The Red Shoes is often considered one of the best British films of all time. While there is unquestionably much to admire, I didn't love it.
Aspiring ballerina Victoria Page (Moria Shearer) joins the renowned Ballet Lermontov, owned and operated by Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook). She becomes hugely successful performing in 'The Ballet of the Red Shoes' based on the Hans Christian Anderson fairytale. When she falls in love with composer Julian Craster (Marcus Goring), she is forced by Lermontov to choose between him and dancing.
One of the most notable aspects of this film is the seventeen-minute ballet performance in the middle. This is cleverly done with the ballet essentially telling the story of the film in a condensed way. It was a controversial sequence at the time as traditionally filmed ballets had involved a static camera filming the stage with few cuts. Pressburger and Powell shot this very cinematically (some dancers said they never actually danced for more than a couple of minutes at a time). It also used special effects and other cinematic techniques. In the way that a film is a cinematic version of a play, this sequence is a cinematic version of a ballet. Whilst I can recognise the skill involved, dance is not an art form I've ever really appreciated and so beyond admiring the concept, I found this sequence quite dull.
The film is all about the conflict that many performers have between their art and their life and the idea that art is worth dying for. I'm not sure the film totally succeeds in exploring this idea because it makes this conflict not externally from within Victoria but from Lermontov.
Lermontov is a really horrible character, and a plausible one, a man who is possessive over his stars despite having no apparent romantic feelings for them. He is convinced that being in love makes them less good at their art even though no one else has any evidence for this. He fails to recognize the power of emotion that love generates and that can be poured into the art due to his own loveless life.
Moira Shearer is superb as Victoria. Pressburger and Powell quite rightly realised that they'd need to find talented dancers who could also act rather than the other way around. Shearer's dancing is beautiful but she also delivers an acting performance that matches it-she's so great here it launched a successful film career.
I can totally understand who some people utterly adore this film and I could appreciate what it does even if I couldn't connect with it.
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