Tonight, Friday, 12-2-05, from 10:00 PM to about 12:30 AM. I recommend taping it if you need an early beddy-bye time.
Sorry this post is so close to start time, but I just realized it. Please forgive typos and mistakes--no time to edit.
"The Red Shoes" is the classic ballet film. A young ballerina, played by Moira Shearer is torn between her dancing career and her love for a young composer. The composer is played by Marius Goring, and there is further conflict when artistic and financial director, played by Anton Walbrook, "Boris Lermontov" also falls in love with his protoge "Victoria Page." payed by prima ballerina with London's Sadler's Wells Ballet, which was also the professional home to Margot Fonteyn and, after his defection from the Soviet Union, Rudolph Nureyev.
Moira Shearer was second to Margot Fonteyn at the famous Sadler's Wells Ballet, but she initially rebuffed the producers who wanted to hire her. In the year it took to persuade Shearer to come round, the director and producers were forced to consider casting actresses like Ann Todd and Hazel Court, and cheating with a real ballerina in the ballet sequences.
But it is Moira Shearer who is the star of both "The Red Shoes" the film and the ballet within the film. Her striking beauty, natural acting talent, and magnificent dancing make "The Red Shoes" a must see film for anyone interested in choreographed movement either as sport or art, on ice or en pointe despite a plethora of cliches and sentimentality in the story. The actual "Red Shoes" ballet, choreographed by Robert Helpmann, is ahead of its time both choreographically and in its scenic production, as well as in its use of film effects combined with the dance.
0ther interesting areas of note:
--A special actor/dancer hightlight is performed by the legendary Leonide Massine, playing the part of Grischa Ljubov.
--Cinematographer Jack Cardiff wasn't keen on doing a ballet film so he forced himself to take in as many ballet productions as he could to familiarize himself with this art form. He was soon won over.
--Art director Hein Heckroth was a painter who had never worked on a film before. He created a 15 minute "animatic" (filmed storyboard) reel to convey the type of mood and feel his sets would give which acted as an ideal guide for cinematographer Jack Cardiff.
-- On her first day of shooting Moira Shearer got badly sun burnt and developed a blister on her back. Later in the production, she also wrenched her neck quite badly when called to leap from a window, and she also received a scratch which turned into an abscess. Shearer would often find herself being suspended in a harness for up to 8 hours, whilst being buffeted by wind machines.
--This film is 9th in the "BFI 100", a list of a hundred of 'the best British films ever' compiled by the British Film Institute in 1999/2000.
--Technicolor founders 'Herbert Kalmus' and Natalie Kalmus considered this film the best example of Three-Strip Technicolor.
--When people complained to Michael Powell about the grim ending, he pointed out to them that in Hans Christian Andersen's original fairy tale, the ballerina had her feet hacked off by a woodsman to stop her dancing.
--The 15-minute "Red Shoes" ballet sequence was choreographed by "Red Shoes" actor and dancer, Australian Robert Helpmann. The "Red Shoes" ballet is one of the best ballets ever created as part of the story of a film. Helpmann was also the lead male dancer of the Sadler's Wells Ballet--until Rudolph Nureyev showed up. When you see Helpmann's dancing, imagine that until the early '60s, outside of the USSR, that was considered the epitome of male ballet dance. BTW, get a load, and I do mean load, of the various body types of the female dancers of that era as compared to today's.
--"The Red Shoes" (Joe writes a spot-on imitation of the way Lermontov says "Zee Rhaad Shooz"--Joe's is much better than mine) was nominted for five academy awards and won two. It won for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color, and for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. The film also won top British film awards and Golden Globes.
Links:
"The Red Shoes"
http://www.britishpictures.com/arch_r.html#The Red Shoes
http://imdb.com/title/tt0040725/?fr...8bXg9MjB8bG09NTAwfGh0bWw9MQ__;fc=1;ft=20;fm=1
Written, Produced and Co-Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
Script: Emeric Pressburger, additional dialogue Keith Wilbur. Original Red Shoes story: Hans Christian Anderson, a la "feet hacked off" ending. Those original fairy tales really knew how to hold one's interest.
Moira Shearer
http://www.britishpictures.com/arch_r.html#The Red Shoes
[Shearer's] movie break came when [directer/writer] Powell and [producer/writer] Pressburger were looking for a dancer to cast in The Red Shoes. Shearer was reluctant. She wasn't keen on the script, wasn't particularly interested in acting and, most importantly, she was just getting major roles in the ballet. She worried that she'd lose her rank in the company. It took a lot of persuasion to get her to accept the role, and even more to get her boss Ninette De Valois to give her permission.
Anton Walbrook
http://www.britishpictures.com/arch_r.html#The Red Shoes
Walbrook plays the impresario, i.e., the artistic and financial director, who falls in love with Moira Shearer and becomes Craster's rival not as a lover but as Victoria Page's mentor, who promises to make her into "the greatest dancer the world has ever known."
Michael Powell
http://www.britishpictures.com/stars/Powell.htm
Would love to see a ladies singles skater do an LP to cuts from this music based on the "The Red Shoes."
