2h 14min | Drama, Music, Romance | 22 July 1948 (UK) | Color
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Stars: Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring, Moira Shearer.
Alan Carter...assistant maitre de ballet: The Ballet of The Red Shoes
Joan Harris...assistant maitresse de ballet: The Ballet of The Red Shoes
Robert Helpmann...choreographer: The Ballet of The Red Shoes
Léonide Massine...(the part of the Shoemaker created and danced by)
This is British, but the first criterion for inclusion on this music/al quest was that I owned a copy.
8 Soundtracks entries, all classical music, nothing about dancers there. We have a long list of dancers in the Cast.
Probably the most important credit here, one that I don't usually list, is cinematographer Jack Cardiff. His mastery of Technicolor is well documented, and this is one of the prime examples. The scene in the Paris Opera house rehearsal room looks EXACTLY like a Renoir painting. And in the commentary track he says he was trying to invoke that.
The lengthy Red Shoes ballet in this film with the cinematography, is clearly an inspiration for the Impressionist paintings ballet in An American in Paris ('51, Minnelli) danced by G.Kelly, L.Caron and chorus. This is why survey/history of cinema is taught as a World art form.
A lot of the acting falls on dancers to execute. They are far better than those in Specter of the Rose (1946), 5. And this film is not supposed to be naturalistic, so the exaggerated expressions here are appropriate.
Why only a 7+ for a "masterpiece?" It's art that I can appreciate, not art that changes me. It's entertainment that is interesting, not thrilling, fun, enjoyable. If someone collected all copies of the film, taking them out of circulation forever, I'd say that's a shame for future generations, but I wouldn't grieve my own loss.
I don't want to say more about the film since I would hope to forget some of it before watching it again. All the extra features on this Criterion blu-ray were worth viewing again.
The Archers, distr. GFD, dir. Powell & Pressburger; 7+
