the score for the film's central ballet sequence based on cartoon drawings and storyboards approved by Helpmann, which were assembled in the correct sequence. [10] A total of 120 drawings were provided to help guide Easdale in writing an appropriate musical accompaniment. [10] As filming of the ballet sequence progressed, the hand drawings were replaced by the corresponding completed shots. [10] Easdale received the 1948 Academy Award for Best Original Score, the first British film composer so honoured. [46]

Release

Box office

The Red Shoes had its premiere in London on 22 July 1948, and its general release in the United Kingdom was on 6 September 1948. Upon its initial release in the United Kingdom the film was a low-earning picture, as the Rank Organisation could not afford to spend much on promotion due to severe financial problems exacerbated by the expense of Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). Also, according to Powell, the Rank Organisation did not understand the artistic merits of the film, and this strain in the relationship between The Archers and Rank led to the end of the partnership between them, with The Archers moving to work for Alexander Korda. [8]

Despite a lack of advertising, the film went on to become the sixth most popular film at the British box office in 1948. [47] [48] According to Kinematograph Weekly the 'biggest winner' at the box office in 1948 Britain was The Best Years of Our Lives with Spring in Park Lane being the best British film and "runners up" being It Always Rains on Sunday , My Brother Jonathan , Road to Rio , Miranda , An Ideal Husband , The Naked City , The Red Shoes, Green Dolphin Street , Forever Amber , Life with Father , The Weaker Sex , Oliver Twist , The Fallen Idol and The Winslow Boy . [49]

The film premiered in the United States at New York City's Bijou Theatre on 21 October 1948, [50] distributed by Eagle-Lion Films. [51] By the end of the year, it had earned $2.2 million (equivalent to $22.3 million in 2023) [52] in US rentals. [53] It ended its run at this cinema on 13 November 1950, playing for a total of 107 weeks. The success of this run convinced Universal Pictures that The Red Shoes was a worthwhile film and they took over the US distribution in 1951. The Red Shoes went on to become one of the highest-earning British films of all time, with a record-breaking gross of over $5 million. [11] [54] [3]

According to one account, producer's receipts were £179,900 in the UK and £1,111,400 overseas. [2] It made a reported profit of £785,700. [1]

Critical response

Promotional flyer for the film Original flyer for the film "The Red Shoes." From The Red Shoes (1948) Collection at Ailina Dance Archives.jpg
Promotional flyer for the film

Film scholar Mark Connelly notes that interpreting the contemporaneous critical response to The Red Shoes is a "complicated task, as there are no simple divisions between those who liked the film and those who did not." [55] Connelly concludes that the reaction was notably "complex and mixed." [55] Adrienne McLean similarly states that the film received "only mixed" reviews from both cinema and ballet critics. [56] Upon its release in the United Kingdom, the film received some criticism from the national press, particularly aimed at Powell and Pressburger for the perception that the feature was "undisciplined and downright un-British." [57]

While the film had its detractors in Britain, it was lauded by some national critics, such as Dilys Powell, who deemed it an "extreme pleasure" and "brilliantly experimental." [58] Writing for The Monthly Film Bulletin , Marion Eames praised the performances of Shearer and Goring, as well as the score. [55] The Daily Film Renter published a divisive review, noting that Powell and Pressburger "have fumbled over a fine idea, and their opulent work trembles between the heights and the depths." [55] Despite this, it was voted the third-best film of the year in a readers' poll by the Daily Mail , behind Spring in Park Lane and Oliver Twist . [59]

Initial reception proved more favourable in the United States, where the film went on to garner mainstream attention after it screened in the US arthouse circuit. [57]

