The Red Shoes - Plus Documentary

Starring: Marius Goring, Moira Shearer Director: Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell Original UK Premiere: 1948 Dvd Release: 21st May, 2001 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: PAL, Region 2 Encoding

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The Red Shoes is a film by the British -based director-writer team of Powell & Pressburger. The inventive, self-referential plot of this film tells the story of a young ballerina forced to perform in a ballet called The Red Shoes, based on a story by Hans Christian Andersen about a woman who cannot stop dancing. The film stars Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring & Moira Shearer. It was adapted by Powell & Pressburger, with additions by Keith Winter & Marius Goring. The script by Pressburger was originally written for Alexander Korda as a vehicle for Kordas future wife Merle Oberon. After some years had passed with no film having been made, Powell & Pressburger bought the script back, rewrote it to make it a more heavyweight affair & include more dancing & made it themselves. There is also a song & an album called The Red Shoes by Kate Bush, in reference to the film. There is also a Broadway musical The Red Shoes by Jule Styne, author of classics like Funny Girl & Gypsy. The Gershwin Theatre, New York City, showed this musical. Posters Of The Red Shoes

DVD Extras: Sadly for a film in which music is such a central element, the advertised digital remastering doesn't seem to have extended to the mono soundtrack, which shows its age quite badly. The colour print, however, looks very vibrant. This special edition also includes a new 25-minute making-of feature with a few comments from crew members & admirers of the film, including ballerina Darcey Bussell. The Ballet of the Red Shoes can be seen on its own in a separate featurette, & there are text biographies & a trailer.--

Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburgers most celebrated Technicolor fairy-tale, The Red Shoes is both metaphor & melodrama of unparalleled boldness. So extravagantly theatrical a movie was regarded as simply unreleasable by the Rank Organisation back in 1948, but in spite of their attempted suppression it has long since been acknowledged as one of British cinemas landmark achievements. Not only were Powell & Pressburger unorthodox enough to populate the cast with real ballet dancers , they built the whole film around an extraordinarily daring 17-minute ballet sequence in which the camera moves from outside the proscenium arch into a subjective whirl of impressionistic images inspired & informed by Brian Easdales marvellous score. Only after seeing this, so the story goes, was Gene Kelly able to see how he could make An American in Paris.

The melodramatic plot, metaphorically acted out in the Red Shoes Ballet then re-enacted for real by the main characters, presents Great Art as something worth dying for, and, in the person of Anton Walbrooks Lermontov, gives us a portrait of the artist as a man for whom anything & everything is worth sacrificing in its pursuit. Loosely based on Diaghilev, impresario of the Ballets Russes, Walbrooks magnetic central performance is of sufficient stature to conceal the rather trite predicament of his ballerina protégée, & the films contrived, over-the-top tragic ending.

Marius Goring was a British stage & cinema actor. He is most often remembered for the four films he did with Powell & Pressburger, particularly as Conductor 71 in A Matter of Life & Death. He often played foreign roles. Goring was born in the Isle of Wight, the son of a doctor. After attending Perse School in Cambridge, he went on to study at several European universities. He first appeared on stage in 1925, in Cambridge & by 1927 had performed in London. His early stage career included appearences at the Old Vic, Sadlers Wells, Stratford & several European tours. He first played the West End in a 1934 production of the Voysey Inheritance at the Shaftesbury Theatre. During the 1930s he played a varirty of Shakespearean roles, including Feste in Twelfth Night, Macbeth & Romeo, as well as Trip in School for Scandal. In 1929 he became a founding member of British Equity, the actors union & became its president from 1963-65 & again from 1975-82. During the war he joined the army, becoming supervisor of BBC radio productions broadcasting to Germany & continued acting. Posters Of The Red Shoes

Editors Choice: Ill Met By Moonlight, The Red Shoes, View DVDology

Moira Shearer is an internationally-famous ballet dancer & actress. The daughter of actor Harold V King, she was educated in Scotland, England & Africa as a child. Trained as a ballerina, she made her debut with the International Ballet in 1941 before moving on to Sadlers Wells in 1942. She rose to international fame in 1948 after starring as Victoria Page in the ballet -themed film The Red Shoes. With hair that matched the titular footwear, the role & film were so powerful that even though she went to on to star in other films & worked as a dancer for many decades, she is primarily known only for playing Vicki. In 1950, she married Ludovic Kennedy with whom she has a son & three daughters. In 1972, she was chosen by the BBC to present the Eurovision Song Contest when it was staged at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh. Posters Of Peeping Tom

Editors Choice: Peeping Tom, The Red Shoes, View DVDology

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