The Red Shoes:
Dancing for Your Life
By July 20, 2010
“Why do you want to dance?” “Why do you want to live?” A question followed by another question stands at the beating heart of The Red Shoes. It’s an Read more »
- United Kingdom
- 1948
- 133 minutes
- Color
- 1.33:1
- French, English
- Spine #44
SYNOPSIS: The Red Shoes, the singular fantasia from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, is cinema’s quintessential backstage drama, as well as one of the most glorious Technicolor feasts ever concocted for the screen. Moira Shearer is a rising star ballerina torn between an idealistic composer and a ruthless impresario intent on perfection. Featuring outstanding performances, blazingly beautiful cinematography by Jack Cardiff, Oscar-winning sets and music, and an unforgettable, hallucinatory central dance sequence, this beloved classic, now dazzlingly restored, stands as an enthralling tribute to the life of the artist.
Cast & CreditsOpen
Cast
| Boris Lermontov | Anton Walbrook |
| Julian Craster | Marius Goring |
| Victoria Page | Moira Shearer |
| Ivan Boleslawsky | Robert Helpmann |
| Ljubov | Leonide Massine |
| Ratov | Albert Basserman |
| Boronskaja | Ludmilla Tcherina |
| Livy | Esmond Knight |
| Professor Palmer | Austin Trevor |
| Dimitri | Eric Berry |
| Lady Neston | Irene Brown |
Credits
| Director | Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger |
| Written, produced, and directed by | Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger |
| Production design | Hein Heckroth |
| Editing | Reginald Mills |
| Music composed, arranged, and conducted by | Brian Easdale |
| Art direction | Arthur Lawson |
| The "Ballet of the Red Shoes" choreography by | Robert Helpmann |
| The part of the shoemaker created and danced by | Leonide Massine |
| The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by | Sir Thomas Beecham |
| Cinematography | Jack Cardiff |
Disc Features
- New high-definition master from the award-winning 2009 digital restoration (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
- Introductory restoration demonstration with filmmaker Martin Scorsese
- Audio commentary by film historian Ian Christie, featuring interviews with stars Marius Goring and Moira Shearer, cinematographer Jack Cardiff, composer Brian Easdale, and Scorsese
- Profile of “The Red Shoes,” a documentary on the making of the film, featuring interviews with members of the production team
- Video interview with director Michael Powell’s widow, Thelma Schoonmaker Powell, from the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, in which she discusses Powell, the film, and the restoration
- Audio recording of actor Jeremy Irons reading excerpts from Powell and Pressburger’s novelization of The Red Shoes
- Collection of rare publicity stills and behind-the-scenes photos
- Gallery of items from Scorsese’s personal collection of The Red Shoes memorabilia
- The “Red Shoes” Sketches, an animated film of Hein Heckroth’s painted storyboards, with the Red Shoes ballet as an alternate angle
- Audio recording of Irons reading the original Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Red Shoes”
- Theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic David Ehrenstein and a description of the restoration by UCLA film archivist Robert Gitt
From the CurrentView the Current »
Film Essays
The Red Shoes:
The Red Shoes
By May 24, 1999
Before The Red Shoes, there were films with dance numbers. After it, there was a new medium which combined dance, design, and music in a dreamlike spectacle. Hollywood musicals Read more »
Features
Gothic Riots:
The Work of Hein Heckroth
By November 30, 2009
The following essay was originally written for Criterion’s website in 2005, on the occasion of the DVD release of Powell and Pressburger’s The Tales Read more »
News
The BFI Celebrates
Cardiff’s Career
May 05, 2010
Oscar-winning cinematographer Jack Cardiff, whose ravishing Technicolor compositions graced the Powell and Pressburger tours de force Black Narcissus and Read more »
Michael and Marty
May 14, 2009
A new, restored print of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Red Shoes is premiering in Cannes tonight, with Martin Scorsese going onstage to introduce it. So what’s Read more »
Clippings
Movie Lines
December 17, 2009
When thinking of a movie you’ve seen, what do you first recall? An actor’s face, a snatch of music, a plot twist? For artist Paul Rogers, it all seems to come down to settings and Read more »
BRAND-NEW SHOES
July 22, 2009
We’ve previously written about the new digitally restored 35 mm print of Powell and Pressburger’s ballet masterpiece The Red Shoes, which premiered at Cannes in May. (We can’t Read more »
THE DANCE GOES ON
May 21, 2009
People just can’t get enough of The Red Shoes, judging by the buzz surrounding the new digital restoration of Powell and Pressburger’s Technicolor masterpiece, which premiered Read more »
Press Notes
Press Notes: The Red Shoes
August 04, 2010
The Red Shoes has rendered DVD Verdict critic Gordon Sullivan articulately inarticulate: “I feel utterly incapable of communicating the profound joy the movie elicits Read more »