A main point of contention amongst both British and American critics was a perceived lack of realism concerning the ballet sequences. [60] The focus of this criticism was the film's central 17-minute ballet performance of The Ballet of the Red Shoes: Many dance critics felt the sequence's impressionistic touches—which include abstract hallucinations and visual manifestations of Vicky's mental state—detracted from the physical aspects of the ballet. [61] British ballet critic Kathrine Sorley Walker also dismissed the sequence, commenting that it marked "a departure from the illusion of stage ballet to the limitless and lush spaces reflecting the ballerina's thought." [58] Eames made similar criticism, condemning the subjective elements of the sequence as "corrupting the integrity of the ballet," as well as the choreography. [62] Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times , however, praised the presentation of ballet in the film, deeming it "the most ambitious—and probably the most dazzlingly successful—use of traditional-type ballet in any motion picture to date." [63]

Accolades

InstitutionCategoryRecipient(s)ResultRef.
Academy Awards Best Picture Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger Nominated [64]
[54]
Best Original Screenplay Emeric PressburgerNominated
Best Original Score Brian Easdale Won
Best Art Direction Hein Heckroth, Arthur Lawson Won
Best Film Editing Reginald Mills Nominated
BAFTA Film Awards Best British Film The Red ShoesNominated [54]
Golden Globe Awards Best Original Score Brian EasdaleWon
National Board of Review Top Ten Films The Red ShoesWon [65]
Venice Film Festival Grand International AwardThe Red ShoesNominated

Home media and restoration

The American home media company The Criterion Collection released The Red Shoes on laserdisc in 1994, and on DVD in 1999. [66]

Before-and-after comparison of the film illustrating its restoration Red Shoes restoration.jpg
Before-and-after comparison of the film illustrating its restoration

Efforts to restore The Red Shoes began in the early 2000s. [67] With fundraising spearheaded by Martin Scorsese and his longtime editor (and Powell's widow), Thelma Schoonmaker, Robert Gitt and Barbara Whitehead formally began the restoration in the fall of 2006 at the UCLA Film and Television Archive, along with the help of the United States Film Foundation. [67] Gitt, the chief preservation officer of the UCLA Archive, supervised the restoration, assisting Whitehead in reviewing each individual frame of the film—192,960 in the print, 578,880 in the tripartite negative. [67] The original negatives had suffered extensive harm, including shrinkage and mould damage. [67] Because the damage to the negatives was so significant, digital restoration was the only viable method of rehabilitating the film. [68] The 4K digital restoration was completed with the help of the Prasad Corporation and Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging to remove dirt, scratches, and other flaws. [68] Digital methods were also used to remove pops, crackles and background hiss from the film's original optical soundtrack. [68]

The newly restored version of The Red Shoes had its world premiere at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. [67] Several months later, in October 2009, ITV Films released the restored version on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom. [69] On 20 July 2010, the Criterion Collection again reissued the film in its restored state on DVD and Blu-ray. [66] Reviewing the Criterion Blu-ray, which includes an illustrative demonstration of the film's restoration, Stuart Galbraith of DVD Talk referred to the "before and after" comparisons as "shocking and heartening at once." [66]

On 14 December 2021, Criterion released the 2009 restoration of The Red Shoes in 4K, as part of their first six-film slate of 4K UHD disc releases. [70]

Works inspired by the film

The 1952 film The Firebird , directed by Hasse Ekman, is largely an homage to The Red Shoes.

In the 1975 Broadway musical A Chorus Line and its 1985 film adaptation, several of the characters speak of The Red Shoes inspiring their decision to become dancers.

Kate Bush's 1993 song and album, The Red Shoes, was inspired by the film. The music was subsequently used in The Line, the Cross and the Curve (1993) a film referencing The Red Shoes written and directed by Bush. It stars Miranda Richardson and Lindsay Kemp.

The film was adapted by Jule Styne (music) and Marsha Norman (book and lyrics) into a Broadway musical, which was directed by Stanley Donen. The Red Shoes opened on 16 December 1993 at the Gershwin Theatre, with Steve Barton playing Boris Lermontov, Margaret Illmann playing Victoria Page, and Hugh Panaro playing Julian Craster. The choreography by Lar Lubovitch received the TDF's Astaire Award, but the musical closed after 51 previews and only five performances.