Rgirl
Sorry this post is so close to start time, but I just realized it. Please forgive typos and mistakes--no time to edit."The Red Shoes" is the classic ballet film. A young ballerina, played by Moira Shearer is torn between her dancing career and her love for a young composer. The composer is played by Marius Goring, and there is further conflict when artistic and financial director, played by Anton Walbrook, "Boris Lermontov" also falls in love with his protoge "Victoria Page." payed by prima ballerina with London's Sadler's Wells Ballet, which was also the professional home to Margot Fonteyn and, after his defection from the Soviet Union, Rudolph Nureyev.
Moira Shearer was second to Margot Fonteyn at the famous Sadler's Wells Ballet, but she initially rebuffed the producers who wanted to hire her. In the year it took to persuade Shearer to come round, the director and producers were forced to consider casting actresses like Ann Todd and Hazel Court, and cheating with a real ballerina in the ballet sequences.
But it is Moira Shearer who is the star of both "The Red Shoes" the film and the ballet within the film. Her striking beauty, natural acting talent, and magnificent dancing make "The Red Shoes" a must see film for anyone interested in choreographed movement either as sport or art, on ice or en pointe despite a plethora of cliches and sentimentality in the story. The actual "Red Shoes" ballet, choreographed by Robert Helpmann, is ahead of its time both choreographically and in its scenic production, as well as in its use of film effects combined with the dance.
0ther interesting areas of note:
--A special actor/dancer hightlight is performed by the legendary Leonide Massine, playing the part of Grischa Ljubov.
--Cinematographer Jack Cardiff wasn't keen on doing a ballet film so he forced himself to take in as many ballet productions as he could to familiarize himself with this art form. He was soon won over.
--Art director Hein Heckroth was a painter who had never worked on a film before. He created a 15 minute "animatic" (filmed storyboard) reel to convey the type of mood and feel his sets would give which acted as an ideal guide for cinematographer Jack Cardiff.
-- On her first day of shooting Moira Shearer got badly sun burnt and developed a blister on her back. Later in the production, she also wrenched her neck quite badly when called to leap from a window, and she also received a scratch which turned into an abscess. Shearer would often find herself being suspended in a harness for up to 8 hours, whilst being buffeted by wind machines.
--This film is 9th in the "BFI 100", a list of a hundred of 'the best British films ever' compiled by the British Film Institute in 1999/2000.
--Technicolor founders 'Herbert Kalmus' and Natalie Kalmus considered this film the best example of Three-Strip Technicolor.
--When people complained to Michael Powell about the grim ending, he pointed out to them that in Hans Christian Andersen's original fairy tale, the ballerina had her feet hacked off by a woodsman to stop her dancing.
--The 15-minute "Red Shoes" ballet sequence was choreographed by "Red Shoes" actor and dancer, Australian Robert Helpmann. The "Red Shoes" ballet is one of the best ballets ever created as part of the story of a film. Helpmann was also the lead male dancer of the Sadler's Wells Ballet--until Rudolph Nureyev showed up. When you see Helpmann's dancing, imagine that until the early '60s, outside of the USSR, that was considered the epitome of male ballet dance. BTW, get a load, and I do mean load, of the various body types of the female dancers of that era as compared to today's.
--"The Red Shoes" (Joe writes a spot-on imitation of the way Lermontov says "Zee Rhaad Shooz"--Joe's is much better than mine) was nominted for five academy awards and won two. It won for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color, and for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. The film also won top British film awards and Golden Globes.
Links:
"The Red Shoes"
http://www.britishpictures.com/arch_r.html#The Red Shoes
http://imdb.com/title/tt0040725/?fr...8bXg9MjB8bG09NTAwfGh0bWw9MQ__;fc=1;ft=20;fm=1
Written, Produced and Co-Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
Script: Emeric Pressburger, additional dialogue Keith Wilbur. Original Red Shoes story: Hans Christian Anderson, a la "feet hacked off" ending. Those original fairy tales really knew how to hold one's interest.
Moira Shearer
http://www.britishpictures.com/arch_r.html#The Red Shoes
[Shearer's] movie break came when [directer/writer] Powell and [producer/writer] Pressburger were looking for a dancer to cast in The Red Shoes. Shearer was reluctant. She wasn't keen on the script, wasn't particularly interested in acting and, most importantly, she was just getting major roles in the ballet. She worried that she'd lose her rank in the company. It took a lot of persuasion to get her to accept the role, and even more to get her boss Ninette De Valois to give her permission.
Anton Walbrook
http://www.britishpictures.com/arch_r.html#The Red Shoes
Walbrook plays the impresario, i.e., the artistic and financial director, who falls in love with Moira Shearer and becomes Craster's rival not as a lover but as Victoria Page's mentor, who promises to make her into "the greatest dancer the world has ever known."
Michael Powell
http://www.britishpictures.com/stars/Powell.htm
Would love to see a ladies singles skater do an LP to cuts from this music based on the "The Red Shoes."
Rgirl
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