UK
1948/35mm/135mins
SUNDAY 31 OCTOBER 4.30 PM – Arc at NFSA
THURSDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2.00 PM – Arc at NFSA
A newly restored print of English filmmaking duo of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburgers’ dazzling late 40s classic, the definitive dance film and forerunner to some of the most famous “backstage musicals” of all time.
Powell and Pressburger’s ballet melodrama captures the conflict between love and artistic vocation, embodying it in the emotional (and professional) triangle formed by its central characters: brooding ballet impresario Boris Lermontov (a masterful Anton Walbrook), his ‘discovery’ Vicky Page (Moira Shearer), and her lover and equal in talent and temperament, composer Julian Craster (Marius Goring). Its startling direction, Jack Cardiff’s breathtaking Technicolor cinematography, and the choreography of Australian Robert Helpmann (also delightfully excessive as the dancer Boleslawsky) inspired the Hollywood musicals of Vincente Minnelli and Gene Kelly, and also a new genre of ‘psychological’ backstage musicals like A CHORUS LINE and FAME. THE RED SHOES continues to enthuse generations of young performers and modern dance-makers – but also filmmakers, as confirmed by director Martin Scorsese’s personal support for its restoration.
Click here to view the trailer.
“The RED SHOES has now acquired a special kind of immortality, of the kind hitherto only enjoyed by paintings and statues.” Ian Christie, Sight and Sound
Restoration supervised by Robert Gitt for the UCLA Film and Television Archive, in association with the British Film Institute, The Film Foundation, ITV Global Entertainment and Janus Films.
Directors/Producers Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger Cast Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring, Moria Shearer, Robert Helpmann, Austin Trevor, Léonide Massine Print Source Chapel Films
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Thank-you! I am getting into it more and more! Some days it is hard to find the time though!