A BIT OF NOSTALGIA : "THE RED SHOES"

OK, so, we’re turning the clock back even further for this one. We’re back in 1948 and what we have before us is a “modern” re-working of Andersen’s classic fairy tale “The Red Shoes”. The story is an interesting one on many levels, not least because of Darren Aronovsky’s recent ballet, ambition and psychology themed, Oscar winning hit The Black Swan is so recent in our minds. The comparison is inevitable of course – the fact that they are both “ballet films” is enough in itself – and before we go any further I need to have it down for the record that I infinitely preferred The Red Shoes (also, by the way, a double Oscar® winner). Maybe it’s the fact that I have now changed the course of my life and my life is now a bit more “art orientated”, but the film is very self-reflexive, in fact it is reflective about art in general and that in my opinion is what makes it so interesting to watch. But I am getting ahead of myself; let’s hear something of the story first.
Victoria Page (Moira Shearer) is an ambitious young ballerina. She is beautiful and talented and she has just made the career break of a lifetime. Her aunt has introduced her to Boris Lermontof, the manager of one of the leading ballet companies in the world; what is more, Mr. Lermontof has taken a bit of shine to her. True, she still cannot dance anything other than minor parts, but this is a first step, the first step on a ladder that may well take her all the way to the top. The problem is, her heart is about to be torn asunder, as love also enters her world in the shape of the young and handsome composer Julian Craster. Soon Vicky must choose between her art and her heart; the question is can she muster the strength to make this choice – if it is possible to make the choice at all that is…
I have to say off the bat that there is more to this film than the typical “woman torn between two beaus” dilemma here. I mean, yes that is the main “leitmotif” of the film and there is really no way around it but although we all know about love and that doesn’t take that much consideration, a lot of thought is given to art, the nature of art and why precisely Vicky is so torn between the two. There are many parallelisms with Black Swan as well. The most evident of this is the phenomenon of the ballet Vicky is dancing in reflecting her own life and Vicky being torn between her career and her heart. Ofcourse what makes the Black Swan more “daring” was the fact that we went right down into the psyche of the character and watch her crack up. My personal opinion is that there is a fine line between setting bare the human soul and just trying to be shocking for the sake of it and I think Black Swan failed at that point. While in Black Swan the dilemma becomes the classic one; should Nina be a good girl (keep her soul pure and stick to her art) or a femme fatale (symbolized by her sexual awakening .) And don’t forget that the femme fatale is the bad character “par excellence” and is destined to die in the end. This is precisely what I didn’t like about the Black Swan. The Red Shoes gets the dilemma just right. And while Aaronofsky turns the “magnifying glass” onto the individual and love or the awakening of it, Powell and Pressburger keep the emphasis on art and consider the driving forces behind it and the nature of the beast. One of my particular favorites is a small passage concerning a discussion between Julian Craster and Lermontoff. What first brings Craster face to face with Lermontoff is the fact that one of Craster’s teachers has stolen his music and “sold” is as his own to Lermontoff as score for a ballet. Craster is livid when he learns of this and demands an audience with Lermontoff, if nothing to shame is teacher and put himself forward. I will not go into the details of the discussion but in the end Lermontoff concludes by reminding him that it is sadder to have to steal from someone in a situation like this than to be stolen from, especially since the “thief” is supposed to be Craster’s teacher and better. It’s the depth of considerations like that that make the film stand out for me.