The Red Shoes

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

I'm heading back to Perth tomorrow so I can FINALLY see Black Swan and i'm soooo super excited about that, so I decided to watch the Red Shoes tonight to get me pumped.

It has been a long time since I last saw this, I'd been holding out, hoping the digitally remastered version would be available soon, the one that Martin Scorcese supervised just before Shutter Island came out. Now I'm even more excited to see it and God willing, own it in HD. It is stunning. Far better than I remember. Or maybe I can just appreciate it more now. Whatever the case I was left gobsmacked (and I'll admit, a little teary) by the end.

Just on the technical side of things, the film feels so modern. Firstly, like Amadeus, there is a big focus on music and the way it is used in the film is great. It flows from diegetic to non-diegetic, from ballet score to opera to film score all with the greatest of ease.

The editing also stands out. One of my favourite bits in the black swan trailer were the use of whip pans intercut with the lead pirouetting with a spotting head. It created a great sense of movement and pacing with the cuts and is also a great audience positioning device. Imagine my surprise when the exact same technique was used in the film made some 50 years earlier. They also used whip pans as a scene transition device and it really keeps the scenes flowing. This is an obvious indication of a well planed out film, something that I appreciate with people like Edgar Wright.

The colour is fascinating to me. I really want to see the digitally remastered version because I can't tell if the copy I watched had colour issues or if that's as good as it got in 1947. I have a curious feeling it might be the latter, but I can't wait to find out.

Now it seems to be a standard feature for these older films to stop the plot dead for a fantasy dance number. I always hated that tradition from old musicals (especially you Singin' In The Rain. God you are the WORST culprit of this) and the same thing happens here. Smack bam dead centre of the film, 15 minutes of dancing. But there are key differences between the big dance numbers I remember and this one. Firstly, it doesn't stop the plot, it is PART of the plot, infect an integral portion of the film. Secondly it's not just a wide shot of people dancing on a stage or a big abstract studio set, It shifts in and out of both, of reality and dream and the camera and editing is part of the dance. There are overlays and match dissolves and the camera is not static, it moves. Things are always kept visually interesting through an amazing variety of different practical and post effects. And thirdly the dancing is just fucking good. The emotions come though loud and clear. It gets the art of dancing across to a layman audience loud and clear in the same way Amadeus managed to explain and impassion a layman audience about classical music.

And of course, Like I have a feeling Black Swan is, the what happens in the Ballet is the same story as the film of the telling of that story. A bit Po-mo-mo-mo, telling the story of the ballet by telling the story of the ballet. But it make the Ballet and the story in it so significant to the film as a whole that I don't believe you could have the film without it, unlike all those other old movies where if you cut the 20 minute dance number no-one would notice and you'd have a much better film. Rant over.

Moira Shearer has one of those old-fashioned proper trans-atlantic sounding american accents. It's had to believe that people ever spoke like that in real life. Does anyone still speak like that? But my favourite character is the jealous head of the company. I suppose he should be the villain of the piece but he's just so damn compelling and fascinating and his motivations are so clear from the get go that I was rooting for him all the way.

Now, spoiler alert, the girl dies at the end, obviously. And the scenes immediately following this did make me tear up a bit, I was unusually invested in this film tonight for some reason. But what ruined it was the very last part, after the ballet goes on without the lead just an empty spot light and the red shoes. That is such a PERFECT ending for the film, but then they cut outside to the girl dying in her lovers arms. I guess they need more closure and wanted to have the red shoes being taken off her feet as she dies, mirroring the end of the ballet. But I'm sorry, someone jumping from a balcony that high and landing in front of a train moving that fast… There's not going to be much of them left, let alone that gorgeous looking with bright technicolour red hair and just a few spots of blood down her legs. I guess they couldn't show the reality of that situation in '47, but I don't like that they cut back to it at all. The edits of her jumping and then cutting back to the theatre works so well with everything implied.

Ahh well, that's nit-picky stuff. On the whole this movie fucking blew my mind. Anyone that has any love of cinema must watch immediately if they have never seen this masterpiece! Now back to Perth to see Black Swan!