Movie #17: Released in 1948, directed by the Archers (Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell), 133 minutes. New to me!

LetterBoxd Score: 4.5 stars

For me, this movie had several things going for it:

First off, the ideas are mythic; fanaticism about the one transcendent thing, versus living a normal life, but expressed in the metaphor of the red shoes that will dance you to death. Fantastic, and if better known, “red shoes” could be a rich addition to our cultural lexicon, like Ahab or the One Ring.

Second, the character of Boris Lermontov is great. I kind of grinned anytime he was in the scene. He’s someone who is barely putting up with the rest of us, for getting in the way of making great art.

Third, shots like this:

Fourth, and finally, it has the best ballet sequence put to film I’ve ever seen. A bit over halfway through the movie, it’s the debut of the Red Shoes and for the next 15 minutes the movie simply becomes the ballet. It’s not filmed from the vantage of the audience, but like a regular movie where it just so happens that everyone dances and does not speak. That lets us do things a real ballet could never get away with, such as having closeup shots of the shoemaker holding the shoes as they dance on their own.

But in fact, the movie goes further and commits to a full surrealism in this sequence. Victoria Page leaps and with a cleverly timed cut, seems to magically appear in the shoes, all tied up and ready to dance (and dance and dance). The stage becomes infinitely large. The shoemaker (master of the red shoes) sometimes becomes Boris, sometimes the conductor. Sometimes the audience is the sea. She dances through the air without assistance. Newspapers blowing on the street transform into people.

On letterbox, I joked this was a 5-star ballet sequence with a 4.5 star framing device (namely, the rest of the movie). Most of that is due to Boris, who I really do like. But otherwise, I feel more ambivalent about the rest of the movie. It has the feeling that it could have been more of a mythic tale if the ballet was earlier, or perhaps later. It feels like it needs to be the prophecy or the conclusion. But otherwise, it sort of feels like we spend a bit too much time with these characters before the point of it all is made more sharply. But maybe I would feel differently if I rewatched it.

But in general, I am just not warming up to these Archers movies. Something about the way the characters interact doesn’t work for me; not funny enough, doesn’t make me feel much. Maybe it’s a style of acting that I am not connecting with.

Why would someone think it’s one of the ten greatest movies ever made?

That dance sequence! More generally, people seem to think it makes beautiful use of technicolor, though I’m not sure that connected with me, even though I knew to look for it. But if you have a soft spot for dance, I can imagine the conversation is done, this has to be on your list.

Next week: Bicycle Thieves