In Friday’s NY Times, Alastair Macaulay writes a nice piece on one of my favorite films of all time - Powell and Pressburgers’ “The Red Shoes”. Evidently it is the 60th anniversary of the film, so if you’re looking for something to do this weekend, and you happen to be nursing a sunburn/not interested in being outdoors, this may be something to watch.
Powell and Pressburger
I wrote a bit more in depth about the film in a previous post (from 2005, yikes!).
One of the greatest things about this movie, besides the intriguing characters and beautiful cinematography, are the choice lines - usually delivered by Lermontov.
Lermontov
“Even the greatest magician cannot produce a rabbit out of a hat, if there is not already a rabbit in the hat.”
Here’s a clip of the gown/staircase/Monte Carlo scene Alastair describes…
alternately, here’s a version of some of the dancing parts of the film set to Timbaland’s “Apologize”… wait for it at 48secs…
Venturing to an unknown place is always intriguing for me.
Venturing to an unknown place in the Nordic part of the world in the dead of winter is another story.
And so explains my recent trip to Stockholm, Sweden to visit my close friend Serguei and his girlfriend. Serguei dances with the Royal Swedish Ballet in a beautiful Opera House…
We met oh so long ago at the Paris Opera School. I, a naive American on foreign ground, him, a second year student fluent in French. We have since kept in touch, and due to my recent tour to Paris and London, I decided I owed him a visit, after all, I have over half Swedish blood. So I finally went back to my roots and visited some family and brushed up on my Swedish… not really, but froze my culo off.
We had the best time, even though it snowed THE WHOLE TIME, and we couldn’t walk for more than twenty minutes intervals before warming up with some tea, or beer. Now I know why so many Swedes are alcoholics!
I brought bascially nothing by means of warm clothes so Serguei and I traded his ‘Russian’ fur hat off and on…
And as we were shopping one fine COLD day, I ran across this familiar show we all know as…. Vanner!!
It’s 1° in Stuttgart right now. When I stepped outside today the unexpected temperature seemed to slap me accross the face. It appears that I have totally missed autumn due to being in the theatre all day..everyday. Our season is well underway here, you see, and there’s all kinds of exciting stuff happening that takes my mind right out of the real world…. At the moment we are dancing John Neumier’s ‘La dame aux Camélias’ or ‘Die Kameliendame’… a ballet I am so passionate about, if I start discussing it right now, a tangent will surely follow. I hope to be able to gather my thoughts and elaborate soon though….
I am sure the weather is changing where all of you WINGER’s are located aswell….and the streets and stores are undoubtedly getting ‘festive’ for the upcoming season. (even though Cathy and her friends are probably anticipating summer…) Nevertheless, Frosty and Rudolf (not Nureyev) will soon be all over TV’s around the world! I am not sure if all of you have seen ‘’White Christmas'’ but while watching this film a few years back I discovered THIS (lesser known) STAR. I am not sure why I didn’t know of her before as I was always a fan of Astaire and Kelly & co. as a kid. While discussing her with friends I found out that it wasn’t just me who had been in the dark for all these years! I am sure lots of you know and love this woman but maybe there are few who have yet to be introduced to her fabulousness!…
Anyway, I am starting to feel a little jolly (yes, jolly) , myself so until I have time to really sit down and share some of the current Stuttgart-splendor, I thought I’d give everybody a little gift to tide you over…
If you DO happen to be in a cold climate like me, THIS may warm y’up…
| | Posted by Sloan
I found this DVD edition of one of my favorite movies “The Red Shoes” the other day. If you are an aspiring dancer, filmmaker, musician, or artist of any kind there is no doubt in my mind that this film will inspire you.
Included in this pricey edition, is a very thorough commentary that you can choose to hear run over the entire movie. The commentary is by film historian Ian Christie and includes tidbits by stars Marius Goring and Moira Shearer, the amazing cinematographer Jack Cardiff (I believe he won an Oscar for this movie), composer Brian Easdale, and Martin Scorsese.
The historical information provided in the commentary is really interesting, and Mr. Christie does well speaking about how this film impacts all different types of artists. I had no idea how groundbreaking a lot of the film techniques were in this movie, and how very similar the film team that made the movie is to the group of artists portrayed in the film. Christie tells stories about some of the talent working on the film, and how some of their paths paralleled those of the characters.
Moira Shearer talks about her difficulties with acting, dancing on film, and getting along with the director Michael Powell. Christie mentions that when Powell released some of his memoirs in 1986, Shearer still, after all those years, came back with a rebuttle to his account of their experience working together.
Part of her frustration was in how her dancing would appear on film. Shooting dance in a movie usually means a lot of stopping and starting, filming little clips and repeating that clip over and over. (I had the misfortune of experiencing this process while shooting the Columbia Pictures film Center Stage.) Obviously, this is not how a dancer really dances. Ms. Shearer speaks of how the dancing becomes stale because of this lack of continuity, and was upset by the final product. Someone on the outside might view this as a diva-like attitude, but any dancer would agree with her. I still think the final product is great, but an artist is her own worst critic, so I can understand her frustrations.
Some choice quotes from the movie…
“It is much more disheartening to have to steal, than to be stolen from.”
“Even a magician cannot produce a rabbit out of a hat if there is not already a rabbit in the hat.”
That first line was quoted in another favorite movie of mine, “”Round Midnight”, where the jazz musicians are chatting between takes, and one of them explains the scene between Lermentov and Kraster and then repeats the quote. Even though this movie has a very artsy and surreal quality to it, I find more truth in it than in most other dance movies. It speaks more to the mind and heart of an artist, rather than just showing the behind-the-scenes of a ballet company and a few key characters.
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