Monday, April 27, 2009

The Red Shoes

I’ve heard about The Red Shoes for years and decided to finally check it out. I think I can safely say I don’t really see what the big deal is.

This movie is a Technicolor marvel to be sure, but I honestly found it to be a bit slow and cliché. The Red Shoes is the story of Victoria Page, Julian Craster & Boris Lormentov – the dancer, the composer and the head of the company. Victoria and Julian fall in love, but must hide it from Lormentov as he “created” them both and has made his thoughts on love clear – you can love dance or be in love, not both. The romance takes all three into a tragic spiral that none of them foresaw.

The Red Shoes is all about the dancing and the music, but really not much new or different, or even nostalgic in the story department. While the film does a decent job of focusing on three lead characters without cheating any of them out of screen time. The visuals are pretty stunning as well, but all in all I don’t think I will be watching this movie multiple times.

Director: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger

Boris Lermontov: "The Ballet of The Red Shoes" is from a fairy tale by Hans Andersen. It is the story of a young girl who is devoured with an ambition to attend a dance in a pair of Red Shoes. She gets the shoes and goes to the dance. For a time, all goes well and she is very happy. At the end of the evening she is tired and wants to go home, but the Red Shoes are not tired. In fact, the Red Shoes are never tired. They dance her out into the street, they dance her over the mountains and valleys, through fields and forests, through night and day. Time rushes by, love rushes by, life rushes by, but the Red Shoes go on.
Julian Craster: What happens in the end?
Boris Lermontov: Oh, in the end, she dies.

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