The Red Shoes (1948)

★ 8.0 2h 13m 740 votes IMDb
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The Red Shoes

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Cast

Anton Walbrook
Anton Walbrook as Boris Lermontov Died 1967 · Wien, Austria Adolf Anton Wilhelm Wohlbrück (19 November 1896 – 9 August 1967) was an Austrian actor who settled in the United Kingdom under the name Anton Walbrook. A popular performer in Austria and pre-war Germa...
Marius Goring
Marius Goring as Julian Craster Died 1998 · Newport, Isle of Wight, England, UK Marius Re Goring CBE FRSL (May 23, 1912 – September 30, 1998) was an English stage and screen actor. He is the son of Dr Charles Buckman Goring, a renowned physician and criminologist, and Kate Winifr...
Moira Shearer
Moira Shearer as Victoria Page Died 2006 · Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, UK Moira Shearer, Lady Kennedy (January 17, 1926 – January 31, 2006), was an internationally famous Scottish ballet dancer and actress. She is best known for her debut acting role in the 1948 film The Re...
Robert Helpmann
Robert Helpmann as Ivan Boleslawsky Died 1986 · Mount Gambier, South Australia, Australia Sir Robert Helpmann CBE (9 April 1909 – 28 September 1986) was an Australian dancer, film actor, theatre director and choreographer. A protege of Pavlova and Fonteyn’s first partner. Description abov...
Léonide Massine
Léonide Massine as Grischa Ljubov Died 1979 · Moscow, Russian Empire [Russia] Leonid Fyodorovich Myasin, better known in the West by the French transliteration as Léonide Massine (9 August [O.S. 28 July] 1896 – 15 March 1979) was a Russian choreographer and ballet dancer. Desc...
Albert Bassermann
Albert Bassermann as Sergei Ratov Died 1952 · Mannheim, Germany Albert Bassermann (7 September 1867 – 15 May 1952) was a German stage and screen actor. He was considered to be one of the greatest German-speaking actors of his generation and received the famous Iff...

Audience Reviews

CinemaSerf 8/10 Sep 07, 2022
Moira Shearer is just excellent in this fine example of the cinematographer and choreographer's arts - all under the able and inspired direction of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. She is the aspiring ballet dancer "Victoria" who must train under the positively brutal rule of acclaimed tutor "Lermontov" (Anton Walbrook). This maestro, however, expects undiluted devotion and so when this young woman also falls in love - with composer "Craster" (Marius Goring) she finds herself out of favour. Facing the toughest of choices, she chooses love - but even married, she is still torn. When she returns a few years later to visit - her new husband having now completed the eponymous ballet - the imposing "Lermontov" proves he can still pull her strings and she faces an heart-rending choice. P&P have created a masterpiece of rich and colourful cinema. They have turned a relatively simple Hans Christian Anderson story into a maelstrom of love, ambition, power, control - you name it, it features here somewhere. Emotions run high, cruelty runs rife and all under the baton of Brian Easdale who has created his own "Ballet of the Red Shoes" score. Both Walbrook and Goring were underestimated actors, in my view. They had an adaptability that demonstrated a surety of foot as their characters illustrate traits that at best celebrate humanity, at worst denigrate it badly. The dancing is frequently mesmerising with the media of theatre and cinema merged seamlessly to give us a really breathtaking experience. I felt vested in the fate of this young woman, I felt vested in the nasty Lermontov - which would I have chosen? This is a great film, marrying the vivid imagination of a timeless creative source with a visionary and highly entertaining ensemble adaptation. Recently staged by the Sadler's Wells Company of Sir Matthew Bourne, but good as that was - this still knocked spots off it.

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