In 1996, St Martin's Press published The Red Shoes, a novel "...as memorable and enduring as the great film on which it is based" [71] written by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

In 2005, Ballet Ireland produced Diaghilev and the Red Shoes, a tribute to Sergei Diaghilev, the ballet impresario who founded Ballets Russes. consisting of excerpts from works made famous by that seminal company. An excerpt from The Red Shoes ballet was included, since Diaghilev was one inspiration for the character of Lermontov. [72]

In 2013, Korean singer-songwriter IU released the album Modern Times, which featured the lead single "The Red Shoes", whose lyrics were inspired by the fairy tale, and whose music video was adapted from the film.

The film was adapted as a ballet choreographed by Matthew Bourne and premiered in December 2016 in London. The production used music adapted from film scores by Bernard Herrmann, including themes from The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) and Vertigo (1958), in place of Brian Easdale's Oscar-winning score from the 1948 film.

In 2022, the award-winning short film Òran na h-Eala vividly explored Moira Shearer's heart and mind just before and after she agreed to star in The Red Shoes, a decision that would change her life forever. The film unfolds as a string of dreamlike sequences while Moira sits at a dressing room mirror, reflecting on her career choices. [73] [74]

Legacy

Retrospectively, it is regarded as one of the best films of Powell and Pressburger's partnership, and in 1999, it was voted the ninth greatest British film of all time by the British Film Institute. In the intervening years, it has garnered status as a cult film and an archetypal dance film. [56] In 2017, a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics for Time Out magazine saw it ranked the fifth best British film ever. [75] Filmmakers such as Brian De Palma, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Steven Spielberg have named it one of their all-time favourite films, [76] and Roger Ebert included it in his list of Great Movies . [9]

The film is particularly known for its cinematography and especially the use of Technicolor. In the introduction for The Criterion Collection DVD of Jean Renoir's The River , Scorsese considers The Red Shoes and The River to be the two most beautiful colour films.

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 Sources vary for the final production budget of The Red Shoes: Biographers Mark Connelly and Kevin Macdonald both state the total as £ 551,927 (equivalent to £23.14 millionor US$28.76 million in 2023) [35] , [40] [42] though historian Sarah Street provides a lower figure of £ 505,581 (equivalent to £21.19 millionor US$26.34 million in 2023) [35] . [43]
  2. ↑ Director Michael Powell later clarified that the character of Boris Lermontov was homosexual. [5]

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Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev, also known as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes, from which many famous dancers and choreographers would arise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Powell</span> English film director (1905–1990)

Michael Latham Powell was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a series of classic British films, notably The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Canterbury Tale (1944), I Know Where I'm Going! (1945), A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948) and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emeric Pressburger</span> Hungarian-British screenwriter, director and producer (1902–1988)

Emeric Pressburger was a Hungarian-British screenwriter, film director, and producer. He is best known for his series of film collaborations with Michael Powell, in a collaboration partnership known as the Archers, and produced a series of films, including 49th Parallel, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948), and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Helpmann</span> Australian dancer, actor, theatre director and choreographer (1909–1986)

Sir Robert Murray Helpmann was an Australian ballet dancer, actor, director, and choreographer. After early work in Australia he moved to Britain in 1932, where he joined the Vic-Wells Ballet under its creator, Ninette de Valois. He became one of the company's leading men, partnering Alicia Markova and later Margot Fonteyn. When Frederick Ashton, the company's chief choreographer, was called up for military service in the Second World War, Helpmann took over from him while continuing as a principal dancer.

