The Red Shoes

Overview

Seeing the restored print of the 1948 Powell & Pressburger classic The Red Shoes is like seeing it for the first time. And, if it really is your first time taking it in, how I envy you! Following two and a half years of restoration work propelled by Martin Scorcese, editor Thelma Schoonmaker and the team at the UCLA Film & Television Archive, The Red Shoes absolutely sings on screen. The colours dazzle as much as the actual story, which remains elegantly suspenseful and haunting.

Based loosely on a Hans Christian Anderson fairytale, this is the story of the intersection of three very driven personalities: a dancer, a composer and a ballet director. It is not the happy tale of collaborative fulfilment however; it is the story of the passionate obsession behind creative ambitions and the ruthless choices demanded between art and life. It is also a glimpse into the netherworld of a ballet company at work, so realistic due in part to the casting of both actors and real dancers. The titular ballet — choreographed and performed by Robert Helpmann and Leonide Massine — is shown in one of the most stunning scenes ever marked upon film, each frame dripping into the next. At its center, naturally, are the red shoes that contain more magic and horror than Dorothy's.

If you are the kind of film lover who is glancing longingly at your flat screen television as you read this review, thinking "I'll just wait for the blu-ray", I advise you to start this article over, up there at the first paragraph, and to pay attention this time. Of course a film as stunning as this will be wonderful any way you watch it but please, pirouette to the popcorn counter and see this masterpiece on the big screen while you can.

* To begin this repertory run at the Chauvel with appropriate fanfare, Kevin Powell, son of co-director Michael Powell will introduce the film on opening night, Thursday March 18th at 6:30pm.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=tSgar55BfPw