Michael Powell's and Emeric Pressburger's The Red Shoes

[Hal2001]

The Red Shoes (1948)

Michael Powell's and Emeric Pressburger's "The Red Shoes" does an amazing thing. It takes what is considered by some to be a dull art form and mixes in a great story of love, jealousy, and dreams. Most of the characters here know exactly what they want, while one of them, a ballet dancer must make one of the hardest decisions she has ever been faced with, a decision that will affect the rest of her life.

The film opens as a group of students go to a concert held by one of their professors. One of these students is Julian Craster (Marius Goring), who quickly realizes during the performance that his professor has stolen many of his works. This leads Julian to write a letter to the owner of the ballet, Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook). Boris ends up offering him a job on his staff as the orchestra conductor, which Julian takes. Around the same time, Boris also meets a young woman, Victoria Page (Moira Shearer), at a party. She is already a dancer but dreams of becoming famous. Boris decides to give her a chance and invites her to a rehearsal for his troupe's upcoming production.

When the troupe's lead dancer gets married, Boris fires her because he believes that "a dancer who relies upon the doubtful comforts of human love will never be a great dancer." For their next production, he decides to give Victoria a chance at the lead and gives Julian the job of rewriting the score. Their next production is to be "The Red Shoes," based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson about a dancer who puts on a pair of red shoes that make them continually dance until they die. Shortly after, a romance begins between Julian and Victoria, a romance that Boris is very displeased with.

This film is very misleading with its first half as it begins rather slowly, making one think that its just going to be a very simple story about a ballet troupe performing in various countries. But then we realize that it was setting up everything that was to come in the second half of the film. When we arrive at the performance of "The Red Shoes," we know that there was a reason we were waiting, as well as a reason this is considered a masterpiece amongst film scholars.

The performance of "The Red Shoes" is one of the most bizarre, dazzling, and beautiful scenes created for a motion picture. It reminded me a lot of the fantastical elements of a previous Powell masterpiece, "The Thief of Baghdad," with its use of imagery and special effects. I mentioned it before but it demands repeating, it is a beautiful scene. Its elegance is shown in the dancer's movements and the use of camera tricks that show us dancers appearing and disappearing, haunting locations, and equally haunting characters. We notice all of this, yet we never take our eyes off of those red shoes that are so prominent amongst the various splashes of color.

The second half of the film is also what sets up a maddening jealousy. It was obvious that Boris had feelings for his original star dancer, which caused him to fire her when she suddenly announced her marriage. It is again obvious that he has feelings for Victoria as he gives her the chance of a lifetime to dance the lead in his productions. But when Julian and Victoria fall in love, he doesn't even show much emotion. He is affected, that's true, but it’s hard to tell whether he is angry, upset, or just simply annoyed as Boris always hides his emotions from everyone else.

This is brilliantly done by Anton Walbrook. He wants Victoria, but she is in love with another, so he must find a way to bring her back. Walbrook's performance never divulges too much about his character or his intentions, though we know his intentions revolve around Victoria, but what is he really playing at? Does he love her for being a great dancer for the ballet or does he simply love her for her? These are questions that are hard to answer due to Walbrook's amazing portrayal of a lonely man who runs his life, and others' lives, like it was a business.

After a falling out between Boris and Julian, Julian leaves with Victoria, who now must dance wherever she can find work, but as Boris points out, it is not the same as being with his production company. When Victoria and Boris end up on the same train, he makes her an offer to come back to dance "The Red Shoes" again, an offer that tempts her greatly and leaves her with an impossible choice: Stay with Julian or continue dancing with Boris's troupe.

This leads to one of the most shocking endings I have seen in a film in a long time, one that I must admit I did not see coming. But then again, when faced with a choice between the love of her life or her love of dancing, a dream she has had all of her life, what else could she have done? The last few sequences of the film are brilliantly paralleled with a performance of "The Red Shoes," cutting back and forth between the two, but of the ending I will say no more.

There are darker elements at work in "The Red Shoes" but Powell has proven that he can handle this type of material with another previous masterpiece of his, "Peeping Tom." On another teaming with Powell, Pressburger, who is mainly a writer, proved that he can tell a very engrossing story with the great "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp." Powell had delivered several great films before, but by combining with Pressburger, that greatness only continued. 4/4 stars.