Some films feature recognizable dance forms, demonstrating them, shedding light on their origin, or being the base of a plot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Léonide Massine</span> Russian choreographer and ballet dancer (1896–1979)

Leonid Fyodorovich Myasin, better known in the West by the French transliteration as Léonide Massine, was a Russian choreographer and ballet dancer. Massine created the world's first symphonic ballet, Les Présages, and many others in the same vein. Besides his "symphonic ballets," Massine choreographed many other popular works during his long career, some of which were serious and dramatic, and others lighthearted and romantic. He created some of his most famous roles in his own comic works, among them the Can-Can Dancer in La Boutique fantasque (1919), the Hussar in Le Beau Danube (1924), and, perhaps best known of all, the Peruvian in Gaîté Parisienne (1938). Today his oeuvre is represented by his son Lorca Massine, who stages his works around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Powell and Pressburger</span> British filmmaking duo

The British film-making partnership of Michael Powell (1905–1990) and Emeric Pressburger (1902–1988)—together often known as The Archers, the name of their production company—made a series of influential films in the 1940s and 1950s. Their collaborations—24 films between 1939 and 1972—were mainly derived from original stories by Pressburger with the script written by both Pressburger and Powell. Powell did most of the directing while Pressburger did most of the work of the producer and also assisted with the editing, especially the way the music was used. Unusually, the pair shared a writer-director-producer credit for most of their films. The best-known of these are The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Canterbury Tale (1944), I Know Where I'm Going! (1945), A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948), and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951).

<i>The Small Back Room</i> 1949 British film by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

The Small Back Room is a 1949 film by the British producer-writer-director team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger starring David Farrar and Kathleen Byron and featuring Jack Hawkins and Cyril Cusack. It was based on the 1943 novel of the same name by Nigel Balchin.

<i>The Tales of Hoffmann</i> (1951 film) 1951 film directed by Emeric Pressburger & Michael Powell

The Tales of Hoffmann is a 1951 British Technicolor comic opera film written, produced and directed by the team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger working under the umbrella of their production company The Archers. It is an adaptation of Jacques Offenbach's 1881 opera The Tales of Hoffmann, itself based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moira Shearer</span> Scottish ballerina and actress (1926–2006)

Moira Shearer King, Lady Kennedy was a Scottish ballet dancer and actress. She was famous for her performances in Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes (1948) and The Tales of Hoffman (1951) and Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960).

Brian Easdale was a British composer of operatic, orchestral, choral and film music, best known for his ballet film score The Red Shoes of 1948.

<i>The Red Shoes</i> (musical) 1993 Broadway production

The Red Shoes is a musical with a book by Marsha Norman, lyrics by Norman and Bob Merrill and music by Jule Styne. Based on Powell and Pressburger's 1948 film, it tells the tale of a young ballerina who performs in an adaptation of the 1845 Hans Christian Andersen story.

Reginald Mills was a British film editor and one-time film director with more than thirty feature film credits. Among his prominent films are The Red Shoes (1948), for which he received his only Academy Award nomination, The Servant (1963), and Romeo and Juliet (1968).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hein Heckroth</span> German art director

Hein Heckroth was a German painter and art director of stage and film productions.

<i>Honeymoon</i> (1959 film) 1959 film by Michael Powell

Honeymoon, also shown as The Lovers of Teruel in the United States, is a 1959 film by the British director-writer Michael Powell based in part on the ballet El Amor Brujo by Manuel de Falla. The film stars Anthony Steel, Ludmilla Tchérina and Spanish ballet dancer Antonio, and features Léonide Massine.

Ian Christie is a British film scholar. He has written several books including studies of the works of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Martin Scorsese and the development of cinema. He is a regular contributor to Sight & Sound magazine and a frequent broadcaster. Christie is Professor of Film and Media History at Birkbeck, University of London.

Walter Percy Day O.B.E. (1878–1965) was a British painter best remembered for his work as a matte artist and special effects technician in the film industry. Professional names include W. Percy Day; Percy Day; "Pop" or "Poppa" Day, owing to his collaboration with sons Arthur George Day (1909–1952) draughtsman, Thomas Sydney Day (1912–1985), stills photographer and cameraman, and stepson, Peter Ellenshaw, who also worked in this field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivor Beddoes</span> English painter

Ivor William Gilmour Beddoes was a British matte painter, sketch and storyboard artist, costume and set designer, painter, dancer, composer and poet. He is best known for his film work, spanning more than thirty years, from Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes to Star Wars and Superman.

