Short Take: The Red Shoes

One may not immediately think of The Red Shoes, written and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, as a film musical. There's no singing, and only one extended dance sequence. But it's hard to think of another picture that's had a bigger impact on the genre. It's also a great film regardless of categories. The story begins with a London ballet impresario (Anton Walbrook) hiring two up-and-coming talents for his company: a ballerina (Moira Shearer), and a composer/conductor (Marius Goring). He makes both of them stars with the company's treatment of the Hans Christian Andersen story "The Red Shoes," but they fall in love, and neither can maintain the obsessive, perfectionist focus he demands. Powell and Pressburger take a viewer right to the heart of artistic dedication veering into monomania, and the wrenching conflicts between professional ambition and the need for a fulfilling personal life. The film is also a compelling tribute to the ballet art form and the world of professional dance. The centerpiece, an 18-minute scene featuring the debut performance of "The Red Shoes" ballet, is among the finest production numbers in movie history. It's a poetic treatment of the film's themes, the imagery is hallucinatory, and it is breathtakingly danced by Shearer and the other performers. Shearer also handles herself well in the dramatic scenes, and she even holds her own with Walbrook, whose performance is a masterfully rendered portrait of ambitious determination and enigmatic self-containment. Every aspect of the production--including Jack Cardiff's color cinematography, Hein Heckroth and Arthur Lawson's sets, and Brian Easdale's score--is gorgeous. Robert Helpmann, who plays the ballet company's dance director, choreographed "The Red Shoes" dance sequence, and is featured as its boyfriend character. The screenplay is based on an unproduced script by Pressburger about the relationship between ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev and dancer Vaslav Nijinsky.