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Part of the reason I wanted to highlight The Red Shoes today, aside from the fact that it is a truly amazing film, is because it’s finally getting a US release on Blu-ray. If documentaries like Planet Earth and movies like Cars are great examples of why you should get HDTVs, then The Red Shoes is a great example of why Technicolor is the most ignored yet important technology any filmmaker can use. The movie is released on Tuesday, July 20th, and you need to go to your Best Buy or head to Amazon and buy this movie. I’m not usually the type of person who would endorse purchasing movies sight unseen (I’ve only done it a few times, and have had a spotty record), but some movies deserve such consumerism. The Red Shoes is a perfect example.

Powell and Emeric Pressburger, as I’ve said in previous columns, made up the filmmaking duo of The Archers. Though most people these days are unfamiliar with their work, in the 1940s, they were as prolific, dazzling, and entertaining as directors like Christopher Nolan are today. The 1940s, with films such as A Canterbury Tale, A Matter of Life and Death, and The Small Back Room, was the decade of The Archers. The Red Shoes, to many people, is the highest peak they ever reached, managing to fully realize the mixing of story and sound, transcending mere dialogue. The set piece the film is known for comes near the end, with the main character, Vicky, dances the ballet of The Red Shoes, based on the story by Hans Christian Andersen. With fluid movement and impossible-to-detect tonal shifts, Powell and Pressburger make the ballet as real as the film surrounding it.

Vicky is a budding talent in the world of ballet as the film begins. She wants to dance in the ballet company run by the great Boris Lermontov, a shrewd, fiercely devoted artist who demands the utmost dedication from his dancers. Lermontov is impressed by Vicky’s determination, talent, and focus, and invites her to join his company. Once there, Vicky is pleasantly overwhelmed by the people she’s joining, prickly and creative people who welcome her into the club. When the prima ballerina leaves to get married - something Lermontov can’t fathom - Vicky becomes the new lead. Lermontov, with the help of his new playwright, Julian Craster, creates a new ballet from The Red Shoes for Vicky to star in. When Vicky and Craster begin to fall in love, Lermontov, who wants to ignore human nature in favor of the art form he works in, lashes back.

The Red Shoes succeeds as a film about ballet because it’s a film about creating art. No matter what my opinion, ballet is art. It’s not just a question of the people on stage being able to do something I can’t (but, boy, is that true), it’s a question of making something to excite and inflame the imagination. Is art possible without full dedication? Should we pretend not to have human desires to succeed at what we do? Is it possible to do both? There’s no way to ignore the parallels between Lermontov and Powell, known as an equally dedicated director who could be known to alienate when working on the maximum best for any movie. Could Vicky be a representation of the other actors and actresses he’d worked with who didn’t give what he thought was their best? Speculate away, but the connections are there.

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