Alan Carter, was an English ballet dancer, choreographer, teacher, and company director, active in numerous countries in Europe and the Middle East. Perhaps best remembered for his work in films, notably The Red Shoes and The Tales of Hoffmann, he was known in his later years as a ballet master and as a gifted painter, pianist, composer, and writer.

The Red Shoes is a ballet choreographed by Matthew Bourne using the music of Bernard Herrmann (1911–1975). It is based broadly on the 1948 film The Red Shoes by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The set and costume designs are by Lez Brotherston. The ballet was premiered on 6 December 2016 at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London, by Bourne's ballet company, New Adventures.

References

  1. 1 2 Harper, Sue; Porter, Vincent (2003). British Cinema of The 1950s The Decline of Deference. Oxford University Press USA. p. 275.
  2. 1 2 Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p. 354. Income is in terms of producer's share of receipts.
  3. 1 2 "All-Time Top-Grossers". Variety . Vol. 193, no. 6. 13 January 1954. p. 10. ISSN   0042-2738 . Retrieved 20 July 2022– via Archive.org.
  4. ↑ "The Red Shoes". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 13 August 2024.
  5. ↑ Ehrenstein, David (19 July 2010). "The Red Shoes: Dancing for Your Life". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
  6. 1 2 3 4 McLean 1988, p. 43.
  7. 1 2 Fraser 1987, p. 52.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Powell 1986, pp. 650–651.
  9. 1 2 Ebert, Roger (1 January 2005). "The Red Shoes (1948)". Chicago Sun-Times . Chicago. Archived from the original on 21 December 2018.
  10. 1 2 3 4 McLean 1988, p. 49.
  11. 1 2 3 Street 2016, p. 109.
  12. ↑ McLean 2008, pp. 147–149.
  13. ↑ Street 2016, pp. 109–110.
  14. 1 2 McLean 2008, p. 149.
  15. ↑ McLean 1988, pp. 49–53.
  16. ↑ McLean 2008, p. 148.
  17. 1 2 3 McLean 1988, p. 54.
  18. 1 2 McLean 1988, p. 47.
  19. ↑ Fraser 1987, p. 53.
  20. ↑ Bradshaw, Peter (10 December 2009). "The Red Shoes". The Guardian . London, England. Archived from the original on 6 February 2017.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 Connelly 2005, p. 4.
  22. ↑ McLean 2008, p. 33.
  23. ↑ Macaulay, Alastair (31 August 2008). "Love and Dance: Two Obsessions, One Classic Film". The New York Times .
  24. ↑ Pritchard, Jane (January 2011). "Menuhin, Diana Rosamond Constance Grace Irene (nee Gould), Lady Menuhin (1912–2003)" . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/88750 . Retrieved 12 November 2012.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)(subscription required)
  25. ↑ Connelly 2005, pp. 36–40.
  26. ↑ McLean 2008, pp. 33–34.
  27. 1 2 3 4 5 Connelly 2005, p. 36.
  28. 1 2 3 McLean 1988, p. 36.
  29. ↑ Connelly 2005, pp. 36–37.
  30. 1 2 3 Connelly 2005, p. 38.
  31. ↑ Connelly 2005, pp. 39–40, 69.
  32. ↑ Connelly 2005, p. 40.
  33. ↑ Connelly 2005, p. 5.
  34. ↑ McLean 2008, p. 35.
  35. 1 2 3 United Kingdom Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the MeasuringWorth "consistent series" supplied in Thomas, Ryland; Williamson, Samuel H. (2024). "What Was the U.K. GDP Then?". MeasuringWorth . Retrieved 15 July 2024.
  36. ↑ Connelly 2005, pp. 5–6.
