THE RED SHOES 1948 is simply a Technicolor delight and best ever Ballet movie ever made!

It is somewhat curious how the mystique of red shoes works in popular myth but it is also interesting that it is always related to women almost in general. Red is fire, blood, heat, romance, passion, youth, beauty and emotion. But there is also danger and danger and even street signs represent a complete stop. Directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger used the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale "The Red Shoes" written in 1845 to make and retell the same story in 1948 in the film of the same name in ballet form and in the drama of the three main characters. . Boris Lermontov (the always excellent Anton Walbrook more than perfect in this film) is a hugely successful manager from a Classic Ballet Company with a passion for music and dance that expresses itself in his persona and eccentricities as well as a methodical and calculating man. In the first performance of the Ballet Lermontov film we are introduced to the three central characters besides Boris. They are Vicky Page (the beautiful Moira Shearer, who studied ballet and appears here in her first film) and music student Julian Craster (Marius Goring) who leaves the performance believing that her music had been plagiarized by her teacher and author of the music of the piece. After the performance Boris is introduced to Vicky and Vicky invites her to one of his rehearsals. Julian then writes a letter to Lermontov telling the circumstances of the plagiarism of his composition. Even though he regrets having written the letter, he falls into the hands of Boris who challenges the young man to play something of his original authorship and, impressed, hires Julian to join his company as a repetiteur. And during the rehearsals that Julian discreetly approaches Vicky and Boris while watching Vicky dancing, he begins to think about a new ballet piece having as a prima ballerina Vicky and this piece will be The Red Shoes with music by Julian. With the resounding success of the new ballet the company further solidifies its prestige. Vicky secretly falls in love with Julian without Boris' knowledge. I think you can imagine what would happen when Boris discovered the romance unfolding behind his back. At this point the characters converge in secrets, plots and dangerous relationships that are always represented in the brilliant cinematography of Jack Cardiff that always highlights and expresses the color red during the film. Very few times in history have colors been used in such a participative way in a drama like this. The Technicolor process is super advanced and the camera in which this film was used was simply colossal and very heavy. But the work that in this case has to be highlighted and the restoration team that in 2009 achieved what was perhaps impossible at the time to correct the defects of the original print and the 4K high resolution scan makes today we watch this movie with an infinite image superior even in relation to the time this film opened in theaters in 1948. To return to the central story found in Christian Andersen's fable all these factors in which the character Vicky who wants to be famous and loves dance finds herself in an intrigue in which she will have to choose between the career she loves so much with Ballet and stay with Boris, or the love of her life and decide for Julian. In the fable, shoes are what they possess and seduce the afflicted young woman who cannot resist the temptation to wear and show off with such a seductive gift. So I would say that the film is about the main protagonist's stubbornness, her vanities and the illusion in which she thinks or assumes that she controls everything around her when in fact she is being manipulated and reacting against her will. And for us as an audience we can only live all these emotions through an absolutely wonderful film scripted in cinematography and music of supreme quality in a work of art in vibrant and intense Technicolor.