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Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring, Moira Shearer, Leonide Massine, Albert Basserman ... see more see more... , Esmond Knight , Robert Helpmann , Ludmilla Tchérina , Derek Elphinstone , Irene Browne , Austin Trevor , Eric Berry , Yvonne Andre , Robert Dorning , Julia Lang , Gordon Littman , Hay Petrie , Marcel Poncin , Bill Shine , Jean Short , Jerry Verno , George Woodbridge , Guy Massey , Emeric Pressburger , Joan Harris , Michel Bazalgette , Denis Carey

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's influential musical tragedy set the stage for the climactic dance ballets that became a staple of the Arthur Freed-MGM musicals (An American in Paris, Singin' i... read more read more...n the Rain and The Band Wagon) of the early 1950s. Hans Christian Andersen's tragic fairy tale forms the basis of this film about betrayal, love and art. The story begins as struggling composer Julian Craster (Marius Goring) attends a performance of the Lermontov Ballet Company and recognizes his own score in the production of "Hearts of Fire." Julian protests to ballet company director Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook) about the unauthorized use of his music. Impressed by Julian's talent, Boris hires him to compose the score for his next ballet -- a dance version of "The Red Shoes." Boris also hires an attractive young dancer, Victoria Page (Moira Shearer), to perform in the ballet. When the lead ballerina announces that she plans to get married, Boris, in a pique over being abandoned, casts Victoria in the starring role. As Julian works on the score and Victoria struggles to perfect her dance technique, the two fall in love. When "The Red Shoes" ballet is premiered -- seen in a stunning and glorious fifteen-minute sequence -- it is a raging success and it makes Victoria a star. But when Boris learns that Julian and Victoria have fallen in love, Boris, who is secretly in love with Victoria, in a fit of rage forces Julian to leave the ballet company; Victoria leaves with him. Since Boris owns the rights to "The Red Shoes" ballet, he forbids Victoria to perform the dance and she becomes unemployable. Time passes and Julian and Victoria are now happily married. Julian's compositions have made him an international success. One day, with Victoria disembarking from a train in Paris, she meets Boris, who implores her to do one performance of "The Red Shoes" in Monaco. Victoria agrees as Julian cancels an engagement in London to travel to Monte Carlo in order to convince his wife not to perform the ballet. But Victoria goes on with the performance, with tragic results. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

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89% liked it

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44 critics

R, 2 hr. 16 min.

Directed by: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Release Date: September 6, 1948

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DVD Release Date: May 25, 1999

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Flixster Reviews (838)

  • flixsterman
    January 15, 2012
    flixsterman
    Powell and Pressburger's spectacle of color, choreography and catastrophe makes Black Swan look like an ugly duckling.
  • axadntpron
    October 31, 2011
    axadntpron
    Having a shortage of respect for ballet and mesmerizing filmmaking? Watch this fantastic film immediately and it will change your mind on both issues. Don't be put off by what I thought was a slow start. As soon as the film gets its claws in you, which it surely will, you won't b... read moree able to forget it.
    The only true bad part of the film is the moment when you realize that all ballets aren't productions by The Archers. For if they were, I would be constantly clamoring, like the youths in the first part of the film, for front row seats. Also, and I know this sounds crazy, but it will change the way you look at color films. I felt like I was a child of the 60's who just got his paws on his first color television. All in all, a simply astounding picture.
  • JonathanHutchings
    October 30, 2011
    JonathanHutchings
    An absolute awe-inspiring triumph. The Red Shoes is one of few films that genuinely obsesses over art as vocation, art as religion, and art as the purpose of life. It's a feast for the senses (the gorgeous cinematography, shot in technicolor by Jack Cardiff, the tremendous perfor... read moremances, punctuated by Anton Walbrook's Boris Lermontov, the outstanding dance choreography, and the exquisite, sweeping score by Brian Easdale). It's a film that's sprawling without feeling bloated, and majestic without losing its focus. Emeric Pressburger's story appears simple at first glance, but slowly unravels as a challenging study of the value and purpose of art, and of aestheticism as a creed. I've always respected the art of ballet, but never really took much of an interest in it. It's quite astonishing, then, that I was completely engrossed by the film's 15 minute performance of "The Red Shoes." The artistry of the dancing, the brisk pace, the intense storytelling, the enrapturing backdrops (however superimposed they may have been), were all absolutely riveting.

    Clearly The Red Shoes inspired Black Swan. I contend that the latter not only owes a debt to the former, Swan owes it's entire existence to this Archers masterpiece. Not only did Aronofsky lift many of his sequences and storyboards from this film, the thematic concerns, the Bergman-esque exploration of the meaning of art, is virtually identical.