  37. ↑ Connelly 2005, p. 58.
  38. ↑ McLean 1988, p. 37.
  39. ↑ McLean 1988, p. 46.
  40. 1 2 3 4 5 Connelly 2005, p. 6.
  41. 1 2 McLean 1988, p. 39.
  42. ↑ Macdonald 1994, p. 295.
  43. ↑ Street 2016, p. 110.
  44. ↑ McLean 1988, pp. 48–50.
  45. ↑ McLean 1988, p. 48.
  46. ↑ Pritchard, Stephen (1 October 2006). "For the record". The Observer . Archived from the original on 18 January 2017.
  47. ↑ "The Starry Way". The Courier-Mail . Brisbane: National Library of Australia. 8 January 1949. p. 2. Retrieved 11 July 2012.
  48. ↑ Thumim, Janet (Autumn 1991). "The popular cash and culture in the postwar British cinema industry". Screen. Vol. 32, no. 3. p. 258.
  49. ↑ Lant, Antonia (1991). Blackout : reinventing women for wartime British cinema. Princeton University Press. p. 232.
  50. ↑ Connelly 2005, p. 74.
  51. ↑ McLean 2008, p. 137.
  52. ↑ Johnston, Louis; Williamson, Samuel H. (2023). "What Was the U.S. GDP Then?". MeasuringWorth . Retrieved 30 November 2023. United States Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the MeasuringWorth series.
  53. ↑ "Top Grossers of 1948", Variety 5 January 1949 p 46
  54. 1 2 3 Mayer 2003, p. 314.
  55. 1 2 3 4 Connelly 2005, p. 68.
  56. 1 2 McLean 1988, p. 32.
  57. 1 2 Connelly 2005, p. 3.
  58. 1 2 Connelly 2005, p. 70.
  59. ↑ Connelly 2005, p. 67.
  60. ↑ Connelly 2005, pp. 68–71.
  61. ↑ Connelly 2005, pp. 69–70.
  62. ↑ Connelly 2005, p. 69.
  63. ↑ Scheuer, Philip K. (19 December 1948). "Coproducer Explains 'Red Shoes' Success". Los Angeles Times . Los Angeles, California. p. 19 – via Newspapers.com.
  64. ↑ "The Red Shoes". Northwest Film Center . Portland, Oregon. 30 December 2016. Archived from the original on 12 November 2019.
  65. ↑ Connelly 2005, p. 75.
  66. 1 2 3 Galbraith, Stuart (19 July 2010). "The Red Shoes (Blu-ray)". DVD Talk . Archived from the original on 29 March 2016.
  67. 1 2 3 4 5 Turan, Kenneth (17 May 2009). "'The Red Shoes' shines anew". Los Angeles Times . Los Angeles, California. Archived from the original on 14 October 2018.
  68. 1 2 3 Scorsese, Martin; Christie, Ian; Gitt, Robert (2009). "Dancing to the Music of Time: The Red Shoes Restored" (PDF). UCLA Film and Television Archive . University of California, Los Angeles. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 September 2019.
  69. ↑ "The Red Shoes Blu-ray: United Kingdom Special Restoration Edition". Blu-ray.com. Archived from the original on 14 August 2018.
  70. ↑ Machkovech, Sam (11 August 2021). "Criterion announces support for 4K UHD Blu-ray, beginning with Citizen Kane". Ars Technica. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  71. ↑ https://www.amazon.com/Red-Shoes-Michael-Powell/dp/0312140347, backcover
  72. ↑ Berry, Kevin (4 November 2005). "Diaghilev and the Red Shoes". The Stage.
  73. ↑ "Òran na h-Eala". IMDb. Amazon.
  74. ↑ "Òran na h-Eala". Film Directory. British Film Council.
  75. ↑ "The 100 best British films". Time Out . Retrieved 24 October 2017
  76. ↑ Hutchinson, Pamela (6 September 2018). "Five Things to Know About The Red Shoes – Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's Triumph Turns 70". British Film Institute . Retrieved 20 March 2019.

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