It is difficult to rationally explain the power that the artistic can have on one to someone whose approach to it is more casual or less intense. Hard to sum up in a way that makes sense how something fictionalized can feel almost as authentic as the real thing, if anything more. It can be explained by escapism, but also by how the connection between art and reality can be so strong that it overwhelms you beyond repair.
Art can have a beauty that does not necessarily obey logic, but it is undeniable. A beauty that can also be dark and overwhelming. About this abstract sensation we have seen several interesting films, including several by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger that have made it almost a recurring obsession in his work. As in the master’the red slippers‘, available on Prime Video (also on Filmin and FlixOlé as well as free on PlutoTV).
dance till death
It’s not the first time I’ve talked about that overwhelming sensation of being before beauty, be it physical or abstract as in art. It is in ‘Black Narcissus’, discussed not long ago, and it is of course in this peculiar reformulation of Hans Christian Andersen’s story. And in the other film I was already full of praise as the masterpiece that it is, but it is that in this period The Archers They made masterpieces as if it didn’t cost themand this is another sample of it.
‘The Red Shoes’ tells the story of a young aspiring dancer (Moira Shearer), whose influential aunt gets him an opportunity to try to impress the demanding director Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook). At the same time, a young composer (Marius Goring) will also want to impress the director after several of his compositions have been stolen by his teacher, who presented them to Lermontov as originals.
Dancer and composer will soon find their destinies united, and Lermontov will be a key player in that collision. The musician is commissioned to make new compositions for a ballet based on the story of ‘The Red Shoes’ by Andersen. The dancer will have the opportunity to star in it. The representation will cement a change of course in their liveswhich will bring both desired glory and murky turns of events.
‘The red shoes’: perfect choreography
Only the sequence of the representation of the work already turns this movie of The Archers into a must have museum piece. The prodigious choreography, the feelings poured into the dance that have been previously cemented by the script, the impeccable staging and the incredible use of color in the photography -his films of him have been pillars in what Technicolor represents for history. of the cinema- It is a perfect sequence, but what surrounds him is not far behind.
Powell and Pressburger also manage to make a fascinating work of how fiction and reality end up intermingling without even being a conscious one. That inexplicable power that they touch from an intense but moving melodrama, exploring the psychological turmoil of the protagonist.
An impressive work that has inspired many of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Even Darren Aronofsky couldn’t resist the temptation to take too much of her to make ‘Black Swan’. It’s a movie that must see at least once in life.
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