The Red Shoes (1948)

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger wrote, directed, and produced the 1948 British drama film The Red Shoes. It is also considered as one of the best ballet movies. It follows Victoria Page (Moira Shearer), a ballerina who joins the world-famous Ballet Lermontov, which is owned and run by Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook), who puts her commitment to the ballet to the test by forcing her to choose between her work and her passion with composer Julian Craster (Marius Goring).

In his memoirs, Michael Powell commented on how, during WWII, Britons were persuaded to die for freedom and democracy, whereas The Red Shoes told them to "go and die for art." Powell referred to the film's unique blending of music, dance, and picture as "composed cinema," an ideal that inspired him to create additional attempts at a Gesamtkunstwerk, or "total artwork," such as The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) and Oh... Rosalinda!! (1955).

The Red Shoes's success in putting ballet on screen stemmed from defying balletomane snobbery and casting professional dancers and choreographers in prominent roles, particularly Moira Shearer, Ludmilla Tchérina, Robert Helpmann, and Léonide Massine. In 1999, the British Film Institute named it the ninth best British film of all time. Damage to the original negatives was so severe that it required extensive digital restoration, which began in 2006 at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. In 2017, Time Out magazine selected it as the fifth finest British film of all time, based on a vote of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers, and reviewers.

Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Casts: Moira Shearer, Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring
IMDb: 8,1