    Throughout the years, the term "melodrama" has taken on a negative connotation (thanks Douglas Sirk), but The Red Shoes implores one to recognize that melodrama is extremely powerful if handled correctly. No wonder this film is held in such high esteem, not only as a British nature treasure, but as a classic of film itself. It's one of those rare gems that reminds you of why you love the cinema.
  • SirPant
    March 22, 2011
    SirPant
    The Red Shoes is melodrama at its best and most beautiful. Is there a better partnership than Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger? The dancing, script, performances are all perfect and timeless, the only thing I didn't like was the conclusion but it's just a niggle compared to ho... read morew much I enjoyed the rest of it. A timeless classic and deservedly regarded as such.
  • FrizzDrop
    February 17, 2011
    FrizzDrop
    True beauty on and off the stage. If Michael Powell had not been so ingrained in the process of making this film, I do not believe it would have been as majestic and classical as it is.A foreign film, mostly filmed in English, the love that ruins and saves everything is not flipp... read moreant. It is not pure passion, or lust. It's sweet, without being overexaggerated, which is key. The score is unarguably the best of Powell's films, the choreography...okay, separate section for the choreography.

    The ballet was so original, directed with the eye of a magician and the fervor of a child. A fairytale retold by a captivated soul, the dance of their life. Such beauty, eloquence, and powerful passion could only be supplemented by the artistry in the cinematography.On the stage the elements of the ballet are exaggerated, with waves from an ocean crashing, as if to say we're a stone's throw from death itself. These elements are also in the actions of the people offstage, emphasizing the point that in ballet, nothing is as simple as it seems.

    The acting was superb, with such frabjous characters as the ballerina, prima, diva, Victoria Page, wanting acceptance from her mentor even after marrying the man who should make all her dreams come true. Lermontov, both wisened, talented, and shrewd, and manipulative, hateful, and eager. The scene on the train, after everything has come to a climax, is the best example of dependency I've ever seen. The actual ballet of The Red Shoes is such a beautific and favorable metaphor that it works on every level.The confrontation between Victoria and her husband made shivers flow down my spine. Such emotion, hatred and pity, a knowledge that weakness can also be what one needs to survive.

    Spoiler Alert: The ending, with Victoria's suicide, was almost traumatizing. One moment you think she's destined for a happy ending, running out to have her lover back. The next she has chosen to no longer live, to dance. What an amazing metaphor from what is seen in the beginning.

    Just a truly miraculous film.
  • FilmFanatik
    February 17, 2011
    FilmFanatik
    I just simply cannot get over this film. I fell for it immediately. A friend of mine gave me the Criterion Blu-ray of this as a gift (along with Black Narcisuss) and I watched it that night - and I haven't been able to get it out of my mind since. It is so striking. The perfo... read morermances, the design, the color and lighting schemes, the themes and subtleties contained therein...well the entire piece is just encaptulating. I am hooked, and it has a good chance of winding up in my top ten someday.
  • matertenebraum
    February 10, 2011
    matertenebraum
    `Why do you want to dance?' Anton Walbrook asks of Moira Shearer part way through Powell and Pressburger's inventive ballet film. `Why do you want to live?' is her cool response. Suggested by the Hans Christian Andersen story and a project long in development by P&P, this sumptuo... read moreus colour production allows Shearer to display her excellent ballet skills alongside Robert Helpmann and Leonide Massine, and all three are excellent.

    In fact, the `Red Shoes Ballet' alone is enough to recommend this movie in the strongest terms. Also in the cast is P&P regular Marius Goring, as the composer pushed aside for the lure of the stage. Walbrook, as the emotionless impresario who is only alive within the confines of his art, is superb, and perhaps only his role as Theo in `Colonel Blimp' served him better.
  • ebs90
    January 31, 2011
    ebs90

    Brilliant film by Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell, a "power duo" whose work I must really start looking into from now on. The Red Shoes has many layers and cannot be said to 'be about' only one thing. At first, it seemed to me an examination of the blurry line that divid

    ... read morees art and business, and how that separation grows thinner and thinner until -alas- an industry is born; an observation as valid now as it was in the early 20th century. Then, there's the artist's lifestyle; not only the sacrifice inherent to the artistry itself (which Moira Shearer's fragile frame and painful determination perfectly embody) but the personal aspirations the "industry" requires its artist/employee to forgo.

    Above any other subject, there's dancing. The Red Shoes boasts an epic, almost fifteen-minute-long dance sequence that seems lifted directly from a dream. Not only is it masterfully assembled, it seems to be born from an artistic vision way before its time, something that could even belong in any experimental piece today. Vibrant colors, majestic music, amazing set design and camerawork... definitely breathtaking and one of the main reasons to watch this film.


