The shoes of color

I've briefly mentioned the movie The Red Shoes a couple of times before, most recently when the team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger were part of a TCM spotlight back in November. The Red Shoes is back on the TCM schedule again quite soon, tomorrow (January 12) at 11:45 AM, so I made a point of re-watching the film so that I could do a full-length post on it.

The movie opens up with what feels like suprisingly long exposition. The ballet company run by impresario Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook) is performing in London, and a bunch of starving artist types from the ballet/classical music world have spent their hard-earned money to get balcony tickets to watch the performance. Among them are dancer Victoria Page (Moira Shearer) and composer Julian Craster (Marius Goring). Julian hears the music, and is shocked to discover that one of his professors of composition from the conservatory has basically lifted themes that Julian himself wrote. Julian writes a letter to Lermontov to complain, and eventually goes to meet Lermontov when he decides that perhaps he doesn't want to burn his bridges that way. The bad news is that Lermontov already read the letter; the good news is that he admires Craster's talent and drive.

As for Victoria, she's about to meet Lermontov as well because her aunt is putting on a party for Lermontov after the show. Lermontov asks her about dance, and she of course gives the obligatory answer that dance is her one true love and that she'll sacrifice everything else just to be able to dance professionally, as opposed to someone like Shirley MacLaine in The Turning Point who opts for motherhood. It's the answer she needs to give if she wants to advance in her career, but you suspect she really means it at least at this point in her life. As for Lermontov, he has a policy that nobody in the troupe can keep their job after getting married since it'll put too much strain on the dancers and take away from their dancing; indeed, he's going to have to replace his prima ballerina later in the movie.

And, unsurprisingly, it's going to be Victoria who becomes the new prima ballerina. She starts off in the corps de ballet, getting noticed when she does a charity version of Swan Lake for the old company she grew up with performing at a grimy theater in a decidedly unglamorous part of London. The joy she shows in dancing, however, is enough to get Lermontov to hire her and bring her on the company's tour of first Paris and then the French Riviera. Julian has wound up with the company, too, as an assistant to the conductor. He and Victoria have a rocky relationship since they both have their own ambitions, but they fall in love eventually.

In the film's highlight, which is somewhat surprisingly only halfway through the movie, Julian writes a score for a new adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen story The Red Shoes, about a woman who gets a magical pair of red ballet shoes that have the curse of forcing the wearer to dance until the wearer drops dead. The ballet is a hit, and Virginia is the only one to dance the lead role. She eventually decides to get married to Julian, forcing her to leave the company, and leading Lermontov to decide not to re-stage The Red Shoes without Virginia.

Virginia's career stalls, however, and she eventually goes back to the Riviera to beg Lermontov to let her dance again. But Lermontov is ruthless in trying to get Virginia to conclude that she's going to have to give up Julian to regain the passion for dance she first had. Julian, meanwhile, has had a more successful career, writing a new opera that's about to premiere in London. But when Victoria leaves him to resume her dance career, he decides to go to France to try to win her back....

In watching The Red Shoes, the movie that I was reminded enough was one that may surprise you: A Clockwork Orange. The reason why I thought of it is that I had the same visceral reaction to both of them. That reaction is that it's easy to see why all the critics -- at least latter-day critics -- heap such high praise on the movie. It's a technical marvel, with gorgeous color and stunning dance scenes. However, it's also a movie that leaves me emotionally cold, which I think it in no small part down to the fact that I'm not into ballet at all. That's not to say that The Red Shoes is a bad movie at all; indeed, I'd highly recommend it to all those who enjoy dance movies. It's more that I feel like I'd need to have a more intimate knowledge of the world portrayed here to empathize with the characters' motivations.