The Red Shoes (1948)
By
Henry Coombs
One of the few films impossible to over-praise
20th December 1999
The film isn't THAT closely related to Hans Christian Andersen's story;
but it would be a good idea to read the story before seeing the film. It's
one of Andersen's better stories, anyway.
Another minor note: if no other consideration will sway you, see `The Red
Shoes' for a perceptive look the position of the ballet composer relative
to that of the dancers. For Powell and Pressburger it's no more than a diverting
side issue, but it's one of the things that especially interested me. If
you look at advertisements for ballet productions today, you'll notice that
the composer's name is NEVER printed - even if the ballet is called `Cinderella'
and the public has no way of working out whose score is being used. It puts
the composer in his place, no doubt. Yet musicians at the ballet are in
the habit of thinking that they're the most important people there.
I'm on their side. I happen to loathe classical ballet as such. `Swan Lake'
strikes me as a lovely score disfigured by people who insist on dancing
to it. Yet `The Red Shoes' makes me put all of this aside. Indeed, it would
be fair to say that I simply CAN'T dislike ballet while watching the film
- which is especially odd, considering some of the things it does to people.
So, yes, if `The Red Shoes' can have this effect on ME, of all people, it's
surely one of the best films ever made. I can't agree at all with the people
who describe the film as `melodrama' or `camp'. (The latter charge I scarcely
even understand.) The story is what it is and it's told at the most realistic
and sincere level appropriate. The characters who act theatrically (NOT
melodramatically) are all creatures of the theatre, and have not spent not
just their days but their lives in Lermontov's troupe. If you want a more
understated view of things then watch the musicians. To put in a word for
one of them, Brian Easdale's source music is superb: GOOD music of a kind
that an English composer like Craster might well be expected to write. It's
clear that Easdale wrote Craster's compositions first, and then constructed
the rest of the score around them, rather than vice versa.
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