The Red Shoes

The Red Shoes is a 1948 Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger film. The ballet in the film is called The Red Shoes and is based on the Hans Christian Andersen story by that name. I've seen it several times, but this time I watched it with The Daughter who had never seen it before. I'm happy to say she liked it; I was hoping she would.

That makes the 3rd ballet-based movie I've seen lately: The Black Swan and Etoile are the others.

trailer:

Senses of Cinema says,

The Red Shoes was a landmark dance film because it was the first film to transcend dance’s theatricality and move into “pure cinema”. As a mise-en-abyme, the film’s structure and production provided a concrete example of how films about dance productions could be interpreted more evocatively.

Slant Magazine opens its review by saying,

To paraphrase Macbeth, the cinema hath bubbles—a select few works of art so rare in their beauty, delicacy, and refinement that you fear they will vanish in front of your eyes before your retinas have fully gorged themselves on the visual splendor before you. The Red Shoes is one such film.

It's #5 on the Time Out list of 100 best British films. DVD Talk says, "If The Red Shoes is The Archers' (Powell/Pressburger) most popular film, it is because it has inspired an audience beyond the fans of creative cinema." Roger Ebert has it on his list of great movies and says, "The film is voluptuous in its beauty and passionate in its storytelling. You don't watch it, you bathe in it". Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 98%. It's listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.