    However, when the dream world vanishes, The Red Shoes thrusts its viewers back into the raw, almost macabre reality of Victoria Page, a young dancer torn between her love for a man and the sacrifices she is demanded from the producer that will maker her 'the greatest ballerina in the world'. With dark and surreal undertones that transform her life into something of a musical tragedy, the film has an unforgettable atmosphere in which truth and fiction become intertwined. There's also an inescapable aspect, that of fate, which is rather in tune with the fairytale source of the story: the "spirit" of dancing itself, the one true element that has dominion over her freedom of choice, the one thing she can't give up.


    This is definitely one of the most intense films about the creative -and destructive- power of art I've ever seen, and I'm sure one of the most influential ones.
  • lewiskendell
    January 13, 2011
    lewiskendell
    "Time rushes by. Love rushes by. Life rushes by. But the red shoes dance on."

    I know next to nothing about ballet. My knowledge begins and ends with ballerinas, pointe shoes, tutus, and pirouettes. I've never even been to a performance (though, I would like to go, especially aft... read moreer seeing this). I still can appreciate a good ballet movie, though, and The Red Shoes is indeed one of them.

    Is there room for any distraction in the drive for perfection in art? Boris Lermontov, impresario of a famous and successful ballet company, feels there is not. He loses one prima ballerina to love, and sees his new young ingà (C)nue, Victoria, following down the same path. In Boris's mind, the Hans Christian Anderson tale of The Red Shoes rings true, once the dance begins, it should consume all. It is the only thing that matters. Heart and mind and soul must be in the performance. Vicky initially wants nothing more from her life but to dance, but by the end of the movie, she has to choose between her passion for ballet and her passion for the rest of her life. Alas, some decisions are too difficult to make.

    One of the coolest parts of The Red Shoes are the performances. Elaborate choreography and costumes are made even more impressive by the excellent special effects (especially for the 1940's!) that augment Victoria's performances as she completely submerges herself in the music and the dance. The imaginative and surreal sequences takes us from the passive perspective of the audience to a view from the other side, where the dancer transcends performance and accepts the dance as their reality. The rendition of The Red Shoes ballet that comes about halfway through the movie was my personal highlight of the entire film. It's really awesome.

    For a movie like this to thoroughly impress someone who doesn't have any particular fondness for dancing or dancing movies, well, that just lets you know how good it must be. On a technical, aesthetic, artist, and entertainment level, The Red Shoes is classic. I definitely look forward to seeing it again. Film lovers, don't hesitate.
  • flickfever
    December 18, 2010
    flickfever
    A great ballet film from the past that is a wonderful companion piece to a great ballet film of the present, 'Black Swan'. 'The Red Shoes' explores some parallel themes; including the lust for perfection and the betrayal against one's mind in order achieve it. The cinematography ... read moreis breathtakingly beautiful and its technicolor execution is marvelous. A 10-minute long ballet sequence is a joy to watch...

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Critic Reviews

Joe Morgenstern
October 23, 2010
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

The Red Shoes was shot in three-strip Technicolor, a process that's no longer used because of expense and technical complexity, but one that yielded some of the most spectacular images in cinema history. Full Review

Jonathan F. Richards
March 2, 2010
Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com

The shoes have never been redder. The color of passion that drenches the Technicolor world of The Red Shoes has been restored to its original luster. Full Review

Anthony Lane
February 1, 2010
Anthony Lane, New Yorker

No wonder Britain, still rationed in color, food, and feeling in the wake of an exhausting war, could not cope with what the movie proposed. Catch it here now, and you will not just be seeing an old f... Full Review

Dave Kehr
October 24, 2007
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

A look beneath its lushly romantic surface reveals a dark, complex sensibility, and that surface, rendered in the somber tones of British Technicolor, reflects a fantastically rich cinematic inventive... Full Review

Variety Staff
October 24, 2007
Variety Staff, Variety

The three principal dancers, Moira Shearer, Leonide Massine and Robert Helpmann, are beyond criticism. Full Review

Roger Ebert
January 20, 2006
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

The film is voluptuous in its beauty and passionate in its storytelling. You don't watch it, you bathe in it. Full Review

Bosley Crowther
May 20, 2003
Bosley Crowther, New York Times

We must be contented with repeating that The Red Shoes is one you must see. Full Review

David Nusair
July 11, 2011
David Nusair, About.com

...a periodically spellbinding yet grossly overlong endeavor that could've used a few more passes through the editing bay. Full Review

Rob Humanick
June 4, 2011
Rob Humanick, Projection Booth

Deeper the layers go, forever. Pure cinema. Full Review

James Kendrick
July 23, 2010
James Kendrick, Q Network Film Desk

gloriously original and provocative--a truly groundbreaking fusion of reality and fantasy that helped pave the way for future musicals Full Review

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