Film: The Red Shoes
Year: 1948
Writer/Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Starring: Moira Shearer, Marius Goring, Anton Walbrook, Leonide Massine, Robert Helpmann, Albert Bassermann, Ludmilla Tcherina, Esmond Knight.
Running time: 133 min.
NOTE: There may be spoilers in this review. Sorry.
As I said in my review of Sunrise, cinema is one medium which never fails to amaze me. As you may or may not know, I am quite the fan of classic films, particularly those made before the mid-50s. I just feel like they have so much more to offer than other films, as they were made just as cinema was become a huge thing. That meant that the film-makers could experiment with their unique and fresh ideas, paving the way for many more film-makers in the future. They were the true inventors, as they didn't have computers or fancy technology to do the hard work for them. They figured out a way to do it. This is part of the reason why I loved The Red Shoes so much. The film, written and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (who had made Black Narcissus the year before), is shot in glorious Technicolour, which was a rarity in 1948, even though it had been around for quite some time. Everything looks pretty mainstream and normal for this film until it gets to the 15 minute ballet sequence showing the production of 'The Red Shoes', a fairytale written by Hans Christian Andersen and the story in which the movie is partially based upon. It is then that the movie becomes a visual treat, with the ballet sequence becoming one of the most beautiful things that my eyes have ever seen.
