To isolate any one element of The Red Shoes is to miss its unique ability to convey a kind of total effect similar to that brought about by dream, or music, or memory.
It's marvelously acted, superbly written, and features outstanding choreography , unforgettable characters and hauntingly beautiful cinematography. It's a cinematic treat for movie lovers! Bon appetit!
These faults, if faults they be, may well be outweighed by the beauty of the ballet sequences and music, by the skill with which Mr Powell always uses colour, and by Miss Shearer's endearing charm.
Blending impressionist art and expressionist film, blurring the barriers between theatre and cinema, body and camera, reality and dream, drawing equally on the avant-garde and the classical.
Incorporating echoes of the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale that gives the film its name, Powell and Pressburger include visionary flashes of surrealism and magic realism.
