HADES FILM CLUB: THE RED SHOES (1948)

This image features actress and ballerina Moira Shearer in the 1948 film The Red Shoes.

Welcome back for the festive instalment of the HADES Film Club!

This holiday season, we bring you a film that straddles the line between Christmassy and camp. The Red Shoes is a technicolour daydream that will immerse you in its beautiful cinematography and touching narrative.

Image featuring Moira Shearer starring as ballerina Victoria Page in the 1948 film The Red Shoes.

The Red Shoes is an adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson's 1845 fairytale of the same name. Directed by cinema titans Powell and Pressburger, renowned for their rich hallucinogenic visuals, the film embodies every whimsical and otherwordly element of the fairytale.

The story follows dancer Vicky (Moira Shearer) and composer Julian (Marius Goring) as the two fall in love and become deeply entrenched in their passions for dancing and each other. Vicky is forced into an ultimatum between dance and her love life by her possessive the impresario, Boris.

An image of a scene is from the iconic 1948 film The Red Shoes

At the time of the film's release in 1948, ballet was deemed an untouchable art form and breaks from tradition were not widely accepted amongst ballet fans. The Red Shoes was the first film about ballet from the ballerina's position, using ballet as a medium to explore the lengths we go to to create art.

Powell and Pressburger's interpretation of the tolls of passion merges choreography and cinematography by intergrating dance scenes with practical effects, grandiose set pieces and eye level shots.

For Moira Shearer's costume, the directors worked closely with designer and artist Hein Heckroth, who had previously worked in Germany designing for a ballet company.

"This man of the theatre was the ideal designer for them, a surrealist romantic who was not afraid to experiment and knew how to suggest an atmosphere with economy and an expressionist use of colour. His abstract, painted sketches were full of mood, movement and theatrical flair. For the famous ballet, he designed impressionistic sets, using materials such as chiffon, gauze, papier mache and cellophane." – The Powell and Pressburger on collaborating with Heckroth.

In the fairytale, protagonist Karen is punished for her spoiled nature through the shoes which make her dance uncontrollably. Blurring fantasy and reality, The Red Shoes depicts the ideals women are constantly pushed and expected to live up to.

Victoria lives to impress her impresario, yet also must maintain her relationship with Julian. Through the tribulations of 'choosing' a career or love, she is absorbed into the fairytale and ultimately punished by powers beyond her control.