The Red Shoes (Powell & Pressburger, 1948): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 3.30pm
This 35mm screening is part of the Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger season at BFI Southbank.
Two
things fascinate me about this great film: firstly, no one mentions
that it could all be the feverish dream of one of the central
characters; see if you can spot the key moment I mean. Secondly, the
character of Lermontov, superbly played by Anton Walbrook, who is one of
Powell & Pressburger's greatest creations. Enjoy. Here are extracts featuring the aformentioned Lermontov.
Chicago Reader review:
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's Trilby-based ballet film
(1948, 133 min.) has been the cult property of dance freaks for far too
long. A look beneath its lushly romantic surface reveals a dark, complex
sensibility, and that surface, rendered in the somber tones of British
Technicolor, reflects a fantastically rich cinematic inventiveness.
Moira Shearer is the ballerina who, following the outlines of a Hans
Christian Andersen tale, trades her life for her art; Anton Walbrook, as
her impresario, is perhaps the most forceful embodiment of the shaman
figures–magical, outsized, sinister–who haunt Powell and Pressburger's
work. The Red Shoes remains the best known of Powell and
Pressburger's 18 features, yet it's only the tip of the iceberg–beneath
it lies the most commanding body of work in the British cinema.
Dave Kehr
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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